Saturday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

THE SECRET TO CRAFTING GENUINE CHARACTERS FOR YOUR NOVEL

By: C.S. Lakin

Think about what makes you interested or drawn to certain people. What qualities of theirs pull you in? Is it a sense of humor? Some interesting hobby or skill? Engaging style of talking or fascinating facial expressions or gestures?

Every character in your novel should have something about him that makes him interesting. It takes some work to create original, fresh, unpredictable characters, but it’s worthwhile to do. If you don’t want to spend an evening at a party among boring people, how can you expect your readers to be willing to spend ten to twenty hours of their life “hanging out” with your boring characters? We owe it to our readers to take the time to give them a unique cast of characters.

Real People Are Wholly Individual

Real people are influenced by their upbringing. Depending on their socioeconomic environment, ethnicity and subculture, geographic roots, education, and many other factors, people will not only vary in the way they move, think, and talk—they will acquire individual mannerisms and

quirks and habits.

Listen to people sometime at a coffee shop or a park. Give yourself the assignment to notice these little individual flairs that seem to define each person’s personality. Be creative and imagine a history and present profile for each person as they walk by the park bench you are sitting on. Pay attention. Notice what stands out.

Word Whiskers

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Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

1. Insecure Writer's Support Group: Seeking Validation As A Writer http://ow.ly/AR9PS
2. Keeping Our Books Current | Elizabeth Spann Craig http://ow.ly/ARa5B
3. The Difference Between A Memory And A Flashback - Laurie's Place http://ow.ly/ARakQ @Lauriesplace41
4. How To Edit Down Your Manuscript by Janice Hardy | @PenandMuse http://ow.ly/ARavz Writing Dialogue: Lose the Said? | Linda S. Clare http://ow.ly/ARaKp
5. Marketing Advice from a Publishing Pro: Jane Friedman Shares Her Best Tips - Social Media Just for Writers http://ow.ly/ARbal
6. The Secret to Crafting Genuine Characters for Your Novel | Live Write Thrive http://ow.ly/ARc3Y
7. 40 Ways to Increase your Twitter Followers - Infographic http://ow.ly/ARcUN
8. 11 Exciting New Meds for Authors | Beyond The Margins http://ow.ly/ARdsV
9. Three Ways to Have Fun With Your Marketing (Even If You Have a 'Boring' Brand) : MarketingProfs Article http://ow.ly/ARd1s
10. How to Write a Terrific Author Bio - Rachelle Gardner http://ow.ly/ARdac
11. No One Ever Just "Says" Something: 50 Ways Not to Say "Says" - Where Writers Win http://ow.ly/ARdkO
12. How to Use Surveys to Discover Marketable Book Topics http://ow.ly/ARdSK
13. Your Characters' Names: Do You Know Why You Chose Them? - Helping Writers Become Authors http://ow.ly/ARe1g
14. John Ford on Creating Marvelous Characters With Minimum Effort - Helping Writers Become Authors http://ow.ly/ARegQ

Happy writing and running, Kathy