Know your Characters

This is a post for your characters, getting to know those delightful people in your head so we can get to know them in your book. In no particular order, here are many methods I have used in the past for my own stories to be used or ignored by you.
- 100 Things. This was suggested for me by someone else actually. It's simple enough, make a list of things about your character to get to know them. Not all of it may be important to your story, but even if you never mention that Paulina likes pretzels but not cotton candy in your story you will know that about them and it is one step closer to knowing your character.
- General Information: because we do not get the know people by lists alone. Start simple and stay simple. Write you characters name, height, weight, appearance and interesting physical attributes. Go on with this list until you have the bascis: where do they live, did they have a good childhood, did they get along with thier parents, what was thier firt memory, etc.
- Plotting your character : where they go in the story. Write a one sentence summary of this characters role in the story. Follow it up with his or her motivation, thier abstract want, and goal, concrete want. Add a conflict, why they can't have their goal, and then an epiphany: what they learned in the story and how they changed. The epiphany is how they do or do not overcome the conflict to get to thier goal. Expand the one stence into a paragraph.
- One Page: then, write one page of your characters story. This should help with plot as well as character.
- Charcter Charts: once you have a basic description it is a good idea to expand those ideas into character charts. These should include: how they change by the end and general info as well as the character arch. Character arch should have: initial condition (state of the character at the begining), inciting incident (what moves the characters life in a different direction), escalation (the long series of events leading up to the end), momnt of truth (when they are forced to make a decision that will change them) and final state (character at the end of the story).
My final advice for character is this: make them feel strongly about something. A character that is passive usually can't keep up interested through an entire book let alone series, yet we see these kinds of characters so much in books today. Give your character strong opinions, they don't have to have a strong opinion about every little thing (though I do love those kind of characters) just make them care about something.
Happy writing.

The Happily Ever After

The poll closed a few days ago. With an impressive fourteen votes, woo! Thanks to everyone who voted, your opinions are appreciated. The results actually surprised me. Of course I expected the majority to prefer happy endings. Who doesn't like it when the guy gets the girl, the day is saved and a corner of your heart is warmed by the end of a story? (UNLESS the story is SO bad that it makes you cheer for the villan and secretly hope the story's hero/heroine falls into a well. A deep well. But that is a post for another day.) The options were:
1. I like happy endings. (5 votes)
2. I think sad endings are more realistic. (0 votes)
3. I like bittersweet endings. (7 votes)
4. I like abrupt endings that leave you hanging. (2 votes)
Happy endings did pool alot of the votes, which was  expected. What surprised me was how many people like bittersweet endings. I've been a fan of them, selectively and for the right books. I like bittersweet endings for the end of dystopian/depressing-type stories when if the author made a happy ending that would have been impossible under the conditions in the book (ie. Hunger Games and Mockingjay).
I am very glad there were no votes for the second option, after all, if we wanted realistic we would just have to look up from our book. As for the last, I only like these endings when they are the first or second books in series. If it is a stand-alone and it leaves the ending hanging, implying a follow-up book and there isn't one ... Well, grrr.

Character Sketches 2.0

Fresh out of the oven and ready (figuratively speaking ... that would be gross). These are for,
Stephanotis

Nata

oceaneyes

Katy Nbg Weniger

jadepuppy13

And a cover I made for myself. In COLOR! This is just an example but if anyone would like a cover made shoot me a message.

Character Sketches

On Inkpop, a writing site I frequent, I recently provided a new service, character sketches for those who need help visualizing characters. The original thread here,    http://www.inkpop.com/forums/threads/52144/character-sketches/
Examples of sketches I have made for my own characters can be found on the right. Here are the promised sketches for Jacklynn Kelsey, the MinnowWatcher and Onions.

Jacklynn Kelsey:

theMinnowWatcher:

Onions:

Annnnnd ....

Princessgonchar:

This service is still available for anyone willing to supply a character.
Please check out my poll below and to the right.

Character Building

I have alot of strategies for building original characters for your YA novel. They seem to be working for me so far, so I'm sharing.
1. Character Profiles are always a good idea. You can find them online, print them out fill them out. These will help you keep basic character info together.
2. 100 Things. Make a list of 100 things about you character (ie. Alice hates pie. Alice is good at math.) Will you mention in your book that Alice hates pie or that Bobby never says indeed? Probably not but this can help you get inside your characters head.
3. Character Interviews. These are fun. Ask yourself a series of questions which you will answer as you character. Warning: this WILL make you feel a bit like a schizophrenic person but it is also a fun way to get to know your characters.
4. Character Sketches. This is for people who have trouble visualizing thier characters. I supply this service both for myself and those on Inkpop and for those who can supply a basic character appearance. Also you can go on sims or make an avatar online to get a basic idea of how they look.

Like this fellow. Serious, yes?

Snowpocalypse

I am trapped in the middle of it. What does that mean? White sky and more white fluff falling over six inches of ice. All we have to worry about is falling into the ice or getting kiddnapped by Yetis. Which leaves me to goof off, that includes Psych, Inkpop and starting a blog.