How to Create Dynamic Fictional Characters

A Writer's Path

by David Gittlin

Most serious writers want to connect with an audience; preferably a big one.  You have something to say.  You have a story to tell.  You want people to read it.  One of the best ways to make people want to read your work is to create memorable and relatable central characters.  Whether you are writing a short story, screenplay, or a novel, you want your readers to identify with and live the story through your main characters.  To do this, you have to create three dimensional characters that live and breathe in your reader’s imagination.  I’d like to share with you a method I learned for from professional, published writers.

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Character Descriptions: Avoiding the Boring Stuff – by Angela Ackerman…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

on Jami Gold:

We all know characters are the beating heart of a story. Fashioned from imagination clay and given life by an author, these fictional people have yearnings, dreams, and fears just like us. They also have a past—one filled with challenges, strife, and hope—and this collection of experiences shape them into the person readers meet on the doorstep of chapter one.

Digging deep to explore a character’s hidden truths is hard and necessary work. I spend a lot of time coaching writers to drill down into the essence of who their character is so that when they write their behavior, every action and choice is driven by their motivation and authentic to them.

But there’s another aspect of character description that is easy to forget about or gloss over: their physical appearance.

Continue Reading HERE

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Good News: Reading Is Still Popular

Marketing Christian Books

Reading is still popular. In fact, most people have good intentions about reading!

A study conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Rakuten Kobo found that 71% of Americans say they’d like to read more than they currently do. Our busy and distracted lives present barriers to reading more. Survey respondents reported that these main barriers include:

• Scrolling through social media (49%)
• Playing games on a phone (30%)
• Watching TV shows (29%)
• Sitting in Traffic (28%)
• Constantly checking their phone (26%)

The good news is that the majority of Americans are still reading. Check out these five findings on books and reading in the United States.

Related Posts:
The Book Industry Is Still Strong
Effective Marketing to a Declining Reading Populace
Is Reading in Trouble?

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Writers Need to Rethink Rewrites

No Wasted Ink Writers Links — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog

Originally posted on No Wasted Ink: Welcome back to writer links day here on No Wasted Ink. Each week, I select ten articles from my general reading on the internet to share with you here on the blog. I hope you like this week’s choice. Enjoy. The Fantastical Food of Fantasy Fiction Biting the Bullet…

via No Wasted Ink Writers Links — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog

How to use Social Media for your Marketing — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog

Originally posted on Ari Meghlen – Writer | Blogger | Bad card player: It’s Monday Marketing time, people! Today I thought I’d talk (more) about social media. Last year, I did a series on Social Media but I think discussing it specifically for Marketing is important. Not all social media is the same. Ones such as Twitter…

via How to use Social Media for your Marketing — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog

Indie Book Month — Promote Your Books

charles french words reading and writing

(https://pixabay.com)

On Twitter, there is a movement called #IndieApril, so I thought it was a good idea to import to WordPress.  Independent writers are the growing force in publishing, so please take this opportunity to publicize and promote your work!

I want to offer an opportunity for all writers who follow this blog to share information on their books. It can be very difficult to generate publicity for our writing, so I thought this little effort might help. All books may be mentioned, and there is no restriction on genre. This encompasses fiction, poetry, plays, and non-fiction. If I have neglected to mention a genre, please consider it to be included.

To participate, simply give your name, your book, information about it, and where to purchase it in the comments section. Then please be willing to reblog and/or tweet this post. The more people that see it, the more publicity…

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3 Needs to Decide How Much Description to Use

The Author Chronicles

How much description and other information do we need to put into any given scene? Too much and it becomes a sleep-inducing info dump. Too little and the reader is lost and confused. So how do we find that perfect balance? How do we know what to put in when?

In a discussion at the Liars Club’s Willow Grove Coffeehouse yesterday, we discussed this very topic. The answer lies in three Needs that converge at the point of perfect balance.

• Needs of the genre
• Needs of the reader
• Needs of the Point of View (POV) character

Needs of the Genre

Every genre comes with content expectations. While a Tom Clancy espionage-thriller is expected to be heavy on technical details, a romance is not. And while romance carries an expectation of a happily ever after, many horror stories do not. Knowing what your genre expects can help guide you as to…

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Series Bible: What To Include And Why Writers Should Have One

K.M. Allan

Not content with writing just one book, some writers tackle a series.

I did this for the first manuscript I decided to write seriously (either bravely or stupidly, I still haven’t decided), and one thing I learned was that it pays to have a series bible.

A series bible is a document made up of all the notes, secrets, and information relating to your series. The same principles can be applied to standalone books, but where a series bible really shines is keeping everything straight amongst multiple books. This is the reason why all writers should have one.

What To Include In Your Series Bible

Characters

List everything you can about your characters. What they look like, who they’re related to, who they’re friends with. Note down their goals, dreams, where they go to school, if they have a job, what happened in their past. It doesn’t have to be…

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When Free Isn’t Really Free – Guest Post by, Jaq D Hawkins…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

One of my pet peeves in marketing is when someone offers something for free, but it isn’t really free. For example, recently I clicked on a free sample for a cosmetic, only to find that after getting your address details, they ask for a credit card because to get the free sample you have to subscribe to receiving a jar of cream every month and according to reviews, trying to cancel it is a nightmare! I closed the window and moved on.

In the realm of book sales, giving away free books has been a legitimate tactic since the indie publishing culture started. In the early days, free sales on Amazon would bump your sales figures and bring your book into that coveted top 100 where full price sales would follow. Amazon changed that so that the free books don’t affect the paid sales figures, but many authors still do…

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