Characters with Nancy

Workshop from 6/8/10

“Our scriptures have an aversion to abstractions of any kind and prefer to use stories and metaphors to keep us involved and participating in what is right before us.” – Eugene Peterson

Harry Bosch crime novels (recommendation from Nancy)

Truths must be felt in some way! Characters must experience the truths and feel them. Don’t make things melodramatic with pure sentiment.

For the reader to be able to feel what the character feels, they have to relate to and understand the character. AND the author has to as well.

HERE’S ONE APPROACH TO CHARACTER PLANNING

Protagonist: the best vehicle for answering your theme question

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Unique physical characteristics:
Personality traits that make him/her the best vehicle:
Background – what’s made your character the way he/she is?
Most important relationships:
His/her goal in the story/what drives him/her:
His/her hidden need in the story:

Antagonist: the best vehicle for getting in the protagonist’s way
(same breakdown)

Protagonist’s Allies: who will provide him with support?
(same breakdown)

Antagonist’s Allies: who will help her get in the way?
(same breakdown)

You can have a journal for each protagonist where you can write to them and they can write to you. (This may seem extremely weird at first, but just try it!)

Rules for characters:
1. You have to make them suffer.
2. You have to allow their attempts to reach their goal to fail, at least sometime.
3. You have to get them to a place of no return. (Bleakest moment)
4. Have your protagonist question the assumptions they had at the beginning of the story.
5. You have to give them qualities that sometimes serve them well and sometimes don’t. They can’t be perfect. You don’t have to have your antagonist turn out perfect
6. You have to provide them with tension on every page. TENSION.

Donald Moss literary agent in New York – Writing Your Breakout Novel (get the workbook!!)

No back story in the first thirty pages! Trust the reader to move along.