f you've been around at all this year on my blog, then you probably noticed the extremely long series of posts I did on following your heart as a writer. 😆 In it, I talked about your Why: a message in your stories that inspires you to continue working on them. It's why you push through the hard times of writing it. That series was really about accessing your unique abilities as a writer, and so for that context, referring to this message as a Why made sense. However, in my own writing, I don't actually call it that. I decided while writing that series that I would need to write a post afterwards on the Why - and what I actually think of it as - because simply by changing the word, you create a whole new mentality when you're working on the story.
Tag: Character
7 Tips on How to Name Your Character
I'm not sure how many posts are out there that teach writers how to name their characters; probably none, because who even writes a post on this subject?? Literally every writer ever has named characters before! Who would think that anyone would need to hear advice on this? Well... Me, apparently.
Finding Your Why {Every Writer is Different}
Have you ever stumbled upon a part of a book, blog post, podcast, or video where the person who created it is talking about your Why? And... had absolutely no idea what they were talking about? 😅 Or, have you ever heard about it and understood what it was, but been unsure as to how to even go about finding your Why? Join the club. 😆 However, over time, I've found a couple of sure-fire ways to help you find that. So today, I'll be explaining what your Why is, why you need it (see what I did there?) (okay I'll be quiet now), and how to find it.
How to Write Realistic Introverted Characters in 7 Steps {Collaboration!}
In case you didn't know, I'm an introvert. It's not that I hate being around people, exactly; in fact, I quite enjoy some specific people's company. But after being around them for a while, I can get very drained. I'm pretty lucky, in that I'm actually an online homeschooler. I get to go to activities, like sports, but I don't have to be physically around people and talk to them all day. Even though I'm around my own family all the time, I'm not talking to them 24/7, and that allows me to be a rather pleasant person when I do interact with them (in my oh-so-humble opinion 😝) The fact that I'm an introvert kind of shines through my writing. Looking back over most of my more recent projects, I've found that a lot of my characters are actually introverted. That's probably because they come out of my brain, and that's just the easiest thing for me to write as I'm already one. So, when my sister, Mary, proposed that we write posts on writing introverted and extroverted characters - the personality types that each of us are - I thought it sounded like a pretty good idea. Make sure you check out her blog, Wild Writing Dreams, here, and read her post on writing extroverts, since that's a subject all of its own!
The One Thing All Stories Need
"Julia, how do I make my story longer?" I look up from my book, a mug of coffee resting at my hand. "Longer?" I repeat. My younger sister, Christina, nods. "I'm almost at the end, but I"m not sure if it should be longer or not." She heads over to the computer, popping it open. I trail after her, coffee in hand. "How long is it? In words," I add. "It's about six thousand." "What's it about?" "It's about this girl who has to defeat a dark overlord." "And where are you at?" "I'm almost at the climax. It's my best story idea yet, so I want it to be good." I pause, mulling over this information while taking a sip of coffee. Finally, I say, "I'm going to tell you something. It's one thing that, by adding it, will instantly improve your entire story and revolutionize your writing." Christina stares. "Length doesn't matter," I tell her. "It's all about the character motive." This was a conversation I had with my sister a week ago. After it happened, I knew that I had to write a blog post on the subject. Let's dive right in.
The Inciting Incident: The Point of No Return… Or Is It?
In my last post on making the problems in a story personal to a character (which is *cough* totally awesome *cOuGh* and you should check it out *wheeze*) I mentioned that I was going to do a post on the Inciting Incident. Not that long later, I had a conversation with my sister Mary that made me very glad I was going to post on the subject. We both are working on outlining new stories, and we started talking about the Inciting Incident, which was really confusing both of us for some reason. What exactly is the Inciting Incident supposed to be? Is that when the character gets kicked out of their Normal World? And are they even supposed to accept it?
Character Problems: Not Making things Personal from Day 1
Have you ever read a story where the main character goes on a long and arduous journey to defeat the villain, but by the end, you find you have a complaint: "But why?" Why does the main character even have to fight the villain? Because they're bad? Why do they care? The problem with those … Continue reading Character Problems: Not Making things Personal from Day 1
What We Can Learn from 100 Days of Sunlight + Interview with the Author! {How to Keep Readers Interested}
It is time. People have been adding this book to their TBR piles for the past couple of months, and I think we're all super ready to see the blog tour for this book: 100 Days of Sunlight, by Abbie Emmons! *throws confetti again*
How to Make Relatable Characters: Part 1 {How to Keep Readers Interested}
Welcome to the first post in this series! (second?) (by the way, make sure to catch the announcement post for it here!) When reading a book, readers see what's going on in the story through the main character. They interpret the actions of all the other side characters based on how the main character does. Unless, of … Continue reading How to Make Relatable Characters: Part 1 {How to Keep Readers Interested}
Character Creation
Hey there! When I made my rough outline of my story, the way I showed you yesterday, I didn’t include names. All I thought about was the story. When I talked about my main character, I just capitalized ‘She’ and ‘Her’, so I’d know. But you do need to know who your story is about. So here are 6 questions that are necessary for your character creation.