In The Flesh: 3 Tips To Journaling Believable CharactersWritten by Barbara Carr Phillips
Publishing Guidelines: This article is available for free reprint provided that author bio is left intact and article is published complete and unaltered. If you are using this article on a website or e-book, please make sure that link in author bio is live or clickable.Email notice of intent to publish is requested: bcarrphillips@yahoo.com Word Count: 520 In Flesh: Three Tips to Journaling Believable Characters By Barbara Carr Phillips Writers are natural observers. We note characteristics about people that others miss. How many times have you observed someone, and then revealed that observation to a friend who said, "Yes, yes, that is exactly right! I could not put my finger on what impressed me about that person before." Here are three journaling tips that will develop your skill of observation. Tip #1: Choose a Character of Week You might not describe your character's physical appearance at beginning of your novel, but knowing what he or she looks like will open opportunities to you as you write. Every day we are in contact with others, whether it's our family, grocery store clerk or woman sitting in car ahead of you at stoplight. Choose one real person every week to write about in your journal. Write a page about this person, as though you were looking at her through a one-inch picture frame. Include every physical detail: clothing, jewelry, hairstyle, skin tone, fingernails, facial expressions and mannerisms. If you don't know her name, give one to her. You may discover a character who is ready to bump into main character of that novel you are working on! Tip #2: Create your Character's Goal Log Select one character of week (from Tip #1). It's time to develop this character's motivation. Step into your character's shoes and write a personal goal log. It will be similar to a goal log that you would write for yourself. Write about both long-term goals, (saving a million dollars, retiring to Tuscany) and short-term goals, (losing weight, learning to play guitar). Write about why these goals are important to your character. Include all steps your character will have to take to achieve his or her goals, along with obstacles he or she may encounter along way. Some of goals should be very difficult to achieve or open-ended, just like they are in real life. As you log your character through a difficult goal, which challenges will she or he overcome? Which ones will cause them to give up?
| | Great BeginningsWritten by Barbara Carr Phillips
This article is available for free reprint provided that author’s bionote is left intact and article is published complete and unaltered. If you are using this article on a website or e-book, please make sure that link in author’s bionote is live or clickable. Email notice of intent to publish is required: bcarrphillips@yahoo.comWord Count: 656 Great Beginnings by Barbara Carr Phillips A birth. First day of school. A new job. A wedding. Beginnings are hopeful times. A clean slate with infinite possibilities. Yes, beginnings are awesome. Unless you're a writer staring at a blank page. When I type beginning of a new story, it sounds something like this: Tap, tap, tap, delete, delete, delete; Tap, tap, tap, click, block text, right click, cut; Tap backspace, tap, tap ; Tap, tap, , ctrl-A, delete. Sound poetic? It is in a tragic sort of way because soon my mind is on other things, like how I will move all of my furniture and family into a cardboard box under a dark and lonely bridge. I don't know any publications that pay writers for a blank piece of paper. If you do, please e-mail me and put me out of my misery.I keep thinking that writing an exciting opening will just happen first time I try, but it hasn't so far. Why? Because it's too much pressure. If my reader doesn't get involved in first paragraph, she or he is on to next story. No matter how much I toil and sweat over middle and end, I'm keenly aware that I'll lose my audience without an interesting lead. And of course, I'm being optimistic even saying that, because in beginning I must hook my editor. If I don't, my story is not even going to appear in print for a reader to ignore. So, how do I create a great beginning to a story? Well, after my tapping, sighing and groaning session is finished, I usually tell my annoying internal editor "thanks, but no thanks," and cram her into my overflowing file cabinet. Then I just write. I unleash tornado of words and ideas and let them scatter across screen with lightening speed and I don't stop to reread them.
|