BookingIt

How do you view people? I didn't have much interest in people as a kid. Once I discovered books (kindergarten, guys), the life within them seemed more real than the bustle around me. I cared for and liked people but I didn't really see them as interesting. Until I landed a job at my local newspaper. As a freelancer, my editor expected a story on a person every two weeks to grace our Neighbors section, and it needed to be interesting. The story was supposed to focus on a local resident's unique skill or talent.  I was blind, not understanding, wondering how I could find these "special" people. My editor forever changed my perspective. He told me every person has something unique, something special about themselves, even if they don't know it. It was my job to find that slant and spotlight it.  Now everyone I meet I'm full of curiosity about. Who are they? What's their story? Where have they been and where are they going? If you were a story, what g...

Wow! This was so long ago that I don't even remember watching this movie with the kiddos. I love rereading this, not just for the characterization perspective, but for the memories. *happy smile* In 2011, I watched Tangled with my kids. As the movie started, my six year old son couldn't help but give me a running dialogue about everything (he's seen it before). The movie introduced the hero, who happened to be stealing.  I asked my son, is the thief the guy Rapunzel falls in love with?  He turned to me, eyes round. "He's not a thief, mom."  "But he's stealing," I pointed out.  "No, no, no, he's not stealing. There are bad guys with him, but he's not stealing at all." My son shook his head and absolutely refused to believe that the good guy was doing a bad thing. I smiled and dropped the subject.  Let him root for the bad guy. I knew that by the end of the story, the thief would be the prince.  Have you ever rooted for someone...

There are a lot of reasons why I love the movie Napoleon Dynamite. Yes, still, even as a forty year old woman.  Those who hate the movie might find this hard to believe, but Napoleon Dynamite is, at heart, about the deep value of relationships and how they  change us. The movie uses Understatement in a major way, which I think makes it slow-paced and boring at the beginning. If you don't finish the movie, it will be hard to like it, imo. At the beginning of the movie, it's as though the major characters are muffled. Their emotions, their expressions, even the tones of their voices contain little emotion. This is where Irony comes into play. Secondary characters at first appear more alive than main ones. But as the story unfolds, as conflicts are introduced and relationships forged, the primary characters become the ones I root for. And by the end of the movie, a very interesting thing happens. The discovered relationship and connection between the main characters has...

Good morning, Cyberworld! I'll be reposting some of my old material. Here you go. Updated repost #1. For the month of February, but starting in January (muahahaha), I'll be reposting my thoughts on characterization. Sometimes when I read a series of books where they are all tied into the same family or place, I notice that a main character from a previous book doesn't seem as real when put in a secondary role. It's always disappointing to me that someone I loved becomes such a shadow, as though a secondary character can't be as strong as the current main character. It's not consistent. I read Julie Lessman's A Passion Denied . This is the third book in her Daughters of Boston series and the heroine is the third sister in the family. There's a scene where all three sisters from the book are together in the kitchen and it made me laugh several times. Lessman did something I don't usually see. She managed to keep each character strong an...

The irony of characters, in my opinion, is that in order to make them real, we have to make them unreal. What I mean is, no real person can be put in a box and labeled. But to write a character that stands out, we must give that character overarching qualities (labels, even) in order to make that character real and memorable. When I was in middle school I went on a retreat and we did an intriguing exercise. On the outside of a paper bag we wrote words that described how others thought of us (or how we feel we appear to others). On the inside of the bag we wrote words to describe how we felt on the inside. I think this is a great exercise to do with our characters. For example, I'm reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo right now. One main character, Blomkvist, doesn't stand out to me at all. He's okay but he doesn't capture my interest. The other character, though, is Lisbeth Sanders. She's intriguing. This is how I think the author made her intriguing. O...

A cool thing about Love Inspired is that authors are asked to give input into the covers of their books. The uncool thing is that I'm so NOT visual. Some writers have pictures of their scenes and characters taped to the walls. I don't. I have a vague idea, so when I was asked to supply pictures for cover ideas, I was befuddled. Thank goodness I have a friend who is the Queen of Visuality (you know who you are!). She supplied me with links to helpful websites where I could brainstorm who exactly my characters look like. Are you visual? Do you already have cover ideas? If you were a character, how would you be physically described?

I love quirky characters, but they're hard to write. Quirky can quickly turn into annoying. I've always loved Amanda Quick's heroines because they leap off the page. An awesomely quirky character is someone you remember years later. You think about the character and smile. My absolutely favorite quirky character is Kate (played by Meg Ryan) in the movie French Kiss. Do you like quirky characters? Do you write them? If someone wrote your autobiography, would you be awesomely quirky?

Many writers listen to music while writing. Although I never have, some songs do remind me of my stories and characters. This one, in particular, always made me think of one of my heroines. Do you have a certain song that characterizes your WIP? Which artists do you find the most inspiring? My dear friend Anita has a wonderful, heartwarming story up at Pix 'N Pens. If you have time, a comment on her story counts as a vote to be entered to win a box of books. ( sorry, had the details wrong when I first posted )

I strongly believe in sowing and reaping. Some people might believe in karma, some in 'what goes around, comes around.' The basic principle here is that everything has consequences. I just loved a recent episode of House because it was about sowing and reaping. Balance, even. The dad sacrificed everything to save his son, and being the wonderful show it is, the son lived. Not only that, but the minor characters have made some choices that are now beginning to bear fruit (and add conflict). Consequences. Are you making sure your characters are suffering from their bad choices? Being rewarded for their good ones? It's the little choices at the beginning of the story that should affect the rest of the book. I think these seemingly inconsequential choices should weave together and create the plot. What do you think about sowing and reaping? Is your MC making good choices or bad ones, and how does that affect your character's moral arc?

When it comes to writing an interesting character, I think the best ones are those who go verbal places we're afraid to. Sometimes they use subtext, sometimes speak the truth, straight-up. Or maybe your characters break some rules you would never dare to even imagine breaking? Maybe they expose themselves, make themselves vulnerable to other characters? Or do they demand things we've learned to only wish for? What's the wildest thing one of your characters has done? Would you do it?

I watched two movies recently. One featured an ambitious, cutthroat business woman. The other, a happy-go-lucky kind of liar. Both of these characters had flaws that propelled the story. I liked heroine A, but not heroine B. Why was heroine A more likable than heroine B? With heroine A, the watcher is shown almost right away a brief glimpse beneath her hardened shell. Brief, but it makes all the difference. Heroine B is presented as a "nice" person, but I don't think that made her likable. I think for her to have been more likable the watcher needed to see something early on that showed heroine B actually cared for people around her and just didn't use them for her own purposes all the time. My conclusion? A likable character may have horrible flaws, but they must also present some form of virtue, and right away, so that we, the reader, can see that this character has potential. And that they're worth rooting for. Do you have a formula for making likable character...

Ever heard of this? It's basically when everything you think you know, changes. The transformation is usually brought about by specific agents of change (got that term from the article it's linked to; worth reading). A friend recently told me she didn't think I was an introvert. That was my agent of change. Me? Not an introvert? I've lived with this image of myself from high school and until my friend said something, I didn't realize how I've changed. I'm still quiet. I'm still somewhat a loner who gets exhausted after any social event. But I also like to get out and laugh loud. Her comment completely transformed the way I view myself. It surprised me. In writing, our main characters need to have a paradigm shift. Either at the beginning of the story, in which the character's new view leads to the story taking its path, or at the end, in which the character's shift resolves the story. Where else do you think paradigm shifts happen in a book? Do y...

This is just a tiny, mini-rant (no rage involved), and it's regarding Christian Fiction. All of the men seem a little too....nice. I know, I know, Beta males are the helpful guys, right? But shouldn't they still have some sort of Man quality. You know, the thing that makes a woman shake her head, snort (you know you do it) and think, "That's just like a man." Remember those old romances, where the man was almost to the point of jerkiness and the woman was either a fiery wildcat or a gentle waif? Things seem to have switched now, to where the woman is self-involved and controlling, while the man is a cowering, apologetic...thing. I'm perplexed. Does anyone else think Christian romance heroes are becoming more effeminate, or is it just me? And maybe my perception is skewed? Maybe manliness is not measured by abruptness, rudeness, lack of listening, bossiness, flatulence, possessive streak? Clue me in, ladies and gentlemen, because I'm missing the "jerks...

Last time I'm going to rant about House, I promise. :-) From the very beginning, I have wanted House and Cameron to hook up. I know the age difference is weird, but I always felt they had a special understanding, a trust, and an onscreen chemistry that would enable them to have their Happily Ever After. Chase didn't fit. Not the weak, ambitious Chase of the first three seasons. And now Chase and Cameron are getting married? I've watched the first three seasons more than once. I don't believe for a moment that these two will work. Even though they have friendship and attraction, they don't seem to fit to me. Who are your favorite couples in a book? What is it about their relationship that allows you to believe in their HEA? *Feel free to disagree with me about Cameron and House. LOL*

I think we all agreed a few posts back that while a heroine must be strong, she must also have weaknesses and vulnerabilities that we can relate to. But what about when those frailties make her the antagonist in an earlier story? How do we go about redeeming this bad girl? Perhaps by giving her strengths that overshadow her weakness? Or maybe her flaws lead her down a path of hurt and she comes out wiser for it. In my WIP, the heroine has been a minor antagonist in the stories that came before. I'm trying to redeem her, trying to keep her likeable by showing her soft side and giving her certain heroic qualities. Julie Lessman did a wonderful post awhile back about redeeming her heroine. Have you written an unlikeable woman that you'd like to morph into a sympathetic character? How do you do this? How do you change her? Or do you only change the reader's perception of her?