Donna Schlachter Shares Tips on Writing Characters

Interview Your Characters 

Guest Post By Donna Schlachter

 

"Getting to know you, getting to know all about you. . . " 

 

When I sit down to create characters for a new project, this tune runs through my head. This is one truth writers ought to embrace: we need to know our characters better than anybody in our book does. Better than our readers will know them by the time they finish reading. 

 

If we don't know our characters, we'll tend to write flat, one-dimensional people, like paper dolls who are simply wearing an outfit called "their story", and are as interchangeable as--well, a paper doll. 

 

Another danger in not knowing our characters is we'll write three chapters getting to know them, wasting paper and the reader's time as we plow our way through their back story, their history, until we finally get to the point where our story really starts, about halfway through Chapter 4. 

 

There are many methods to get to know your characters. Some of these require you to sit down and fill out a questionnaire that would cause most of us to lose our minds or at the very least, our excitement about our stories. While the details and minutiae of these questionnaires might work for some, many of us will struggle to answer what our character's third grade teacher said that made him decide to become a private investigator twenty years later. 

 

Bored with filling out forms, making up answers to questions I hadn't even thought of, and wanting to get on with the process of writing, I came up with a faster and more direct way to get to know my characters--I interview them. 

 

I pretend I'm a famous talk show host and my character is a guest on my show. As a famous talk show host, I know everybody in the world will want to hear what I have to say and how I can make my character squirm on live TV. So I come up with questions will cause said squirming because I know how the story goes and what secrets my character is trying to keep. 

 

Go ahead. Be catty. Be devious. Dig up the dirt. What would someone who reads one of those supermarket tabloids want to know about your character? And why would your character not want to tell the truth, not want to break a confidence, not want you to know everything about them? 

 

Because characters are real people, and real people rarely tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. 

 

Even good people hide some things, hold back some things, try to make themselves look good perhaps at the expense of another. 

 

Here is a list of questions I typically ask to get started: 

1. How did you get the job you have? 

2. What's your background that qualified you for that job? 

3. Tell me about ___________ (the inciting incident in the book). 

4. Tell me about ___________ (could be the love interest, the villain, the hero/heroine. Whoever is making this character's life difficult or messy in some way) 

5. Tell me about ____________ (whatever you know your character doesn't want to talk about. A past hurt, a secret, a rumor, an innuendo – anything that will make it look like this character isn't telling all) 

6. Bring up a topic that's in the news now, and tie it into this character and the plot in some way. For example, if the character is a forest ranger, and poaching by forest rangers is in the news, ask what he thinks should be done to poachers and then what should be done to poachers who are also guardians of the woodland. Watch him squirm. 

7. Ask what the character sees in his/her future. 

 

By the time you ask and your character answers these questions, you should have a good idea of what motivates your character, what scares your character, what your character is trying to hide and why, the lie your character believes, what the internal and external conflicts are, and the growth arc of your character. 

 

Takeaway: Finding out your character's deepest secret so you can blab it across the pages of your book is a good thing. 

 

Exercises: 

1. Choose one character from your current work in progress and interview him/her. 

2. What questions didn't he/she want to answer? Why? Add this to your back story for this character. 

3. How can another character capitalize on knowing this information? Does this change your story in some way? Write in that new plot line.

 

 

MORE ABOUT DONNA

A hybrid author, Donna writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published 50 times in books; is a member of several writers groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both. 

 

www.DonnaSchlachter.com Stay connected so you learn about new releases, preorders, and presales, as well as check out featured authors, book reviews, and a little corner of peace. Plus: Receive a free ebook simply for signing up for our free newsletter!

www.DonnaSchlachter.com/blog

Check out previous blog posts at www.HiStoryThruTheAges.wordpress.com and www.AllBettsAreOff.wordpress.com

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/DonnaschlachterAuthor

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Etsy online shop of original artwork: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Dare2DreamUS

MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER 

 Howard-Johnson is the multi award-winning author of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is also a marketing consultant, editor, and author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers including the multi award-winning The Frugal Book Promoter (https://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromoIII), now offered in its third edition by Modern History Press. Carolyn's latest is in the #HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers is How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. She has two booklets in the #HowToDoItFrugally Series, both in their second editions from Modern History Press. Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers (https://bit.ly/LastMinuteEditsII) and The Great First Impression Book Proposal (https://bit.ly/BookProposalsII) are career boosters in mini doses and both make ideal thank you gifts for authors. The one on writing book proposals is also available as an Audio Book. The Frugal Editor (https://bit.ly/FrugalEditor), now in its second edition, is the winningest book in the series. Carolyn also has three frugal books for retailers including one she encourages authors to read because it helps them convince retailers to host their workshops, presentations, and signings. It is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques (https://bit.ly/RetailersGuide). In addition to this blog, Carolyn helps writers extend the exposure of their favorite reviews at TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. She also blogs all things editing--grammar, formatting and more--at The Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor (https://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com). Learn more and follow for news on her new releases direct from Amazon at https://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile.

Donna Schlachter Helps Authors with Their Characters and Story Arc

Sharing with Writers: Your Characters and Story Arc

By Donna Schlachter

Merely giving characters something to do doesn’t make a good novel. It doesn’t even make a good short story. Or a good television comedy. Unless you’re Seinfeld, which the majority of us are not. Thus, we cannot simply write a novel about nothing happening.

Action and activity don’t translate into something going on in the story. The reader doesn’t want to meet the main character or characters in the opening line, only to find out that while there was plenty of action and activity, the characters are exactly the same at the end.

That’s not real life, is it? Every single event, every word spoken to us or about us, every dream we have that we achieve—or we don’t—changes us in some way. And readers expect the same of our characters. Otherwise, why bother? 

A story where the character doesn’t change isn’t real. Your story and character arc start in the character’s real ordinary world, and are propelled in an entirely different direction because of the circumstances and situations facing them, and their decisions and reactions to those changes.

Ask these questions about your hero, heroine, and villain to ensure they are forced to change: (I am using the masculine pronoun only to keep it simple. These questions apply to whatever gender your characters inhabit or adopt)

1.     What does he want?

2.     What will he die for?

3.     What would he never do?

4.     What would he never say?

5.     What is one good thing about him?

6.     What are three bad things about him?

7.     What is his one redeeming feature?

8.     At the end of the story, what does he really want? What can he not live without?

 

Now you can place your characters in circumstances, events, and situations that tear at the thread of their core, threaten their stability, and that bring out the best and the worst in each character.

For example, let’s look at a police officer who is squeaky clean but knows half of his department is taking bribes from the mob to look the other way. He says he’ll never accept dirty money, but:

·      What if someone close to him needs an operation or medical treatment? His mother? His wife? His daughter?

·      What if the police medical care insurer won’t cover the cost because they say it’s a pre-existing condition, or brought on by poor lifestyle choices?

·      What if he needs the money, but he can’t beg or borrow enough for the treatment to commence?

·      What will this good guy do to change the inevitable outcome? (Think Breaking Bad)

 

And once he steps over that line into the grey area, how will that change him? Will he apply this new thought process to his everyday beat cop duties? Will he try to stifle his rage over the unfairness of how he’s treated? Will he lash out? Will he give up?

As you can see, every choice our characters make changes them for better or for worse. Every time we put them between a rock and a hard place, they discover new strengths and new weaknesses about themselves that will now be reflected in their actions and thoughts. Usually what happens in a good story is that the main characters realize that what they thought they wanted at the beginning isn’t what they want now. Perhaps they’ve had to let something—or somebody—go. Perhaps they’ve had to admit that their dream wasn’t worth pursuing, but something else was. Perhaps they understand that dying isn’t the worst thing that can happen.

Whatever this discovery is, by the end of the story, the reader should find the outcome satisfying. They should have been able to see it coming, and it should resolve any questions they had about the character’s motivation.

 

More About Today's Guest Blogger

A hybrid author, Donna Schlachter writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published 50 times in books; is a member of several writers groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both. Learn more about her at www.DonnaSchlachter.com where you can stay connected with her to learn about new releases, preorders, and presales, as well as check out featured authors, book reviews, and find a little corner of peace. Plus: Receive a free ebook simply for signing up for her free newsletter!

Donna blogs at www.DonnaSchlachter.com/blog and is the author of Time Will Tell.  Find it on Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MNX4SKV . 

Network with Dona: 

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/DonnaschlachterAuthor

Twitter: www.Twitter.com/DonnaSchlachter

Books: Amazon: http://amzn.to/2ci5Xqq

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/donna-schlachter

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=donna+schlachter

Etsy online shop of original artwork: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Dare2DreamUS  

MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER 

 Howard-Johnson is the multi award-winning author of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is also a marketing consultant, editor, and author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers including the multi award-winning The Frugal Book Promoter (http://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromoIII), now offered in its third edition by Modern History Press. Carolyn's latest is in the #HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers is How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. She has two booklets in the #HowToDoItFrugally Series, both in their second editions from Modern History Press. Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers (http://bit.ly/LastMinuteEditsII) and The Great First Impression Book Proposal (http://bit.ly/BookProposalsII) are career boosters in mini doses and both make ideal thank you gifts for authors. The one on writing book proposals is also available as an Audio Book. The Frugal Editor (http://bit.ly/FrugalEditor), now in its second edition, is the winningest book in the series. Carolyn also has three frugal books for retailers including one she encourages authors to read because it helps them convince retailers to host their workshops, presentations, and signings. It is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques (http://bit.ly/RetailersGuide). In addition to this blog, Carolyn helps writers extend the exposure of their favorite reviews at TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. She also blogs all things editing--grammar, formatting and more--at The Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor (http://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com). Learn more and follow for news on her new releases direct from Amazon at http://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile.

Valerie Allen Shares Help Naming Fiction Characters.

My guest blogger today--Valerie Allen--is an author who takes my #SharingwithWriters motto to heart. She directs several book fairs in Florida and her Amazon profile page offers a string of varied and fun fiction. She loves to help writers with their fiction, as you'll see in the article. You'll see, it isn't as easy as it appears. 

Ol’Whatshisname!

by

Valerie Allen

When naming your characters it’s tempting to give your friends, family, or coworkers a chance at their 15 minutes of fame. Before indulging in the name game consider:

1.  Names have many implications such as status, education, religion, nationality, culture, age, etc.

2.  Short names with hard sounds such as Max, Kurt, Nick, and Zena are often used for the bad guys (or gals)

3. Two syllable names and two part names are typically used for children or to portray child-like qualities: Bobby, Cathy, Jimmy, Lulu; Sally-Jean, Bobbi-Jo, Jimmy-Ray

4. Single names, multiple names, hyphenated names, and initials imply importance: Cher, Madonna, John Philip Sousa, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gertrude Hart-Taylor, Charles Miller-Wright, FDR, JFK,MLK

5. Names can indicate ethnicity such as,  Maria, Juan, Collin, Eileen, Anthony, Lisa, Nigel, Gretchen, Vijay, or Abdul

6.  The spelling of a name can imply age or character traits: Smith vs Smyth, Elizabeth vs Lizabeth, Rose Ann vs Rosanne, Lisa vs Liza vs Lissa, Carl vs Karl

7.  Names must fit the theme or time period of your story such as, biblical, Civil War era, southern, European, aristocratic, etc.

8.  Names reflect public figures or famous families during specific time periods: Franklin or Eleanor, Elvis, Shirley (Temple), Douglas (MacArthur), Amy (Carter)

9.  Nicknames are used for extroverted characters: Barb, Liz, Bill, Joe, Rick.  They can also be used to reveal characterization: Shorty, Babe, Honey, Slim, Hot Stuff

10. Use only one common name (Jack Jones) and only one exotic name (Theodora Ginasia-Peacock) per story

11.  Use unique names for each character, not: Jack, Jim, Jon, or John in the same story, nor Mary, Marie, Maria Marla, Maureen

12.  Last names follow the same rule, do not have: Jamison, Johnson, Jenson, and Jepson in the same story.

13.  Names can add special meaning or importance, as with grandfather/father/son; Sr, Jr. The III; use of family names as a first name (Fulbright, Hathaway); unisex names (Taylor, Parker, Madison); flowers (Azalea, Buttercup, Lily); gems(Ruby, Pearl); nature (Summer, River, Plum); days or months (Tuesday, Friday) (April, May, June)

If you are stuck on a name two helpful resources are The World of Baby Names and the US Census of Common Names

Readers make an association with names based on their unique experiences, however, stereotyping is alive and well. Who do you picture when you hear the name Bertha?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Valerie Allen, author, playwright, and speaker, writes fiction, non-fiction, short stories, plays, and children's books. She is a popular speaker at writer's conferences, libraries, and community events using her book: Write, Publish, Sell! Quick, Easy, Inexpensive Ideas for the Marketing Challenged 2^nd Edition.

She is a co-founder of Authors for Authors, which supports new and experienced authors with book fairs, book launches, book displays, and writing seminars. Authors from across the US have had their books displayed at two Florida book fairs held in March and November sponsored by AuthorsforAuthors.com.

Valerie Allen can be contacted via FB, Twitter, Google+ and at VAllenWriter@gmail.com or ValerieAllenWriter.com

-----
 Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The multi award-winning second edition of The Frugal Editor; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .