Hi Everyone
How y'all doing? I know, I know, it´s Monday. But don´t weep, the weekend will return!
The Olympics is over and done with, Britain did well and have secured 125 mil annually to whoop ass in Brazil. Team GB did us proud! Well done, guys! On top of some World Record busting races, have to admit I´ve enjoyed it, but not as much as I did the Beijing Games. Gawd knows why! Maybe because in 2008, nobody expected anything from Team GB and the surprise hooked us all in. :D Now, we were waiting and getting frustrated when the golds weren´t coming! Lol. That isn´t taking anything from the team though! Well done! No.3 on the chart!! Who would have believed it? OMG! :)
So, enough twittering on about the Olympics, this week, we´re dealing with the good, the bad and the ugly of a book. The Characters. Primarily, the evil kinds to go with my Song Of the Day theme, but to write the bad, you have to have the good too!
How to create a character?
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Who is the main character?
- Is it a he or a she?
- Are they a protagonist or an antagonist?
- What drives them? What is their goal?
- What kind of personality do they have?
- What do they look like?
Okay, these basic questions give you a very facile foundation of your character and each one depends upon your own specific plot drive. So, I´ll give you an example using Aurora from my own WIP, Breaking Aurora.
- Aurora
- She,
- Protagonist,
- She longs for her husband´s love,
- Naive, loving, warm, passionate but is surprisingly resilient and hard-headed,
- Strawberry blond hair, curvy body, pretty face- considered to be a beauty.
See, nice and basic answers. Here is your starting block.
Now, add to questions 4, 5, and 6.
What drives them and what is their goal: these are actually the whole plot of your story. So, I can´t really say much here to help. You entire story arcs around the central protagonist. Your character has to be strong enough to be such a key figure.
Their personality can make your reader love or loathe them. Naturally, we want our central characters to be liked! Think about what makes them tick. Consider personality traits. Are they arrogant? Ignorant? Vain? Stubborn? Helpful? Passionate? Caring? etc. Also, draw up a list of your characters likes or dislikes. Try to be more in depth than likes vanilla ice cream and hates chocolate chip cookies. Come on, guys! We want depth. Aurora likes to be embraced, needs affection. Hates injustice. These sound a tad facile written here, but in my WIP, Aurora needs affection due to an unloving father, who deteriorated after her mother´s death and with only the staff to care for her, felt the lack of being loved. She hates injustice to the extent she´s managed to completely annihilate her husband´s love for her.
Your character´s appearance is important and I´ve covered this in an earlier post, find it
here,
here,
here and
here! :) But, it´s more important that you know what he or she looks like and that you insert slithers about their appearance here and there. Appearance is only a -guess what?- facade. It doesn´t drive your character´s motivation. Unless, they´re supremely vain and if that´s the case, then it belongs in question 4- personality traits. :)
So, there you go. Hope that helps! Later on in the week, we´ll create a bad character together! Meanwhile, enjoy my songs of the day. Today´s is a fave of mine. Love it! Don´t let the German put you off, you don´t need to understand it to love it. The video is fabulous too! Pretty fitting for today´s post! :D
Rammstein - Die Sonne
Take care,
Love
Serena
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