Maybe There’s Something to Those Things!

As I mentioned in previous post, I know several authors who almost sound like they can’t write without listening to music, and Have to spend a lot of time putting together just the right playlist of music for them to write by.

               I take it back, they don’t almost sound like it, they really do sound like they can’t write without listening to music, and specific music.

James River Writers has even suggested a playlist for you to check out for the Conference in October.   [See previous post.]

       

I never wanted to spend that kind of time looking for music, let alone specific ‘write by’ music.  But I thought what the heck.

My book I’m working on hasn’t exactly been flowing along with words, the characters have been either ignoring me or just belligerent with attitudes.

I really don’t need that.  Especially from characters, in my head.

So as I was sitting looking at a blank screen and fussing at characters in my head, that it was their fault anyway, that I was starting back at Chapter 1.

I started pondering about if I did put some music together, what would it be.

Well, all that came to mind was 

Christina Aguilera’s ‘Say Something’ 

I don’t listen to music much, but I have heard the song a couple of times.

“Say something, I’m giving up on you”

Okay, so I really wasn’t, but apparently my characters didn’t know that.  

Yay.

Since I’m back up in Chapters again.  And beyond where I was, before it became their fault it wasn’t working in the first place.

Well, some of the writing is pieces that I had written before, just tweaked now with the new developments and all.

And I haven’t hit double digit Chapter numbers yet, but that’s okay.  For now anyway.

So maybe there is something to it after all.

And maybe you can learn some new things too.  New ideas.  New ways to write.  

New ways to get your book written, published, or get it written or published better.

All that and more will be at the James River Writers Conference coming up in October.

With Workshops too!

So check it out, and learn something new.  Or better.

Meet Agents! Take Workshops. Learn all kinds of things Writing! Have a Great time!

The James River Writers Conference things are Hoppin’ !

If you’ve had your eye on one of the one-on-one talk with / pitch the Literary Agents, you might not want to wait -

One agent’s time slots are already filled - Gone.   Sorry, you missed it.

Others are still open — but filling fast!!!

David Henry Sterry is almost filled up!

Time’s a-awastin’ people!   

Need to sign up for the JRW Conference Soon!  Especially if you want your pick of one of those Agent one-on-one slots!

Well, the ones that are left.

But if that’s difficult for you this year check out the Friday Workshops.  

There are Really great Workshops!   Really!

You don’t have to come to the Conference to sign up and take the workshops.

Of course we’d like for you to sign up, and come to the Conference.   We’d REALLY Like it!

But you’re going to want to come to a Workshop.

Just take a Look!  

Choices and help for your writing, your writing career.  All Kinds.

Publishing help.   Query Help.   If you’re a writer trying to get your work out to agents to get published (hopefully) then you’ll know what that means.  And how valuable that is.

 Uh-huh.  See.   You can learn a lot from them.   More if you come to the Conference too.   *Grin*

James River Writers has been kicking off our conference for several years now with Pre-Conference Master Classes. Absorb the wisdom of the experts and gain hands-on experience, whether you want to discover that perfect angle to get published or explore nuances of your craft.

The Pre-Conference Master Classes take place on Friday, October 17, 2014, at the Virginia State Capitol, Capitol Sq., Richmond., from 9:00-11:00 a.m., 11:15 a.m.-1:15 a.m., and 2:00-4:00 p.m., with two options in each time slot. You must be a registered conference attendee to sign up for the Conference Master Classes. After October 1, if space remains, classes will be available to those not attending the conference.

Friday, October 17th, 2014
9:00 am – 11:00 am	Literary Agent Jody Rein To Self (Publish) or NOT to Self? How to Decide! with Jody Rein A personalized step-by-step workshop on the key decision every writer working today must make. What is the best publishing path for you, your book and your writing career? A self-published ebook or an agented, traditionally published hardcover? Or something in-between? What are the options? What are the real costs–in time, in money, in reputation, in sales?	Author Kelly O’Connor McNees Point of View: Who’s Telling and Who’s Listening? with Kelly O’Connor McNees Fiction writers have to make choices about how and why our narrators tell their stories. Does your novel call for a first-person point of view with a strong voice but a limited scope? Or an omniscient narrator to tell the story of a whole town, allowing us to peek in the windows? Through exercises and short readings, this class will explore the role of point of view in crafting compelling fiction, and how to find the perfect storyteller for your tale.
11:15 am – 1:15 pm	Author Hugh Howey Author Platform: What You Need to Know with Hugh Howey With so many books competing in the marketplace, how do you get your fair share of attention? An effective platform has never been more important for authors than it is right now. Learn how to build your author platform by increasing your discoverability, extending your network, and reaching your target audience.	Editor Jane Friedman How to Get Your Book Published with Jane Friedman This class covers all the basics on how to get your book published. Topics include how to research markets and contact agents; how to capture the attention of a New York publisher; what expectations you should have when it comes to the marketing and promotion of your work; and how to analyze publishing options.
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm	Author Sheri Reynolds Speed Up, Slow Down, Cast Forward, Flash Back: A Multi-genre Exploration of Pacing with Sheri Reynolds Update your writer’s toolbox with a firm understanding of tempo. What makes a narrative speed up and slow down, zoom in and zoom out? How does a writer shift gears smoothly from scene to summary to scene again? Analyze excerpts from fiction and nonfiction to see how successful writers manipulate time. Get hands-on experience with techniques to control the tempo of your narrative.	Editor Jane Friedman How to Write a Query That Gets Manuscript Requests with Jane Friedman If you’ve written your query like a pro, then you should be getting requests for your manuscript (or proposal) about 50% of the time. Learn the five key elements of every query, what it means to sell the sizzle, and how to avoid problems that plague (and sabatoge) queries.

- See more at: http://www.jamesriverwriters.org/what-we-do/programs/annual-conference/friday-master-classes-2014#sthash.LaZNxAbM.dpuf

Reasons to Come to a Conference

Well, reasons to come to the James River Writers Conference in October.

I keep hearing more and more people talk about they’ve been thinking about writing or they have thought about writing.   Or variations along that theme.

Literally Everywhere I go, there are people talking about writing.  

In all it’s forms.

If you - or Anyone you know - has expressed those sentiments, thoughts, or dreams,  Or anything of the sort.    Or near it.

Now would be the time to have them sign up for the 2014 James River Writers Conference

Why, you say, the James River Writers Conference -    So Glad you asked!

There’s the Friday Master Classes -

Where you can learn from agents, and writers, and ….

Hugh Howey !!

Yes - you read that correctly   ----    The Hugh Howey !

If you are still scratching your eyebrow then just google him 

- and check him out on the JRW site

To give you brief teaser of why you should google …..  

           He self published and went on to make Big deal with publisher.

Yeah, thought you’d want to google him.    

Just as I am Sure you are going to want to some see him and hear him at the JRW Conference.

And even check out the Master Class he’s doing for the Conference on Friday.

At the Conference you can Meet Hugh,  and have one-on-one talk with Literary Agents !

No matter where you are in the writing journey, even if you are just thinking about it, the Conference will have something for you.

Working on your writing, whether characters, pacing, etc….  

Thinking about self publishing and if that’s going to be right for you.   

How to get yourself noticed and build a platform.

Need some help with query letters and pitching?

Or even want all the above.

You’ll find it all at the JRW Conference.

And More.

A Whole Lot More.

So check it out.     Registration is open now.

James River Writers Conference 2014

James River Writers Conference 2012 - Part 1

The James River Writers Conferences keep helping writers to write better, write new ways, get published, find people to friend, and a Whole lot more.  

This past weekend, Oct. 19, 20, and 21, was no different.

Filled with great sessions - and writers.   I was privileged to moderate a couple so I Know that’s for sure!

For 10 years now, JRW has been helping writers find each other, their supports, and sometimes even themselves as writers.

And pretty much all done by volunteers.   As they are trying to write, and write themselves into getting published.   

Considered by a lot of speakers that have attended as the best run conference in the U.S., all the supporters and volunteers of James River Writers deserve pats on the backs.   [And agents and publishing contracts.    Just sayin’ ….while putting it out there to the universe.]

First Pages Critique, that always reminds us that agents are human too, and have likes and dislikes.  It’s important to research agents we are sending our queries to, making sure we pick the right agent who carries the kind of writing we do.  Or that they are at least interested in it.  

But that just because one said no, doesn’t mean that the next will.  Or the next, or the next.  [For more on that see my notes on Eleanor Brown, author extraordinaire of highly acclaimed book ‘The Weird Sisters’ … well, as soon as get those notes up.  With ’Sandy’ storm preparedness, funerals, laundry, and all, this blog post writing thing is going very s-l-o-w.]

This year James River Writers also joined with the Library of Virginia for the Literary Luncheon on Saturday with Tom Robbins.  Where writers who write and test one line at a time were validated and found a soul mate.

I still have Tom Robbins printout of his advice for writers from the very first James River Writers Conference 10 years ago.  And vividly remember one of the stories he told.  His story telling skills are certainly phenomenal.  I understand we must change and grow, but I do miss the opening address he wrote especially for the James River Writers Conference that year, and used to be read at the beginning of each new conference.  It had such vivid imagery and language it reminded me what it was to be a great writer, and what we as writers want to aspire to.    Thanks Tom Robbins for the memory.

There were a lot of sessions I wanted to listen to this year, since there’s only one of me I had to make some very difficult choices.  GAH!  It was difficult!

Most of the time I ended up in a session because I had run into a friend or great writer and as we were talking I would end up walking with them to their choice.  

Hey it worked, I ended up in some great sessions that way.  

Like, The Savvy Professional, with a panel of Really smart savvy women.  Arielle Eckstut, Colleen Lindsay, Nancy Redd, Julia Schoerke, moderated by Rebecca Joines Schinsky.

Arielle Eckstut is part of The Book Doctors team, so check out their site, and their book, for all kinds of great tips and things to consider, and work on.

I will post a disclaimer now and say these are my notes, so this is my filter, however abbreviated.

For some other great notes on sessions check out Denise’s blog posts of sessions she attended at the Conference.  Different than mine.  Just so you know.  We all have different perspectives as writers and listeners.

This tidbit might have been worth the session :

2 Tweets is the length of the Perfect pitch

Think about topic of your book and how it relates to news happening now.

Talking about your book in a concise and interesting way.

Platform = something you are passionate about

Make booksellers your allies — from your local independents to the Barnes and Nobles around the corner..

Be best self in Every situation

Be / have a Great personality  and be Very kind of Everyone

Being very appreciative of the people who got you there. 

For all social situations - social networking - Be part of the community, be part of the conversation.

Make sure have Website optimized - to get good person to build your site get referrals from people familiar with working with authors.   Ask Writers you know, that are well known - who they use and trust.

One panelist recommended Chuck Wendig  and his  Terrible Minds Comm. 

Talking to potential agents - or anyone with power to get you one, should be about Expressing your Passion, Not Pitching your passion.

Local platform - Local interest     Big platform - niche area

Know your Category, that your book will fit into at a bookstore.   Read in That category.   Read well in that category.

Track the history and what is selling in it now.

See what’s on the shelf there.   And see What’s the Rising Stars there.

What is your distribution…. Ebooks sell better than self-published

Instead of spending money on self-publishing, spend it on self-promotion

5-1 ratio of doing for others vs. Having / asking others to do for you.  5 of you do, to 1 of you asking of others

One panelist believes you should do a writing group in and around what you are writing.  

[My personal note to this is - maybe. I go along with the advice of having mixed friends.  Sure seems that publishers are looking for writing that’s going to appeal to a wide range of groups and readers…. So..how you going to get that if you have a very narrow group?   Just my thought.]

When you can’t do anything more to your manuscript - it’s done.

 One of the panelists believes Conferences purpose is Networking

And that’s what I had from this panel.  Plus it’s time to put in another load of laundry and check preparedness supplies.

Will get up rest of notes from JRW Conference 2012 as soon as I can.  Well, as I transcribe them from my scribbled on papers.

But you can go to Twitter and look at #jrwc12 and get tweet quotes and writing tips, notes,  from all kinds of writers that were at the Conference.  And even the Twitter Chats with some of the writers and speakers at the Conference this year.

Organization and Being Creative

Being a creative type, ‘sometimes’ things get away from me.  Like time.  And things to be done.  So sometimes things stack up ‘a bit.’

Okay, so sometimes maybe a bit more than a ‘bit.’

I am more of the out-of-sight out-of-mind person, and filer / put-away-er.  I think that has do with creative juices flowing by what I see.  Or maybe because I am a very visual thinker.  My husband wants to put everything away, hidden.  Which is fine if he’s going to be the one to keep track of it / take care of it.  If I’m going to have to be the one to be responsible then that’s not going to work for me.  So trying to find a system that will work for us both is ‘a bit’ challenging.  Add to my side the growing up with much older parents that grew up during the Depression and in very poor circumstances, it makes things very challenging.

No matter what system you have, things have to be tweaked sometimes.  Sometimes a lot.  So I signed us up for local organizer / feng shui expert Debbie Bowie’s How To Move That Mountain organizing class.  We had first met Debbie long ago when she was just starting her organizing / feng shui business and we took an organizing class from her then. [I went to the feng shui class alone back then.]

We keep growing and tweaking things and Debbie has grown and tweaked as she and her business has grown over the years as well.  This organizing class and her new 12 Month Clutter Clearing Community are part of that.

It was the first time Debbie has presented this particular class [How To Move That Mountain] and my brave husband was the only male there.  But since he has been used to working with mostly women, he was hardly intimidated or out of place.  Well, necessarily anyway.  I do think it helped him realize that I wasn’t the only one that had similar organizational issues.  Hopefully.

One of the key points Debbie made early on was that you need to identify what you want 

- what you want your clearing and organizing to give you, what you want at the end.  

Interestingly, women sometimes have real difficulty with identifying what they really want.

I think we are trained to think of others feelings and needs and to put ours on the back burner, if at all.  Which makes it difficult to really think about, let alone say, what it is we really want.

Speaking of feelings, once you start looking at things to clear and get ‘real’ about, feelings come up.  Feng shui has the belief that everything has energy and affects us.  Good or bad [more on that down aways].

Debbie said it is important to let the feelings come, ‘feel’ them, and to address them.  I think of it as honoring the feelings.  She said we are taught to tamp down feelings, push them away, etc…  but that they will still keep coming up.

So it’s better to deal with them.  Even if we have to take breaks in our clutter clearing, it’s important to address the feelings.

Once we understand our feelings about what we are surrounding ourselves with and why, we can begin to move it, move it out, and have the life and things we really want.  And live the way we want.

Another key point, Don’t Start with Paper.

Unless that is the only thing that needs to be cleared.

Paper is a time consumer since you have to handle each piece and then decide what to do with it and then actually do something with it.

Pick the easiest thing first so you can feel you accomplishment.  

Back into the hard things like paper - or a lot of anything tiny.

It’s important to see that you are accomplishing things when you look around.

So pick the easiest and biggest things that will make the most difference right away.  

Always straighten up at the end so it will look better.  So you feel like you actually did / accomplished something for all your hard work.  And it is hard work.

And it gets the energy moving.  Which being a Feng Shui expert, Debbie wants to do as quick and early as possible to get the positive energy flowing around.

There were several people in the class that were part of the ‘but I might need it someday’ thought of keeping things ‘in case.’  

The feng shui ‘creed’ to start clearing space is to let it go, into the trash, or to someone else’s home, unless 1) you Love it.  Or 2) you Use it

So -  Love It,   Use it,    or Lose it.

And get it out of the house Right away once you’ve made the decision.  So you don’t take it out of the trash bags or the donate boxes.

It’s also a matter of trust and faith to believe that the universe, or God, or fate, or whatever you believe in, will make sure you have what you need when you need it.  

Once you clear out the space for the energy to flow around like it’s supposed to / should.  [Which also helps clear the path for good creative energies, like writing.  Just a thought.]

I think a lot of people have trouble understanding when they first hear or read about feng shui about how Everything is always ‘talking’ to you.  [Just f.y.i. having characters talk to you when you are a writer is okay.  Sortta.  But anything else, please get help.]

Things don’t actually physically talk - but things are always talking to us in the sense they are always reminding us of something or someone.  Good memories or bad.  Every time we look at it there is that memory.  For everyone that is a reason to figure out if you are happy in your space and with everything you surround yourself with.  For people that are sensitive to things like that it can be a real health reason to look at your space and things and question if you are happy.  And what it is you really want.

What do you surround yourself with?  And why?    What do you want?

Everyone has 24 hours.  

Every day you have to make choices.

Every day you make choices about what you do with your time and energy

As Debbie has prominently listed around her site -

Is What You Are Holding On To Holding You Back?

And for another one of her points - Ask for help.

For more information to hire Debbie Bowie to help you with your organizing or to sign up for her newsletter etc…here’s more info’ -

Debbie Bowie

12 Month Clutter Clearing Community

www.clutterclearingcommunity.com

debbie@rockscissorspaperinstitute.com

tel 804-730-4991

Is What You Are Holding On To Holding You Back?

Debbie Bowie

Debbie’s book -

Rock Scissors Paper

Check out Chapter Summaries here -

Debbie’s Blog -  

Clear Clutter to Get Your Dream

If you are interested in learning more about feng shui, this is my favorite book -

                Move Your Stuff Change Your Life by Karen Rauch Carter

Can read first chapter here.

For those that have attended past James River Writers Conferences will remember the Very cute, Very smart, accomplished, etc… Marcela Landres  who edited the Move Your Stuff book years ago. [And will now help you with your book.]

Here’s to better energy flows, for all of us.

Which will make us better writers.  Right?

Reasons to Be

A Writer? A Good person? An organized on-the-ball dynamo?

Those are things you have to answer for yourself

But some things we can help you with:

Rejections & Resilience – Fueling Creativity on an Empty Tank

That’s what’s going to be talked about tomorrow night at James River Writers Writing Show.

You can sign up in advance and get a bit of a break on the money.

If you want to know what the Writing Show is about you can check out the great illustrator / writer Troy Howell’s sketches and recap of February’s Writing Show here.

You might also want to check out the recap of the Writing Show on Get Your Word On, JRW’s e-newsletter.

What? You don’t get that! Well, you can go right over to the website and sign up for it. While you are there check out the NEW website. It’s always going to be changing so you’ll have to come back to look often. So be sure to check it out.

And you can come to Writers Wednesday each month for free and hang out with us cool people.

We can help with with all the above, with or without a drink.

If you do come to Writers Wednesday come to the Writing Show tomorrow night and let others see you and talk to you. That way they know someone when they come to the next Writers Wednesday.

So all you Writers Wednesday-ers come to the Writing Show tomorrow night and stand up and be counted.

Okay, so we aren’t really going to count you, but we are going to recognize you for showing up at Writers Wednesday and encouraging us all. Thanks.

So you All have a reason to be at the Writing Show tomorrow night.

If you want another reason, there’s a donut shop just down the street aways, so you can go after the Writing Show and get a HOT donut right off the line!

They’ll even let you get more than one!

And that should be enough of a reason right there! Just saying’ ….. Good talk. Hot Donuts. Will get you through the end of the week nicely.

How to Come Back from the Edge?

When you are on the edge of throwing up your hands and giving in to your doubt of ‘is this worth it’ - how do you come back from that?

Or do you?

Whether it’s a manuscript or writing languishing dusty in hidden drawers, or just being tired of the struggle and self-doubts, how do you pick it up and keep going? Or do you?

For those of us that don’t have the ‘love of writing’ but have the whatever it is that compels us to write, is it even a choice really?

How do you keep believing in yourself and your writing, when it is often easier to do the opposite?

And why is it easier to believe the negative things about yourself and thus your writing, than it is the positive?

Which is why our choice of readers is so very important. Yes, we need Honest readers. But we need honesty as pertains to genuinely caring about both the person and the writing, not petty ….well, whatever it is that causes people to say horrible things to people about their writing. And yes, I’ve seen first-hand the damage that causes. Especially when writing, like any kind of artistic endeavor is just a matter of personal opinion. Even as readers we don’t all like the same things. [Thank goodness, would make books I want to read even harder to get hold of from library now wouldn’t it. ]

So it makes sense we all wouldn’t like the same writing. Or do the same writing. Horrors!

That doesn’t mean I’m saying that you have to only have readers that write the same as you, or only read the same things you do. I know some people do believe that, and that’s fine with me. It’s all a learning experience, some good, and some….well, I’ve already done a blog post about critique group difficulties.

So how do you keep believing in yourself as a writer?

The next post I will do - hopefully tomorrow… yes, yes, I know, lagging….a Lot… I will Try to post more often… like tomorrow I plan to post on Raising writing or a manuscript from the dead.

But if you are feeling empty, especially with your writing, then you’ll want to put Thursday, March 29, 2012 on your calendar for the James River Writers Writing Show -

Rejections & Resilience:
Fueling Creativity on an Empty Tank

If you’ve missed the Writing Shows, well, you’ve Really been missing great advice and information. [Not to mention mingling with other writers that probably understand a whole lot more than you think and might even have some helpful suggestions. Or at least commiserations. Chocolate might be involved. All I’m saying.

If you need something stronger than chocolate with writer commiseration, then don’t forget JRWs Writers Wednesdays at Capitol Ale House, Innsbrook Wednesday, March14, 2012. If you still want chocolate, try the chocolate ale. Uh, I Heard it was really good. ;) …all I'm sayin' ]

January’s Writing Show had great advice on how to be the best author for Bookstores.

I’ve been meaning to, and will try to get my notes transcribed soon on the Writing Shows, if you want. But since they are my notes, of what spoke to me, it’s really better if you come and take your own you know.

Picking Out a Place for Your Book

No, not for vacation spot, altho’ who doesn’t want to take their book to some tropical place on the beach. Or even better, have their book take them there, literally. Wouldn’t we all like to be making enough from our books to be doing that?

Course that means getting published first.

Which brings up this post.

We’ve been told as writers that when we pitch an agent one of the things we need to know is where our book fits in on book store shelves and sections.

Great.

Except when it’s not as easy to categorize into those categories / genres. I’m still trying to figure where mine fit. Yes, granted I need to actually finish them first. That would be the first thing. But then comes the question of where does it actually fit. And some believe we should know that as we write, because that would very possibly change how we are writing.

What do you think?

Do you know / have clear ideas of where the books you are writing fit in?

How did you determine that?

If you are still searching to where you fit in, here’s an interesting blog post that has genres and sub-genres you might want to take a look at.

Thanks to :

WriterThesaurus

Dec 01, 8:21am via TweetDeck

Wonder what Sub-Genre your book falls into? Check out this resource: bit.ly/sC3874 #writing #screenwriting #MyWANA

Retweeted by Quotes4Writers

Then it would be nice if you came back here to help me with mine.……if that's even possible.

And if you look around on their blog and find interesting things it would be nice if you came back and shared them with me. After all, I’m always sharing with you here.

It does look like it’s got some great info’ there. But I’m in the midst of stuff too you know. So it would be nice if we all shared here. Just sayin…. Tis the season.

Talking Too Much????

If it’s you, then you should know who you are. Don’t you?

Not sure these ideas would really help you but maybe….. I did come across this great post that will help you look at and determine if your characters are talking too much.

Might help you in other ways other than just your writing.

And since fellow writer and I were just talking about this recently will definitely help him.

While you are there looking, check out the rest of the blog. There’s some Good stuff there!

And do Please come back here and let me know what you find! I haven’t had time to look through it much either.

[Do I Really Need to tell you how behind we are with Holiday stuff??? No decorations up. No cards done. Still have baking / presents to do. Wrapped ones needed for this weekend…. Mostly. And so on and so on …. Sigh…..]

I send Great Thanks to for finding this:

PCrutcher Paige Crutcher

Hints that you have too much dialogue and helpful fixes: bit.ly/vPLCmE @NovelEditor #writetip @elizabethscraig

NaNo Numb?

Brain gone NaNo numb already?

Take a break and get some help from fellow writers at JRWs Writers Wednesday casual gathering.

You might learn things like, if you get stuck in NaNo, it helps to blow something up.

Sometimes with pirates.

If that doesn’t help just come and give your brain a break with a fun bunch of characters.

Writers Wednesday

Capital Alehouse in downtown Richmond, 623 East Main Street, Nov. 9 from 5:30 till 7:30 p.m. When you enter, look for the friendly crowd with the stick-on name-tags. Free parking in the Lanier Parking Systems deck at 6th and Cary Streets.

Character Development

Or Developing Character.

My blog has been bare lately because I had a core brain unload after the overload of conference information and it has refused to reboot back up….. that or because I have been held captive by large groups of marauding dust bunnies and have just now escaped. Or both. That makes a real character out of you believe me. Don’t believe me, look at your lurking dust bunnies sometime and see how big they can get and form while you are off doing other things and being busy. Just be sure to inform someone of your whereabouts for rescue purposes. And I’m getting ready to do battle again so if I am gone too long send in the calvary. Or a couple of Dyson vacuum cleaners.

Luckily for you the Super Wonderful Troy Howell is stepping in to guest blog about his great information on character development that he had sent to me when we did a session on Character Development for the recent James River Writers Conference with Belle Boggs and Derome Scott Smith.

Check out Troy’s book ‘The Dragon of Cripple Creek’ - he has a great take on dragons and dragon lore, and check out his blog and site, great illustrations of course - and a lot of Troy’s interesting and inspirational thoughts and writings.

Thanks Troy for coming to my rescue.

On character development / my reference notes for the James River Writer’s panel discussion, with a few additions /

by Troy Howell

The ultimate goal is to convey characters in such a way that the reader relates enough to hear their stories. As you develop your characters, ask, Why should the reader care? Empathy or sympathy, at the least, curiosity. Whatever occurs that is greater than that—bringing tears, laughter, enlightenment—is a wonderful gift.

Each character has a function that is natural to the story premise and plot. I was recently asked by a reading group discussing my Dragon of Cripple Creek (Amulet, 2011) what my inspiration was for Dillon. Though my dragon, Ye, was pure inspiration gotten from that nebulous place where ideas drift in whispers, Dillon was the result of a need. When I created my protagonist, Kat, for the book, I felt she needed someone within her own age range to relate with outside the adult realm, someone who would eventually help her balance her thoughts and actions, and through whom more information would come. A girlfriend was not the answer, since her time is spent on a family road trip due to a job change for her dad. A sibling was a natural choice. A sister would pose the risk of being competitive, so a brother was the solution—an older brother, because a younger one would not add the necessary understanding. Hence, Dillon.

As in life, each person wants something, has a motive. Every word and action is affected by that motive. Each person has a core flaw or weakness, a vulnerability. Each person has a core strength. Need is the underlying cause for these weaknesses and strengths. Need is not equivalent to want, but usually determines want.

"Every character is sufficiently vivid and interesting for his function.” —John Gardner

Avoid stereotype: Every character, no matter how minor, should be unique and unpredictable. Sometimes, the first action or response from a character that comes to your mind is not unique; consider choosing something quirky or even opposite of who they seemingly are—surprise and delight us. My police chief, Chief Huffman, was initially stoic and steely, until I gave him a stutter that surfaces when he’s facing the public. In the movie, Meet Joe Black, Death is a golden-haired young man who loves peanut butter.

Be sure you step into their shoes, their feet, their souls. Look into their mirrors, sleep in their beds, have their dreams. Know each one as thoroughly as you can—each one has a history.

Much depends on POV.

Much depends on situation, setting, and environment.

The character should fit the scene naturally, unless, by intent, he doesn't fit at all.

A few details can convey much: A man who frequently says, “My goodness.” A cat whose fur is the careless color of chalk. A woman who wears a coat, size FITS ALL HOMELESS.

“Although characters may be complex, the details of their complexity are often blurred,

as if by time." –JG

Contrast, and a contrasting cast of characters. Contrast adds balance, richness, intensity, conflict.

Names are important—select the right one.

The reader should sense that each character has all the senses—sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste (except, of course, in cases of disability). We should also get a sense of how they sound and how they smell, besides how they look and feel. By feel I mean texture, not emotion. Emotion is a subject of its own, though the two can be, and usually are, related. Would her fingers be cool if she touched you? My dragon, Ye, smelled of “fortune and ashes, spices and earth.” It hurt Kat to smell him and soothed her, too. Each character should breathe.

Convey character through action and dialogue; show more than tell.

Psychic range: You should be able to see them from both a distance and close up.

So, to restate what I believe are the essentials of character development: Get the reader to care. Each character has a function, a basic need, and a want. Live your characters. Be unique; be succinct.

Thank you, Shawna, for being the perfect moderator on the panel, and for the opportunity to be a guest on your blog.