Gutsiness—or courage, or moxie—is an important aspect of a strength-of-will character. Katniss Everdeen demonstrates this trait throughout the Hunger Games trilogy. With sudden anger, she shoots an arrow right through the apple, pinning it to the wall. The Gamemakers shout and stumble back and then look at Katniss. Finally, many of the characters in great literature fight for a just cause.
The readers relate because they cheer, endorse, and root for the character. Atticus Finch is a prime example. He is asked by a local judge to take on a case that everyone knows he cannot win. In the Deep South of the s, an all-white jury is not going to acquit a black man accused of raping a white girl.
Atticus knows this, but also knows that his commitment to law and justice demands that he take the case. You can even have both the lead and the opposition have just causes. Crafting Villains and Secondary Characters Remember, the opposition character does not have to be a bad guy, just somebody with an agenda opposed to the lead, as in the case of Deputy US Marshall Sam Gerard in The Fugitive.
But if you do have a villain, you have the opportunity to create great crosscurrents of emotion in the reader, and when you do that, you elevate the pleasure of the reading experience, because successful fiction is that which creates emotional response. This does not mean that you, the author, approve of what the villain does.
It does mean that you take pains to show the reader the complexity in good versus evil. How much time you take in this regard is up to you. Exercise Most villains believe that they are somehow justified in what they do. They actually believe they can convince the jury to acquit them. Secondary characters are the smaller parts and the bit players that many writers squander by making them unremarkable.
A whole host of occupations—bartenders, cab drivers, waitresses, cops, doormen, maids—spring up in fiction, and writers tend to focus on the standard models. While readers may not make a big deal out of this, their reading experience will be diminished unless writers add some spice.
Most novelists invent secondary characters as the need for them arises in the writing of the story. A scene involving the lead character, for example, will be imagined and then peopled with characters that must be present to make the scene work.
Go wild with your minor characters. Make them as colorful and quirky and different and funny or as menacing as you want. You can always scale them back later. Note that when you invest time with a colorful minor character, the reader will be attracted to him or her and will expect that character to get more attention or have more than just a walk-on role.
The master of this kind of characterization was Charles Dickens; David Copperfield can be read as a series of encounters with colorful characters. Minor characters can also provide a very important function when it comes time to rework your first draft. Inevitably, you will find plot problems that need fixing.
Your minor characters can do the fixing. Some common problems are characters in the book who are unaccounted for at the end, or a climactic scene seems to happen too fast or lacks good motivation. Maybe some areas in the middle of the book read a bit thin. In her book Dynamic Characters, Nancy Kress counsels that for these problems, you work backward through your secondary characters.
At the end of the book, the detective or sleuth reveals the answers, except for something that happened to a character earlier in the book. What do you do? You can have a minor character make an appearance and deliver the information. Or you could just create a new minor character in the climactic scene and then go back in the plot and plant that character in a scene or two just so that he or she can come in and clean up the plot thread at the end. Creating a Series Character A series character is one you will want to write about in book after book.
Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the most famous example of the hit series character. At one point, Doyle killed off his detective, but the public demanded he be brought back. His resurrection was by way of the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. When it was first published in The Strand Magazine , the circulation of that periodical increased by about 30, In other words, Doyle, though feeling a bit trapped, took that feeling all the way to the bank.
There are five qualities that make a great series character. If you can pack these in at the start, your task in creating a hit series is half done.
The first quality is a point of uniqueness—a quirk or style that sets a character apart from everybody else. Two of the most enduring series characters in all of literature were created by the incomparable Agatha Christie.
When Christie began writing her mysteries, the genre was dominated by male detectives, such as Perry Mason, Sam Spade, Nick Charles, and the soon-to-come Philip Marlowe. Christie very cleverly created two characters who are precisely the opposite of these paradigmatic figures: Hercule Poirot, who is unlike the hard-boiled detectives in virtually every aspect, and Miss Jane Marple, a little old lady who lives in a small village.
The series character needs to have a skill at which he or she is very, very good. Katniss Everdeen is killer with the bow and arrow. The series hero ought to be a bit of a rebel.
Give the series character a vulnerable spot or character flaw. Sherlock Holmes has a drug habit. A character flaw humanizes the series hero so that he or she is not just a cartoon. The memorable series character has a likable quality. Philip Marlowe has some of the greatest quips in the history of crime fiction.
We like them because Marlowe is also vulnerable—to getting beat up, drugged, or otherwise manhandled by forces larger than himself. Wit is one of the great likability factors; another is caring for others besides oneself. Suggested Reading Kress, Dynamic Characters.
Peck, Fiction Is Folks. Exercise Brainstorm answers to the following questions: What is one thing your lead can do that is unpredictable? What is he or she most passionate about?
What wound from the past haunts his or her present? What cause is he or she willing to die for? T here are two basic ways to bring your characters to life: the dossier method and the discovery method. With a dossier, the writer wants to construct a thorough background of the character before the actual writing begins.
To do this, you can create a list of questions for your characters or adapt ones you find online. Alternatively, some writers like to create a background for the character in the form of a story or a first-person account. You can create a biography for all of your main characters. The goal is to come up with something subjective; you want to feel as if you know that person. The discovery method starts with a minimum of information about a character—just enough to catch a feeling and get to the writing.
Just like with the plotter and pantser model, try a bit of the dossier method and a bit of the discovery method and see what feels right. You can be flexible. Maybe you start out with discovery, and after a few chapters, you do extensive background before moving on. This is fine. Do it—just like you would change the course of an outlined plot if some unanticipated twist occurred to you in the writing.
What You Need to Know about Your Characters There are some things you need to know before you start writing about your major characters. First, what do they look like? You need to know their age, physique, and hair and eye color. Go online and search Google Images until you find a headshot that feels like the character.
For example, you might search for MMA fighter. This brings up pages of faces. Save that image and put it on a digital corkboard in the writing program Scrivener, discussed in lecture 3. In addition to the visual side, you need to hear the character in his or her own voice.
You might want to make a voice journal for each character. This is a free-form document where you just let the character talk to you. You want the character to begin talking to you in a voice that is not yours. Keep up this free- form writing until that voice emerges. Lecture 10 Bringing Characters to Life Next, construct a timeline for your characters.
Then, brainstorm what happened in some key years. For example, you might include the year the character turned 16, the hot spot of adolescence. Take the year the character turned 16 and do some research on what was happening in the culture. What music, TV shows, and movies were popular?
If they were 10 years old in , what TV shows might they have loved? The two characters can talk about real cultural references, which adds authenticity to their background. Continue to put down key years as they occur to you, such as the year the character first fell in love or got his or her first job. Another key year might be a year when the character went through some emotional trauma. This can be the wound discussed in the previous lecture.
What the character does for a living or part-time work is a valuable source of originality and what if? How do you find those things?
One way is to interview people in that line of work. If you can find such a person near you, buy that person lunch and put his or her name in the acknowledgements. Most people like to talk about what they do. You can interview people on the phone or by email. Encouraging Diversity in Your Characters When you assemble your cast of characters, you want to orchestrate. The pleasing effect comes from the arrangement of different instruments.
As you begin assembling your cast, look for differences. These will be the things that create conflict, which is the lifeblood of your novel. When you orchestrate your cast, you automatically create areas for tension, mystery, and suspense. In every square where one character intersects with another, write down a possible conflict or relationship. This is just another way to brainstorm possibilities for your plot arising out of character conflict. Add Spice with Secondary Characters Secondary characters can add so much color and spice to your novel that you ought to take just as much care with their creation as you take with any other aspect of your story.
You can have secondary characters who recur throughout the novel, as either allies or irritants. An example of an ally is Han Solo in Star Wars. He is there to help Luke Skywalker. In the Star Wars trilogy, Jabba the Hut is a major irritant. But then you also have small roles, called cogs and wheels. These are characters who are required in order to move the story along. They can be simple or complex, depending on the need. All of your characters exist on a sort of story continuum, with stark simplicity on one side and a fair amount of complexity on the other.
Where they fall depends on what they do in your story. No matter who your minor characters are, though, you can add pleasure and spice to your stories by making sure each one is individualized. And you do that by giving them character tags. A tag is something the character does or says that distinguishes the character from the rest of the cast. Tags include patterns of speech, dress, physical appearance, mannerisms, tics, eccentricities, and so forth. These set characters apart. And because there is an almost infinite variety of tags, you can make each of your characters a unique individual.
Another use of a secondary Alfred Hitchcock, the master of character is apt for thrillers: comedy relief. The use of this suspense, has comic relief in almost device is powerful. But comic relief goes to give a moment of rest in the back at least as far as Shakespeare. It actually Hamlet? The former is a fussy valet; the latter is his squealing sidekick. They break the tension of the story and make it richer. Naming Your Characters Names are important, especially for your lead character.
This is the character the readers are going to spend most of their time with, and it matters because a name can create a visual impression all by itself. Genre also matters. Characters in fantasy novels will have different The original name Margaret names than those in a romance Mitchell had for her heroine was or a thriller. A novel about cop named Bilbo Baggins looking a gutsy Southern Belle named over witnesses. A simple spreadsheet can be used for this purpose, recording first names and last names.
This is to keep the reader from mixing up your characters. One method some authors use is to come up with an unusual first name and a rather plain last name, or vice versa. Alternatively, you can go looking for character names—for example, by going to baby name sites on the internet, which give not only the name but the meaning and background. Describing Your Characters When it comes to main characters, there are two schools of thought For a long time, the first name with regard to describing them.
One is that you provide the Jack was popular for thrillers: reader with a full description of Jack Reacher, Jack Ryan, the main character. This comes Jack Bauer. There is something directly from the author and is not as favored these days. Today, in the hard K that sounds like readers want to be inside the lead a punch in the face. Let your readers create the picture. They will. We form an image based on what the character is doing and saying.
Another way to slip in some descriptive information is through dialogue, instead of narrating. When coming to these types of descriptions, first ask yourself how you want the reader to feel about the character—suspicious, disgusted, attracted, enthralled, etc. Then, create physical features that are consistent with the feeling you want. Play around with your descriptions. Have fun. Character creation is one of the great joys of fiction writing.
Your characters begin to come alive. Swain, Creating Characters. Exercise Create a timeline for your lead character. Start with the year of birth. Then, select the following key years and write a few paragraphs about what happened: when the character first went to school, when he or she was sixteen, his or her first job, his or her first love, and a major tragedy.
T hink of point of view as being about intimacy with a character. It helps the readers bond with the character and keeps that bond as strong as possible. There is a range of intimacy in point of view, which comes in three basic forms: first person, third person, and omniscient. First person is where the narration comes directly from the lead and the reader gets the closest-possible connection to the thoughts, feelings, and observations of the protagonist.
Third-person point of view comes in two forms: limited and open. Limited means you stick with one point of view throughout the book; open means you can switch point of view to another character in another scene.
Omniscient Point of View Think of the omniscient narrator as godlike—all knowing, all seeing. You, as the writer, have the freedom to go anywhere you choose—inside any character or outside to describe the big canvas of the story world. You also have a choice as to how much of your own voice you want to inject. Reader, I think it proper, before we proceed any farther together, to acquaint thee that I intend to digress, through this whole history, as often as I see occasion, of which I am myself a better judge than any pitiful critic whatever.
This type of omniscience can be labeled as intrusive. The author is not hesitant at all to put himself right into the narrative so that the reader notices him. As time went on, authors began to stop directly addressing the reader while still retaining the option to comment on events. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness ….
The power of point of view is one that many beginning writers, and even some experienced ones, find difficult to get a handle on. When we get to the 20th century, the authorial voice was pulled back even more. When omniscience was used, it was usually done to deliver story information only. In this excerpt from The Godfather by Mario Puzo, notice that it is the author who is giving us the information:. Don Vito Corleone was a man to whom everybody came for help, and never were they disappointed.
He made no empty promises, nor the craven excuse that his hands were tied by more powerful forces in the world than himself. It was not necessary that he be your friend, it was not even important that you had no means with which to repay him. Only one thing was required. That you, you yourself, proclaim your friendship. Today, the omniscient point of view is usually reserved for historical epics, large-scale fantasy, and science fiction, where world-building is essential.
First-Person Point of View At the other end of the spectrum is first-person point of view, which is marked by the personal pronoun I, who is the narrator. The only material we get in the story is what this narrator has experienced him- or herself. Lecture 11 Point of View Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.
Notice how Ishmael, the narrator, is speaking directly to us, and with attitude. Find attitude in your first-person narrators. This is where the voice journal, covered in the previous lecture, will prove of great value to you. Usually, the first-person novel has one narrator throughout. It is possible to write a novel using two or more first-person voices.
Novels like this usually give the character name as the chapter title. The key is to make sure each of these voices is unique, not sounding like the others. This is not easy to do. You have to create a whole life for each of these narrators and keep them consistent.
Instead of the narrator being the central character, he or she can operate as the observer of the events. This is the strategy used by F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby. The narrator is Nick Carraway, who describes the action and, especially, his interaction with the mysterious Jay Gatsby.
Similarly, the Sherlock Holmes stories are narrated by Dr. This makes us one step removed from the direct experience and feelings of the lead. Because of that once-removed feeling, this form of first person is best left to literary or mystery fiction, whereas in a thriller, you want to have the sense of direct and immediate experience.
With a first-person narrator, there is often a temptation for the narrator to talk too much about irrelevant things. Occasionally, asides from a first-person narrator can work if, and only if, the readers are fully engaged with the voice. But this takes practice and confidence. Traditionally, fiction has been told in the past tense. In other words, the story has already taken place and the narrator is recounting the events for the reader.
But then, in the late 20th century, writers began to test the present-tense form of first Second-person point of view uses person. The idea is that the story you and is extremely rare. Young adult fiction in recent years has popularized this Avoid using second person as your form of first person. There is one fiction technique that is lost when you use present tense. This leaves the reader wanting to keep turning the pages until the narrator finally reveals what was behind the door. Third-Person Point of View In between omniscient and first person is what is probably the most common point of view in best-selling commercial fiction: third person.
That makes it very close to first person in intimacy. We are seeing the story from one perspective and strongly bonding with one character. Whether you use a limited or open third person, there is one rule you should always observe: one point of view per scene.
That means that the perceptions of the scene are filtered through one character and any internal thoughts or feelings that are expressed come out of that character. The way you do that is by putting in an extra space—white space, sometimes called a double return—and then making the switch.
And that is using a mix of first person and third person. First person is used to establish identification with the lead character. By cutting away to a third-person scene, usually involving the villain, you can create that sense of cliff-hanging that keeps readers turning pages.
It takes great skill to do this, however. It forces you to focus. Later, you can expand to an open third person. Most successful commercial writers use only these forms of narration. They have stood the test of time. Exercise Deciding which point of view to adopt for your novel is a matter of feel and emphasis. Take any scene from your manuscript and rewrite it in another point of view.
Now go back and rewrite the scene in third person again, but retaining the intimacy you just created. What about when you switch from first to third?
You may find that you want to excise extraneous talk from the narrator, which is very often a good thing. The hard work you put in studying and mastering point of view will pay off. It goes a long way toward keeping your readers deep inside the fictive dream, which is exactly where they want to be. Stein, Stein on Writing. Exercise Select a scene from your manuscript—or write a scene from whole cloth. Write it in the first-person point of view. Go through the scene, making sure you keep point of view consistent.
Next, write the scene in third- person point of view. Try to achieve the same level of intimacy in third person as you did in first person. D ialogue is the fastest way to improve your manuscript.
Agents, editors, and readers make special note of dialogue. On the other hand, if the agent or editor for evaluation. Speaking is a physical act. There are authors named, and I have read works from 44 of them. So, what is my opinion of the book? Koontz uses a conversational tone that establishes him as a mentor to the reader. The advice is solid and applicable for today. The examples are dated but also interesting. I can see why this book could not be updated. It would have to be completely rewritten with new examples and updated genre information so that is probably why Koontz has not done it so far.
I am a better writer having read this book, so I am glad I purchased it. It is one of the best writing books I have read. If you enjoy writing, then I suggest buying or borrowing a copy.
Link to my review of another great book on writing called Beginnings, Middles, and Ends by Nancy Kress. I am also following Jerry Jenkins writing guide. Interesting connection. The positive aspect of self-doubt — if you can channel it into useful activity instead of being paralyzed by it — is that by the time you reach the end of a novel, you know precisely why you made every decision in the narrative, the multiple purposes of every metaphor and image.
Having been your own hardest critic you still have dreams but not illusions. You become disappointed in an agent, in an editor, in a publisher, but never discouraged. But what I was told never dazzled me. For example, I was often advised, by different people, that my work would never gain a big audience because my vocabulary was too large.
Which of your novels reveals the most about you? Everything I believe about life and death, culture and society, relationships and the self, God and nature—everything winds up in the books, not in one more than another, but equally, title after title. A body of work, therefore, reveals the intellectual and emotional progress of the writer, and is a map of his soul.
This must make for a slow process. Approximately how long does it take you to write one novel? I work and hour days because in long sessions I fall away more completely into story and characters than I would in, say, a six-hour day. On good days, I might wind up with five or six pages of finished work; on bad days, a third of a page.
I heard about How to Write Best Selling Fiction by Dean Koontz published in from many sources over the years but did not pick up a copy. An internet writing teacher I follow, Jerry Jenkins, mentioned it at jerryjenkins. The advice within helped him to write fast and well. So, with those recommendations in mind, I resolved to buy the Dean Koontz: How to Write a Bestselling Novel Direct from the keyboard of bestselling author Dean Koontz, here are seven tips for penning a masterpiece.
It appears to be expensive because it's out of print. The fact that his book on writing is out of print should tell you something about how useful people actually found it. Swain first published a year later in is still in print.
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