Make Your Characters Real

 THE CREATIVE PROCESS

It's easy to fall into the trap of not fully "fleshing out" our characters.  Even with strong GMCs, our characters can still be flat and uninteresting.  And boring characters will have readers closing the book.

What does "fleshing out" mean?

Fleshing out means to expand or become more substantial.  For writers it means making characters more human.  There's nothing worse than a perfect person...or a perfect character.  And that's as if there really was a perfect person.  We do try, but we're human...and that's what the characters in our stories should be.

Each character must have, well, character.  After all, that's why they're called characters. ;)  Character is made up of different things.  Because no one (especially our characters!) is perfect, there are both positive and negative traits within our personalities, just as we have strengths and weaknesses.

• Human Traits
• Strengths
• Weaknesses

When thinking of main characters in a romance (hero and heroine), having different and sometime opposing traits, strengths and weaknesses, is ideal.  Here's a short list for some ideas:

Disciplined/Free Spirit
Homebody/Nomad
Driven & Determined/Lives for the Moment
Cheerful/Angry
Courageous/Fearful
Rigid/Adaptable

Don't shy away from putting them at odds from the very beginning.  Do be sure each trait is motivated (think backstory of character).  What has happened to the character in the past?  Or is happening now that will keep them apart?  (Remember that Push/Pull thing.)  For some reason, these characters should not come together and have a happily ever after.  Read the back covers of your favorite books for ideas, but mix them up, don't steal. ;)  It doesn't matter if the hero and heroine have a past together or not.  Don't always stay in the safe zone.  Mix it up.  The only thing to keep in mind is that motivation.

Give your characters weaknesses.  That's what makes them interesting and real.  Fear works well as a conflict.  It builds conflict.  Connect that fear to the the character's backstory and well-motivated goal that are counter to the other character's, and you're building the conflict between them.

Make them human.  Give your characters a personal habit or small mannerism that sets him/her apart.  I recently turned in a book with a hero who answers "Right," instead of "Yes" or "Okay."  I didn't intend it to happen, but that was a part of him.  Does the heroine cross her legs and nervously wave one foot when seated?  Does she slap her hands on her hips and jut out her chin when angry?  Be a people-watcher for mannerisms to use.

Make them different, even when it's different from the "real" them.
I'm a huge Susan Elizabeth Phillips fan.  Her books are funny and wildly emotional.  I have three that are my favorites.  The first is IT HAD TO BE YOU (Chicago Stars Series).  The heroine, Phoebe Sommerville, is my all-time favorite heroine, so when I had the good fortune to attend a writers' workshop given by SEP, I was thrilled when she talked about building characters using Phoebe as a example.  If you haven't read IT HAD TO BE YOU, Phoebe is a buxom, curvaceous woman and always dresses to show it off, who happens to wear pristine, white underclothing.  Nope, no thongs or bikini undies for her.  She uses her seemingly sexual appearance (through clothing, swiveling hips and pouty lips) as a shield to hide the real her.  There are reasons, meaning she is well-motivated.  What I remember most of that workshop was SEP sharing that she started with a very private heroine, who wore white, common-sense undies and bras.  That was the skeleton of the character.  As SEP built the rest of the character from the inside out,  Phoebe became a "sexpot" on the outside.  People saw one type of woman, but inside there was an insecure girl.  So even within one character, there was conflict, and that's what it's all about. Of course there's always Push/Pull within a character.  It's the I want but I can't have conundrum.  Let's face it, we all have a secret self.

The above is a reminder that our characters should reveal their true selves to the reader, long before revealing it to the other character.  Do it slow and easy.  Don't dump it immediately.  And when you do bring it out, little by little, show it, don't tell it.

Make your characters three-dimensional by using:

• Internal thoughts
• Emotions
• Actions

While your character may say and act one way, what that character is thinking (internal thoughts) and feeling may be quite the opposite.  Be certain you don't forget that or leave it out.  A character may be hard and unforgiving, but when it's shown that it isn't so by using internal thoughts along with clear motivation, that character has dimension.  As for actions, we all know the old saying that actions speak louder than words. Tears welling in the eyes, tone of voice, teeth or hand clenching, and more can be felt by the character and seen by the other.

Make them unforgettable.

When readers close your book at the end, you want them to feel an emotion.  A good emotion.  A smile, a happy sigh or even a tear will endear a reader to your characters and your book.  Make those characters touch the heart by becoming "real."

“I will go to my grave in a state of abject endless fascination that we all have the capacity to become emotionally involved with a personality that doesn't exist.” 

― Berkeley Breathed

Building the Story: Characters

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

As I work on making changes on a proposal, I'm given pause to think about how important characters are to the plot of a book.  It's characters and our love of them that make a great story.  And, yes, even a mountain or a whale can become characters that change another character.

In romance, our characters are sometimes both two protagonists, while also being the antagonists.  If the two solve their differences--of which there should be one tough one and other smaller ones--and the conflict is resolved too early, the story dies.  While it's nice to see two people get together, it's even better when there are problems to deal with and eventually solve to get to that happily ever after.

I'll freely admit that I'm constantly learning, and I appreciate that I have an editor who is willing to teach me, in a asking-the-right-questions way.  I truly appreciate that she makes me dig deeper to build better characters, GMC and, in the end, stories.  If that means reworking a project, so be it.  One more lesson learned by redoing.

Making mistakes (by not fleshing out the character and their emotional conflict, as was my recent case) does teach us, if we let them.  Throwing up our hands and giving up is the stuff of people who refuse to try, to learn, and to redo, if necessary.  And we all make mistakes, whether in our writing or our lives.  It's making the most of them--learning from them--that makes us better writers and people.

So how do characters help build our story?  Much of it comes back to good, ol' GMC, but if the Conflict isn't strong enough, the story is weakened.  That's what I was facing last week.  Yes, there was conflict between my H/H, but as my editor pointed out, it wasn't strong enough.  It needed to be something other than their conflict in the past.  It could stem from the past, but it had to be an emotional NOW not THEN.

Once I gave some thought to what she said--and added the brainstorming genius of a writer friend (Thanks, Kristi! And Kathie for the ranching info!)--I was on the road to a better, more emotional story.  The basis was there, but the push-pull of the romance and the conflict needed to be pumped up.

The characters themselves was the answer, and it had been there from the beginning.  I just hadn't dug deep enough to reach it.  Once it was pointed out to me that the two characters were a lot alike, that their biggest strength was also their greatest weakness, that push-pull emerged.  Two people, who had always insisted on having complete control of their lives and everything involved, would always be at odds, often about nearly everything.  Add in the past they shared that had often found them not only at loggerheads, but as adversaries, in spite of their secret attraction to each other, and that conflict is going to grow larger when they meet again.  Not to mention that night, fifteen years ago...

Just what is push-pull and how does a writer use it?  Take two people who might not normally be even friends, much less lovers, throw them into something that will push them together and make them grow.  But don't forget to throw in something that will pull them apart, not once, but several times.  Think turning points.  Yes, those things that change the course of the characters and/or their journey to their goal, and sometimes even their goal.  Keep their motivation in mind, too, since it's the reason for those goals.

Turning points can be both negative and positive.  Growing closer is a positive (push), whether it's a first kiss or a realization or acknowledgement of love that brings them emotionally closer.  But it's those negative ones (pull)--the overheard conversation, the words or actions of one, the knowledge of something previously unknown and not particularly welcome--that keep the story rolling and the reader reading.  When it comes to characters, bring them up, then smack them down.  Torture them, but don't forget to reward them.

Digging deeper isn't always easy, but it's well worth the time and effort.  In the end, it will make for a better, emotional book.

Shameless Promotion
The story that spawned this blog post is still in the submission stage, but it's the story of the sister of two brothers who are the heroes in two books coming out this year.  This new sister/heroine does make an appearance in both, so it's become close to my heart.  Only time will tell if Erin's story will hit the stands. Until then, I hope you'll give her brothers' books a read.

Especially for fans of cowboy heroes...singing ones...

Don't miss Kristi Gold's THE CLOSER YOU GET, available NOW!

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. ~ Elbert Hubbard 

Tightening That Sagging Middle

WRITING WEDNESDAYS

I'm late, but I have an excuse.  I've spent today working on my own middle.  The middle of the book, that is.  Work on my physical middle has fallen to the wayside, thanks to the hot weather.  Once it cools off, the walking will resume.

Frankly, I'd much rather blog about the middle in the picture on the left.  Who wouldn't?  But lusting over a hunk isn't going to get a book written and, except for being a reminder of tightening those sagging flesh and blood middles, it's only going to make it warmer in here.  Another 105 today was hot enough, thank you.

I'm one of the lucky ones who hasn't had a rejection because of a sagging middle.  (And I'm knocking on wood.  It can strike at any time.)  Believe me, I've had plenty of rejections, but they've been for a variety of other things.  Still, it seems sagging middles are one of the top reasons for rejection.

If you're coming up on the halfway point in your story and your Hero and Heroine are getting along so well that it's almost scary, it may be that you've forgotten about the conflict between that H and H.  It's conflict, not rosy moments, that keeps them from reaching their happily ever after too soon.  This is where a little plotting can go a long way.

A good story that keeps a reader reading will build from that first introduction to the conflict to the end when that conflict--and often new and different ones--are solved.  This is true for all fiction, not only romance.  While it's nice to have interludes where the characters aren't at odds and everything is going fairly smoothly, if it goes too smoothly for too long, readers can easily lose interest.  And so can editors.

To counteract a lull, it helps to focus on what can happen that will increase the conflict between the H/H.  This conflict should be emotional, and therefore internal, but can be brought about by something external.  A kiss...or more...in a romance will increase the stakes of the characters and bring about more intense emotions and...  You guess it.  CONFLICT.  This could happen while discovering something new about the other character that means a re-thinking of the relationship.  Or maybe a romance that's been kept a secret suddenly suffers a leak that could destroy the couple.  Do this mid-way, and you've discovered the main turning point of your story and solved quite a lot of the sagging middle problem.  Keep it connected to the main conflict, and you'll discover that you won't be going off in directions that lead nowhere.

It doesn't take heavy, thorough or even complicated plotting to do this.  Simply knowing, either before you begin writing the story or discovering it as you're writing it, that this moment is going to happen will keep you on course and keep the story interesting.

The main turning point isn't the only thing to keep readers hooked, but it is one of the most important ones.  Don't cheat your readers.  Give them a strong shift in the story, then take them to a heart-wrenching black moment, before leaving them with happy sighs over the HEA.

Torturing your characters is fun and much better than torturing your readers. ;)

The greatest rules of dramatic writing are conflict, conflict, conflict. ~ James Frey

Digging Deeper - Part 2

WRITING WEDNESDAYS

Motivation

Synonyms: motive, inspiration, inducement, cause, impetus. 

In GMC (Goal, Motivation & Conflict) MOTIVATION is the WHY.  It's the reason for the character's Goal. The more intense (emotional) the motivation, the better.

If a character has no goal, there's no reason for the reader to care.  No one cares about a character who doesn't want something.  The stronger and more emotional the goal, the more involved the reader will become.  But don't stop there, because it's the Conflict--what keeps the character from reaching the goal--that really keeps the story going and the reader hooked.  There won't be much of a story if the character gets what he/she wants in the beginning, no matter what the reason.  Therefore, we have conflict. 

Motivation is the Key to Conflict

Say it again.  Say it out loud.  Say it each time you sit down to plot or write a story.  Motivation is the key to conflict.  If you want deeper emotional conflict for the character--so deep that the reader can't put down the book--character motivation is imperative.

But where do we find motivation for our character?
IN THE BACKSTORY.  

What is backstory?
It's everything that happens before the story opens.

Anyone who has taken a basic psychology class knows that the person we are to become is formed as we grow.  Our personality is shaped from birth and beyond.  Good, bad, mediocre, it's all a part of who we are.  Those things that happen along the way--people and events--are our backstory.  Simply stated, it's our deepest, truest biography.  The same holds true for our characters.

Make your characters come alive.  Make them real.  Start working on the WHY of your characters before you start writing.  Know everything you can about them, their family and how they fit or didn't fit, their childhood, their friends and emotional experiences as they grew up.  When you work out the backstory first, it can reveal the motivation and conflict for your characters.

Remember, motivation is the key to make everything work.  The deeper and more intense and emotional the motivation, the stronger the conflict.  Find your character's conflict in their motivation through their backstory.

Goal, Motivation & Conflict.  It all works together.  Without each of those points, a character is incomplete.  When all three work together, a character can be unforgettable.

More next week on how to dig even deeper into your character's motivation and backstory.

Action, reaction, motivation, emotion, all have to come from the characters. Writing a love scene requires the same elements from the writer as any other. ~ Nora Roberts

Digging Deeper

WRITING WEDNESDAYS

Years ago, my friend Kathie DeNosky sent me several audio tapes of writing workshops to help set me on the course of someday becoming a published author.  One of them was a workshop done by author Naomi (Susan) Horton.  After listening to The Heart of the Love Story, fireworks went off in my head.  I finally had a handle on conflict.

Many thanks to Ms Horton for the words and information that taught me how to write a story that deserved to be told.  Much of what I'm going to share today and in the weeks to come are from that workshop tape.

As writers, we want readers to fall in love with our stories.  To do that we need to make our characters real to them--as real as they are to us as we're writing them.  It takes a type of magic to do that.  It takes EMOTIONS.

1. Characters are the key to an emotional story.
2. Characters only become real when they go beyond being 2-dimensional to become 3-dimensional.
3. The most important time spent writing is not in the writing itself, but in the time spent working out back story.  Work on this one, and the first two will take care of themselves.

Before you sit down at the computer to pull up your word document program or your manuscript template, you need to get to know your characters almost as well as you know yourself.

You need to learn:

1. Who your characters are
2. Why they behave and react as they do
3. Why they're in this particular story at this particular time
4. What they want and don't want
5. What they need and don't need
6. They're passions, goals, dreams, worst nightmares, etc.

The more you know about your characters, the better you'll be able to portray them as 3-dimensional in your stories.  There are many ways to get to know your characters.  Some people use character interviews, while others use sheets with blanks to fill in for things like hair color, habits, family, and more.  If you're not sure where to start, try one of the suggestions listed in Twelve Ways to Get to Know Your Character, compiled by the Alberta Romance Writers' Association.  Even if you aren't able to find exactly the best way for you, any one of the twelve might jump start a way of looking at your characters so you'll be able to create your own "best way."  If nothing there seems to work, try an internet search using *how to get to know your characters* or *character charts* or even *character traits*.  Another way to get started in learning who your characters are is to take a look at the Kiersey Temperament Sorter or a Meyers-Briggs/Jung test.  Whatever gives you the key to learn the best way for you, go with it.

Over the course of time, we might find that the technique we've been using to get to know and understand our characters isn't producing the results we want.  This can happen with anything, even the shampoo we use!  When it does happen, try something new or brainstorm with a friend.  Sometimes a fresh perspective can generate new ideas.   Above all, remember that making your characters real will give life to your stories.

Next week we'll take a look at CONFLICT and how to find it through MOTIVATION.  Yes, that's right!  Back to the M & C of GMC from a new and different angle.

If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats. ~ Richard Bach

Then Along Came Conflict

WRITING WEDNESDAYS


I'm still playing blog catch-up and hope to be back on schedule by the end of the week.  It's been a blogging frenzy, over the past few days!  Well, not really, but I'll have a nice word count to add to this month's total. ;)

For the past week, I've been sharing my thoughts on and blogging about what's often referred to as Debra Dixon's GMC: Goal, Motivation & Conflict.  It's the perfect basis for any writer, whether just starting out or a publishing wiz with tons of books written and sold.

To keep a reader interested in the story, whether it's romance or any genre of fiction, the characters need to want something (GOAL), a reason for wanting it (MOTIVATION), and something that's keeping them from getting it (CONFLICT). Goal-Motivation-Conflict.

It goes like this:

• Character wants (goal), because (motivation), but (conflict) is keeping character from reaching it.

Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it?  Until the discovery that lack of conflict is one of the biggest reasons a story is rejected by an editor.

So what is conflict?  It's the struggle between opposing forces in the story.  There are two basic types of conflict: internal and external.  Internal conflict is what affects the character personally, such as changing (or needing to change) the way he/she thinks or the kind of person he/she is.  External conflict is the character changing his/her environment.  When it comes to external and internal conflict in a story, the external is always solved first.

Conflict is the heart of the story.  Without it, even if the character is fun and entertaining, the story has no substance.  Something or someone needs to be keeping the character from reaching that goal.  The more difficult or deep the conflict, the better the story.  The character must either solve the conflict or find away around it.

All major characters in the story will each have a GMC, even if it's short term for a minor character, such as the main character's best friend, family member, or any other reappearing minor character.

Reread some of your favorite books and see if you can spot the main character(s) GMC(s).  Make notes in the beginning and watch what happens over the course of the book.

Once you learn to use GMC, writing will be easier and your stories will be better for it.  Remember that characters' goals can change throughout the story during the process of character growth.  But until The End aka the Resolution, the emotional conflict needs to remain strong.  Give your character a goal that's important, a solid and emotional reason for that goal, and a conflict that will keep the character fighting to reach the goal.

More about conflict next week.  Until then...

The greatest rules of dramatic writing are conflict, conflict, conflict. - James Frey