Characters Category
Character Stress and Motivation
Posted on March 3, 2022 Leave a Comment
I have some time to myself today for the first time in quite awhile. I also am taking time to relax for the first time in quite awhile. It’s the perfect writing weather for me: cool and misty. So I have a cup of tea, and my 00’s rock music is playing. I’m not in […]
The Ghost Character
Posted on September 30, 2020 Leave a Comment
Have you gotten halfway through a scene to suddenly realize one of the characters you specifically mentioned as being in the room at the beginning of the scene has done absolutely nothing for the entire scene? It’s like the character is some unseen ghost hovering in the background. I used to go back and add […]
Characters: Suffering and Anxiety
Posted on September 16, 2020 Leave a Comment
Writers are supposed to make our characters suffer. But there is one kind of suffering that I hate to give my characters: anxiety.
Renaming Party
Posted on July 23, 2020 Leave a Comment
Well, life has sure been crazy the last several months. On top of teaching 10-20 hours a week (plus the accompanying paperwork, prep work, and communication), I have a couple of writing projects and some other things. I feel like I have four jobs right now. I haven’t had much time (any, really) to write […]
Character Relationships (more Voltron)
Posted on July 16, 2018 Leave a Comment
Relationships between characters are really important. You can have a few great characters, but if their interactions are cardboard or inauthentic or just badly done, it doesn’t work. I really like the situation of Star Trek Voyager, and I love individual characters, but in Deep Space Nine, I love the way all the characters work […]
The Most Perfect Story–because of characters!
Posted on July 14, 2018 1 Comment
(I tried to avoid spoilers, but be forewarned!) Voltron might be the most perfect story I’ve ever experienced (personal taste, of course). I love fantasy and sci-fi, especially when they blend. I love deep emotion and meaningful tears–not just wrench-your-heart-out junk but when characters have meaningful relationships that are sweet and sometimes bitter. But I […]
When Characters Grow and Change in Surprising Ways
Posted on July 9, 2018 Leave a Comment
I love learning about characters and seeing them grow. One of my favorite things is when characters surprise me in ways that make sense. Like when I expect a character to act one way, but their character arc leads them to act differently. This usually happens when I have a rough outline of a story […]
The Wrong MC Again
Posted on May 2, 2018 Leave a Comment
I’ve had an idea percolating for awhile. I typed up the first 20 pages for a workshop. The response I got surprised me. To be vague, the story followed a teenage girl who had some crazy stuff happen and some special abilities manifested (it’s sci-fi). She met a man with abilities like hers who had […]
Compelling Characters
Posted on May 9, 2017 Leave a Comment
I’m realizing the characters I find most compelling are the bad guys who struggle with being good. It drives me crazy when good guys do bad things if they don’t struggle with it. The struggle is what’s compelling, so I like good characters who struggle, too. But if a bad guy does a good thing, […]
The Little Things
Posted on January 27, 2017 Leave a Comment
Ask some simple questions about your character. These may not seem important, but they help you get to know your character and can be a good reference later on (I love knowing that for a hot drink, my MC prefers tea with lemon. I’ve used that several times.) How does your character respond to hello? […]
A. W. Downer 