Relating with Your Character

I was working at editing one of my novels over the last few months. I was frustrated and beginning to hate writing. It turns out I hated editing. Anyway, I decided I needed a break from the gruelling process of editing. So I jumped back into writing. I am now in the process of writing a novel I had been thinking about last year.

I could never find a direct plot, so it didn't get written. Finally, I found a plot. I simply loved the characters. Each one has a personal back story and struggle.
I find that when I give a character one of my personal struggles, it helps me understand them. I can flesh the character out better, relating with them, as well as understanding their pain.

This can help make the characters feel so much more real. In one of my past novels I gave a character the fear of heights. Which is one of my greatest fears, so writing scenes involving heights was not a difficult task. I knew that feeling you get in your stomach, the way your head will spin, the struggle to breath as you stare down at a plummeting cliff.

It's all about understanding them. I have yet to create a character with a fear of spiders. I personally have no problem with them, and end up dealing with them when they pop up in our home. While I know others who get the same fear symptoms over the sight of a spider. I simply can not relate, so when it comes to writing it, I have to write it off of what others have told me.

While I can't relate with every asset I must include in my characters life, I like to at least have one thing I can relate with. I don't want my character to feel like all second hand information. If I struggle with feeling lonely, I want a character to have that asset, allowing me to share in the characters pain. Make it personal. Understand your character. Flesh them out through you personally.

-Melody

Do you incorporate a part of you into any of your characters?

Fiction Friday, Character Interview with Nelson

A new story has finally been flowing through my head. As always, it start with just a few characters. A year ago, I debated whether I was character or plot driven. Since then I have written seven books, I am pretty sure I am character driven. So, for this Fiction Friday, I thought I would share some character interviews I have been concocting with these new friends of mine. Nearly all of my characters start this way. I just sit and let them talk. Some times I find out the weirdest things about them, some times a whole new plot twist forms. Hope you enjoy!

This character is my main character for the story. Nelson Parker. He is sixteen years old, INFP, grew up in a Christian home, well, before I explain more I will let him share himself: 

My sister Hannah's rendition of Nelson

Nelson Parker, here. I am here to confess, I am a little odd. The rustic sound of raw cords being tuned, the scratchy feeling of beat up polish rubbing against your arm, the rough edges of thick strings against your blistered fingers. I know all the feelings well, the true sign of a dorky guitar player. Yes, that is who I am. I play guitar. Nothing that special. But I am going to be special, but not he type of special you are thinking. The type of special that you call the weird kid, the dorky one with taped glasses and braces they have worn since it has felt at birth. Yeah, hate to break it to you, but I am that kid. Yeah, braces, seriously painful and ugly. Not to mention they have limited my chance of playing a woodwind instrument. Few people really know the amount you suffer with these blasted thing stuck to your teeth. I can barely sing, making my guitar my only voice for music. I love music with such a passion, that it kills me that I can not fully express how I feel with it. Some day people will look at me and hear me out. One day my appearance will not have anything to do with who I really am and how people treat me. 

Getting the feel for who he is? It is fun being able to relate with his braces struggle. I had one set of braces at nine, then I got them off at eleven, then I got my second phase of them at thirteen, finally getting them off at fifteen. To top it off, I had mouth surgery for them as well. Not a fun experience. But definitely writing material! ;-)

Anyhow, what do you think of Nelson? Fun guy, right? Kinda weird, but relatable even in his weirdness. Do you have any weird or just awkward characters in your novels? What type of best friend do you think someone like Nelson would have?

-Melody

Killing Your Beloved Characters

Killing characters. Some people treat is as a hobby. I find it as the hardest thing I have ever had to do in a first draft. I end up putting myself in torment for days trying to decide if they should die. When I have made the decision that they should die, I drag it out for days because I can't bring myself to officially ending their lives in the fictional world. My family goes crazy when I am in the process of killing one.
Every morning they are like, "Did you do it yet?"
I just sit there with my head in my hands groaning, "No."

I finished my first draft for my sequel to the Realm of Graphice on Monday. <cheers> I was so happy to have finished it, but the joy and excitement of finishing was stifled by the death of a beloved character. Yes, I had to kill someone. This was no little death. I had to kill the main character. I tried everything so that I wouldn't have to. There was no getting around it, he had to die. The plot called for it. The theme called for it. The other characters called for it. So, since I went through such torture having to kill him, I thought I should write a post on killing your dear to heart characters.

Reasons to Kill a Character
Before we go into the actual process, you need to make sure you should even do it. The last thing you want to do is force it and the reader be angry. So, lets go over reasons why you should kill your beloved character.

-Advances plot.
-Motivates fellow characters.
-Shows theme.

Some reasons not to kill over:

-Making your reader sad or angry just because.
-Removing unneeded characters.

Alright, now that you have your reasons for your action, lets move into how you shall do the deed.

Killing that Character

-Foreshadow: If you don't add this in somewhere, the death may seem unnatural and take the reader out of the book for a moment. You never want the reader to be so surprised that it pulls them out of the fictional world of the novel.

-New character to take his/her place: You need someone to pick up where the character left off. If you have to kill the main character, don't leave your readers hanging with no main character to pick up the pieces of the story.

-Let them care: Make your reader really care for and love this character. Create some emotional attachment to them before they disappear. If your other characters are mourning, the reader should be as well.

-Make it worth it: Don't let them die in vain. Let there be a good powerful reason this character died. Sacrificing themselves for another, giving their life for their country, or dying for a cause.


Killing my character was no easy task. I was pretty hurt and upset over the fact. I wrote two books with him and it hurt to be done with him. I would really miss writing with him.




Are you planning the death of a character? If so, is it a main or side character? Have you killed a character in the past? Hope the post was helpful. Don't forget to join us on Friday for Fiction Friday!

-Melody

photo credit: peteSwede via photopin cc

Creating Living Characters

Character creation has been a big favorite of mine when it comes to novel writing. I am making these brand new unique people just waiting for their stories to be told. And boy do they all have stories! What I have learned the most this time is how to create characters that actually feel real. After reading this post from Go Teen Writers, I was really excited. Getting rid of list? No more of those wonderful things that seemed so orderly? I thought I would give it a try, and boy was I surprised.

I began with a regular old interview, I just let my character talk. I closed the laptop, lit a candle and cuddled into a cozy chair to listen to this girl's tale with a notepad and pen. Ellie Fletcher. A harsh broken fourteen year old girl with a lot to say. It was so neat to hear her stories, how her dad left when she was seven, how she never had any real friends, how she had always felt over weight. New things just flow from these characters as you go, things you had no idea they had experienced.  

She truly seemed to come alive, it was amazing.

Ellie Fletcher

Don't get me wrong, lists are great. In fact it is a wonderful idea to use them! But it is also great to try out just listening to these characters, putting away the grid, just letting them speak for themselves. 

Well, that's what I have learned from writing this past week.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out Go Teen Writers, it is a wonderful resource!

~Melody