Characters In A Romance NovelWritten by Patty Apostolides
Before you even begin writing your novel, you need to know who your characters will be. Minimally, you would want two major characters, hero and heroine. They will interact mostly with each other throughout novel. How they interact with each other will determine outcome of story. Will they resist each other in beginning of story and by end, fall in love? Or will they fall in love in beginning of story and then be driven apart by conflict? Once you’ve chosen them, then you need to decide what age they are, their personality traits, and their names. AGE Age-appropriate actions are paramount to development of character. If heroine is in her teens, she will react differently to situations than if she is in her late twenties. The same goes with hero. In a romance novel, typical heroine is in her early twenties, while hero is older. If he is in his twenties, he shouldn’t be shown as a tycoon, unless of course, he inherited wealth. If he is in his thirties, he shouldn’t be shown doing activities that are immature for his age. PERSONALITY TRAITS A character in your novel needs to have distinct personality traits that make them unique. By distinguishing them from other persons in novel, you can create all kinds of situations based on those traits. Personality traits are typically revealed in story through actions, dialogue with other people in story, and sometimes through flashbacks that may reveal how that person became way they are. If you are not familiar with personality traits, you can begin by studying psychology books that describe them. Some examples of personality traits are introvert/extrovert, obsessive-compulsive, Type “A”/Type “B” personalities, etc. For example, an introverted person would appear shy, doesn’t speak much, and shuns being in social situations, whereas an extroverted person would be gregarious, out-going, and usually a partygoer. There are many types of personalities that you can choose from for your heroine, but typically, a “romantic” female would include following: kind, young, nurturing, loving, warm, single, sensual, doesn’t fool around, and attractive. For your hero, characteristics could vary even more, and usually include being: older, decisive, powerful, kind, caring, single, gentle, and handsome. Typically, you should have well-rounded characters. However, beware of making them too perfect. Readers prefer reading about realistic people, and yet at same time, want to escape a little. Leave some room for improvement to allow character development to take place. As a writer, you will have to do some mental gymnastics to allow this to happen. Maybe she is stubborn and headstrong, and doesn’t listen to other people’s advice. Maybe he doesn’t trust anyone, so he is wary and cautious. That’s fine. Once you decide on traits of each character, then next step would be to envision how they would react to certain situations. For example, an impulsive person would probably react differently than a cautious person to same situation. Be prepared to get into shoes of your character and feel what they would feel. When a hero and heroine get together, they may help each other overcome their character flaws by end of story. Through their love for each other, they help each other grow as human beings, and at same time, accept each other’s flaws and imperfections. Of course, there will be some type of conflict in attaining their love. What story exists without conflict? But by end of story, they realize importance of each other in their life and cannot live without other, no matter what price. Ahhh, true love!
| | Seven Ways to Make Your Fiction Compulsive ReadingWritten by Raven
Do You Have What It Takes to Grab and Hold Reader Attention? Does your fiction writing do sales work for you? Do you have that magic ingredient to hold readers until story's end? What are readers looking for in a good read anyway? This article tells you how What's In It For Me? (WIIFM) formula, normally applied to commercial endeavors, is equally important to readers who are browsing or scanning fiction looking for that next good read. What's In It For Me? is all about you giving something of value. This is what attracts and holds your reader. As a fiction writer this thing of value that you give to reader is an experience. An experience is an exchange between story and reader that sets up a thinking and feeling connection for reader. When a reader first approaches any story they have no connection, no feeling response. At this point no exchange has occurred and no experience has begun. It is your story's responsibility to move reader into a state of connection by giving them a thinking and feeling experience. The better experience, more your story is valued. How You Create an Experience for Your Reader. Your fiction story is built from components: plot, structure, characters, action, description, dialogue and your writing style. It is from these components that an experience can be created if you ensure they have quality. Without quality components your writing will be, at best, bland or uninteresting (default reader disconnection: browsing on to next book), or at worst, even irritating (active reader disconnection: noting never to look at that author's works again). Rigorously apply following checklist to your story, before and during writing. This ensures each component contributes to a quality reader experience? Plot Does it offer enough temptation for reader to come along for ride? (Apply this question to every component.) Are twists and turns believable even if incredible? If it's a simple or well-used plot, remember that more responsibility for creating reader experience will therefore fall on other components of your story. Structure Have you chosen a structure that presents story in its best form and light? Or did you pick easiest or most familiar structure without thinking about it? Character Here is your most important opportunity to give reader an experience. If you don't create connection here your reader has little reason to stay with story. Psychological depth and originality create some of most compelling and successful characterizations. Are you creating characters using a 'cut and paste' approach from elsewhere in fiction or life? Or are you originating from within your own creative depths, having absorbed observations and experiences from life and let that settle into mix within yourself? A Philip Marlow character or an unfamiliar (new) mix of traits? Action Are your action scenes genuinely originating out of your characters' interactions with plot and each other? Or are you artificially imposing action responses onto your characters? The latter can lack believability and lose connection you may have established with reader via other components of your story.
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