Archive - August 21, 2015

The #7 Key Step: Find a batch of 4 x 6 index cards and write each one of your characters at the top of the card. Next, think about the role each character plays in your story, and what kind of person each is: age, education, place of birth, appearance, mannerisms, personality. Some characters will be major ones during the action of the story; others will play only bit parts. Regardless, the details of their personalities and lives are critical to adding interest to your story. You must remember, however, that every character must have a reason for being. If they do not, they will slow the book down and worst of all, bore the reader. Using this same index-card technique, Alfred Hitchcock would write down information about each scene of his film, one scene to a card. By the time he was ready to shoot, he had a completely . . .

The # 6 Key Step: Playing God. If you want to write a novel, you must act like God. You begin to play God by creating a main character. You need a strong protagonist, someone who draws the reader into the story. This is the person with whom your reader will identify. You want your reader to care about your protagonists. You may have a main character who is a villain, but he or she is not the protagonist of your story. The protagonist is the hero or heroine carries the narrative to the climax of the novel. You have to decide. To help you decide, always ask yourself these critical questions: Which option would be most interesting to the reader? Will the reader care? These questions are the real litmus test of character development and plotting. To be successful, you need to make hard choices. You need to be . . .