Character Creation

Written by Jeff Heisler


Continued from page 1
When you finish your dossier you may want to get creative with it. I've spent time leafing through old magazines until I find a picture of someone who reminds me of my character. I cutrepparttar picture out and paste it torepparttar 129513 dossier. Somehow this makesrepparttar 129514 person seem real in my mind. I can think of them as a human rather than a construction when I see an actual face. Step 3- Interview your character. Don't let your family see you do this or they'll callrepparttar 129515 guys withrepparttar 129516 butterfly nets. You need to sit down atrepparttar 129517 keyboard or with your notepad and interview these characters. Ask them all kinds of questions aboutrepparttar 129518 story and their lives. Why do you need to do this? Because it helps you iron outrepparttar 129519 wrinkles in your character's construction. If you interview your character and they reveal a motivation that just seems weak to you- great. Now you have a chance to fix it before writing hundreds of pages. Step 4- Introducing you character. When you finally sit down to write you'll wonder how you go about introducing your character. A few points to consider: • Introduce them at a moment of change in their lives. Don't show how your character was born and raised in intricate detail- jump into their lives atrepparttar 129520 moment something dramatic happens. Instead of beginning your story "He was born at 2:34am in Lakeview hospital," you can begin like this- "Marvin had never killed anyone before. Looking down atrepparttar 129521 body at his feet he wondered if it would berepparttar 129522 last time." Whoa! Much more interesting, eh? • "Show, don't tell," still applies. Try to show your character's nature rather than tell about it. The exception is minor characters. You can use some short exposition to explain your minor characters just to get them moving fast. You don't want to spend a large chunk of text describingrepparttar 129523 Boy Scout who helps Granny walk acrossrepparttar 129524 street- and your reader doesn't either. Just give enough information aboutrepparttar 129525 kid to get Granny acrossrepparttar 129526 street- then go back to Granny's life. • Some authors go forrepparttar 129527 bullet approach. Decide if it's right for you. The bullet approach works like this- when a character is introducedrepparttar 129528 story stops briefly andrepparttar 129529 author spends some time writing expository information that givesrepparttar 129530 reader everything they need to know aboutrepparttar 129531 character. This works for some writers- but I don't recommend it. For one thing fiction has to be hyper-realistic. In real life we don't get to know people all at once like that. It's a gradual discovery. Consider your story and consider what other authors in your genre are doing and decide for yourself. That'srepparttar 129532 basic recipe for character creation. I hope it helps you get your characters offrepparttar 129533 ground and running. Remember- characters arerepparttar 129534 building blocks of story- don't forget to spend time on them before you dive into your first draft. You’ll be glad you did.



Jeff Heisler is a freelance writer and novelist. You can read more of his tips at http:www.heislerink.comwriteaway.htm


The Advantage of Becoming a Recognized Name

Written by Bill Platt


Continued from page 1

While I do recommend forrepparttar marketer to startrepparttar 129510 ezine,repparttar 129511 process of building a client base from an ezine isrepparttar 129512 slow boat to China approach. It could realistically take years to breakrepparttar 129513 plateau of your first 1000 subscribers!

Let me suggest a few names to you:

Aaron Turpen, Angela Giles Klocke, Bill Daugherty (Mr. D), Bob Leduc, Cathy Goodwin, Craig Lock, David McKenzie, Dr. Nunley, Elena Fawkner, Harmony Major, Jan Tincher, John Colanzi, Josh Hinds, Julie Jordan Scott, Judy Cullins, Karon Thackston, Larry Dotson, Max Shifrin, Melvin Durai, Michael Southon, Pamela Heywood, Richard Lowe, Robin Nobles, Sam Vaknin, Shelly Lowery, Shery Ma Belle Arrieta, Wild Bill Montgomery, and Bill Platt.

Of these 29 people, how many of these names do your recognize? Ofrepparttar 129514 names that you do recognize, how many of them can you tell me what kind of business they are in?

Further, ofrepparttar 129515 people whose names you recognize, what is your gut feeling about them? How many of them do you feel that you can trust?

Chances are really good that you have heard of at least one third of these people. I can almost guarantee that you have heard of at least one person on this list. How do I know this?

It is simple.

These 29 people all share one common trait. They are all people who publish free-reprint articles to be distributed to publishersrepparttar 129516 world over. Each of them provide top-notch content that appeals to a much larger audience.

Ezine publishers and webmastersrepparttar 129517 world over are looking for free content that they can supply to their readers. They all understand what a recent Yahoo! study emphasized. Content is King! Most site visitors are looking for information of some kind when they go to a site or subscribe to an ezine.

These publishers and webmasters understand thatrepparttar 129518 best way to attract and keep traffic and readers is to provide folks on repparttar 129519 web what they want. By using free-reprint articles, they are able to provide their readers and their site visitors with repparttar 129520 high-quality content subscribers and surfers demand.

If there is a single name on this list that you recognize and feel as if you can trust, then you haverepparttar 129521 strongest testimony available torepparttar 129522 power of using free-reprint articles to build your business.

If you are not confident to strike out writing your own articles, there are several people who are willing to hire their own article writing skills out to folks just like you.

What it boils down to is this, if you are in business onrepparttar 129523 web and are looking to find your first or ten thousandth customer, you should seriously consider striking out into repparttar 129524 free-reprint market. If you are not comfortable as a writer, then you should absolutely explorerepparttar 129525 possibility of hiring a ghost writer to write articles for you.



Bill Platt owns The Phantom Writers, a company committed to helping people to establish an Internet presence & promote their businesses through the use of Free-Reprint Articles. Through June 1st, 2002, you can save $150 on our normal subscription rates. All articles are distributed to 6,500+ publishers & web- masters as part of the package. http://PathTrax.com/x.pl/BP121,29


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