Friday, January 09, 2009

Friday Five- How To Bring a Character to Life


Plot, premise, and setting are all needed for a well-rounded, fulfilling romance, but the story will fall flat if your characters don't come to life on the page. Here are the five rules I follow to make my characters come to life.

1. Give each character gestures and traits limited to that particular character.
2. Give each character their own style of dialog.
3. Use words/wording unique to each character. Not only in their dialogue but in their internal thoughts.
4. Use each character to “show” the other characters- this not only brings the POV character to life, but the other characters as well.
5. “You shackle him(reader) to the character with chains of envy. You make the character someone who does what the reader would like to do, yet can’t.” quote by Dwight V. Swain in "The techniques of a Selling Writer"

2 comments:

Helen Hardt said...

Great advice! The fifth one is new to me. Interesting! I'll have to give it some thought.

H.

Paty Jager said...

Yeah, I'm always at loss for the fifth one since I'm envious of all my characters because they do things I would never do! LOL So I guess that means I follow the rule????????