One of the cliches of science fiction, fantasy, and horror writing is the tradition of unpronounceable character names. You know the kind I mean: a string of consonants and, instead of vowels, various punctuation marks. Examples are Lord K’lghn, Gy-v’nly from the planet Y’jhtrg, and the awful Q’vintg from beyond the black depths (okay, I made … [Read more…]
Joyce Carol Oates talks about characters in her books and the difficulty of writing realistic characters, including animal characters. She suggests sticking with writing dialogue between two people for two hours. She also talks about Rebecca from The Gravedigger’s Daughter and how Oates envisioned her as an early version of her own grandmother.
So how do you create a captivating lead character and cause your reader to fall in love with your protagonist? Here are some writing tips.
There are few characters more associated with Christmas than Ebenezer Scrooge. You have to wonder if when Charles Dickens created the penny-pinching misanthrope, he had any idea of the longevity Scrooge would enjoy, or that of all of Dickens’ novels A Christmas Carol would be the one most well known….and thanks to who? Scrooge. Which … [Read more…]
Character motivation gives your character the power to drive his story, but a properly motivated character will also take your writing far beyond plot. Character Motivation, the Why Do you ever watch a movie and scream in frustration at the screen, thinking why are you doing that? You idiotic character, that makes no sense! The … [Read more…]