This is Susannah, jumping in really quick to introduce this guest post by Harley Rae. I have been ridiculously busy in the last several weeks, what with school, musical theater, etc. that I haven’t been able to post for a long time. Thankfully, the amazing human Harley was willing to lighten the burden of this dangerous dilemma by writing up something awesome for this Tuesday to learn from and enjoy!
Your plot is ready to go. You have a protagonist, an antagonist, a secondary character, an old mentor, a love interest, a traitor, an opposed parent, a jealous sibling, and an intelligent talking horse named Phillip. Hopefully, by the time you sit down to start writing the first chapter of your first draft, you have a general idea of what your cast of characters is like. Well at least you’ll know the gender of your main character. Ideally.
I believe the most important thing that will help you achieve a well developed story is a well developed cast of characters; the story is about those characters, after all. Probably the most crucial question to ask when developing a character is “what are the character’s motives?” The protagonist’s motives alone will drive the plot forward, but when you add the antagonist’s desires, the traitor’s secrets, the mentor’s wishes, along with the protagonist’s motives, the story will automatically become so much more detailed and complex. And complexity is a good thing. Not only will it make the reader think, but it will make each character believable: all their trials, emotions, fails, and triumphs will be real, thus drawing the reader into a deeper level of identifying with each of them. It may be scary at first to think that strangers who happen to be reading your story will connect with your babies if you do a good job, but if your readers don’t connect, what is your story worth? Without a developed cast of characters, it will be hard to connect with them, thus we will feel nothing at their fails, triumphs, or emotions, and thus the message or theme of the story you want to convey through your characters will never be understood by your readers.
Writerly tags are, believe it or not, one of the biggest things that make me think about my WIP more in depth. Most of the tags I’ve participated in (the Six Question Character Challenge being my absolute favorite) made me ask questions of my plot and characters that I’d never even thought to ask. For instance, before participating in the aforementioned tag, I had no idea what my MC’s MBTI type was, where my main six characters saw themselves in ten years, or that my villain resembled Anton Yelchin. Getting to know little details about my characters also revealed so much more about my plot, even future book ideas for later in the series! It results in much elation, as you may well understand if you’re a writer. Writing up Six Questions Character Challenge made my week. I love talking about my characters to begin with, but answering questions I didn’t know about them in the first place made the experience so much more enlightening and enjoyable.
Some of you might be wondering why I’ve decided to write a post for writers on how to stay healthy. I realize that nearly everyone knows basic guidelines for staying healthy (it’s mostly just a matter of ignoring temptation), so why can’t writers just do the same thing? Glad you asked! I am armed and ready with an answer to this question.
If you’re a writer, or know writers, you’ll understand that such a life is very sedentary. We read, write, edit, brainstorm, and do everything else writing related while sitting down and/or hunched over a notebook or screen. This is because everything we do writing related, whether getting inspiration or actually doing the art, either comes from or goes on a piece of paper or a blank document. To sum it up, writing is definitely not an active activity, if you haven’t already noticed.
Today I have a fabulous treat for you: I’ve asked the lovely writer Brianna Merrit to guest post on my blog! She has some wonderful inspiration and epic encouragement to share with you all and I am honored to have her do just that on my blog. Go ahead and enjoy! (Warning: Use fairy dust in moderation but don’t be afraid to fly.)
November is a crazy month for writers not just because of midterms, Thanksgiving, and other seasonal preparations, but also because of writing. Do I care to elaborate?
Sho’.
*sings* It’s the most craziest tiiiiime— of the year.
You say it’s too early to be singing parodies of Christmas songs, but the Santa Claus decor has been out for a while. I’ll sing all I want.
I’ve never done NaNoWriMo before, making November 2016 a month full of dread and anticipation, worry and happiness as well as my first year to particpate. I’ll be trying to write 50K words in 30 days = I’m attempting to write a whole novel in a month = I’m actually going to complete a whole dang novel. And that is something I have never done. The exciting part is that I might just do it.
