Saturday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET – DESCRIBING FICTIONAL CHARACTERS

By: Dell Smith

Writers, I ask you: What do you see when you write your characters? Are they fully formed, in-the-flesh people that you conjure completely each time you sit down to write? Are they composites of people you know or have known? Are they based on pictures of strangers or movie stars?

How much do you describe them? Do you have to describe characters at all? If you don’t, how do you convey them if not by physical detail? By showing their actions, other character’s reactions to them, or a combination of both? In the story La Reine Hortense by Maupassant, there is this line: “He was a gentleman with red whiskers who always went first through a doorway.” Physical detail mixed with action. This gives me, the reader, a good start to understanding this gentleman. I want to go through the door after him to see what happens next.

When I’m writing a story or novel, I don’t picture my characters in the whole. I see them in bits and pieces—in pixels—depending on where I aim my spotlight in the scene. There is a moment where you pass your creation to your reader’s imagination and they take the baton of character description and run with it.

And isn’t this suspension of disbelief (or rather, flight of belief) part of the narrative language of writing? . . .

Read the full article HERE!

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

1. First Pages: Tips to Avoid Cliches and Weak Writing | Jami Gold, Paranormal Author http://ow.ly/BFqs0
2. Ruminations on Exclusivity | Hugh Howey http://ow.ly/BFwCJ
3. When planning a marketing campaign on Goodreads . . .  http://ow.ly/BGn7z  How to: Make Sure the Timing is Right
4. The Kill Zone: 14 Questions People Ask Writers http://ow.ly/BGsGV
5. What You See is What You Get—Describing Fictional Characters | Beyond The Margins http://ow.ly/BGsPr
6. Two Questions Every New Author Asks http://ow.ly/BGt6M
7. Cold-Pitching a Story? The Secret Is in the Subject Line | The Freelancer, by Contently http://ow.ly/BGEml
8. Six Tips for Troubleshooting the Novel | LitReactor http://ow.ly/BGEuY
9. Five Lifelines for Writers with Deadlines - Writers Write http://ow.ly/BGEH6
10. Six steps to writing success | Writers In The Storm http://ow.ly/BGEPr
11. Five Tips for Writing Faster http://ow.ly/BGFB1
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14. Better Know a Genre: Mystery - Jeni Chappelle http://ow.ly/BGGxL
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16. ThrillWriting: Soldier: A Woman Under Fire - Information for Writers with Michelle Dunne http://ow.ly/BGOkE
17. How Authors Can Use Listmania to Promote Their Books http://ow.ly/BGOsL
18. Overcoming Fear So You Can Finish and Publish Your Books | Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors http://ow.ly/BGV3k
19. On Rejection and Renewal: A Note to Aspiring Novelists | Live Write Thrive http://ow.ly/BGVbP
20. 8 Simple Tweaks That Will Skyrocket Your Blog’s Traffic, Growth, and Impact http://ow.ly/BGVmK
21. Talents and Skills Thesaurus Entry: Blending In - WRITERS HELPING WRITERSWRITERS HELPING WRITERS http://ow.ly/BGVvC
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23. 52 Ways To Sell More Books - Tip #51 http://ow.ly/BHm2v Six Simple Ways to Promote Your YouTube Channel!
24. 3 things self-published authors need to know about their audience http://ow.ly/BHmpo
25. Man Writing a Romance: Decoding those pesky subtle signals http://ow.ly/BHPFp @DCThome

Happy writing and running, Kathy