Tuesday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

5 WAYS TO WRITE CHARACTES THAT PEOPLE CARE ABOUT

By: Writer’s Relief Staff

In a previous article, we explored five ways to makeyour characters more three-dimensional. Once your characters are believable as living, breathing individuals, the next step is to make readers care about them. When readers are invested in the characters’ struggles and personal stories, they are much more likely to keep reading.

Here are five ways to make readers care about your characters:

Make Your Characters Need Something. One of the easiest ways to make your character more empathetic is to expose a vulnerability and establish a need to: save a dying mother, fall in love, crack the code, etc. The need can be as simple as “get to work on time” or as complicated as “save the world.” But it will encourage readers to empathize with the character and root for his or her success.

Example: Joe struggles through failed relationship after failed relationship in an attempt to find his soul mate.

Make Your Characters Take A Stand On Important Issues. A character with strong convictions and a cause to be passionate about will intrigue readers and earn their respect. If your audience is interested in your character’s goals and respects your character’s convictions, they’ll be more inclined to follow the story line to its conclusion.

Example: Leslie stands up for women’s equality in the workplace at a local public forum.

Make Your Character The Underdog.

. . .

Read the full article HERE!

~*~

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

1. Start Here: How to Self-Publish Your Book | Jane Friedman http://ow.ly/J7O5z
2. Fiction University: How to Slash Your Word Count by 20-40% – and tighten your story without losing any of the good stuff! http://ow.ly/J7RAS
3. 7 Tips To Help Promote Your First Self-Published Book | The Creative Penn http://ow.ly/J7XZl
4. The mystery of storytelling: Julian Friedmann at TEDxEaling - YouTube http://ow.ly/J7Ymd  From an agent's POV!
5. Are you underusing your best plot ideas? Guest post at KM Weiland | Nail Your Novel http://ow.ly/J7YOs
6. About Writing Characters Who'll Keep Readers Captivated: Nail Your Novel by Roz Morris - Freado http://ow.ly/J7Z47
7. e-Book Cover Design Awards, January 2015 — The Book Designer http://ow.ly/J7ZLw
8. 35 eBook sites you should use to promote your #deal! http://ow.ly/J80qE
9. The 26 Worst Things That Can Happen To A Book Lover http://ow.ly/J81vC
10. Using Twitter For Local Book Signings - Awesome Gang http://ow.ly/J8vB6
11. Resources - Jeffbullas's Blog http://ow.ly/J8wrU "How to Start a Blog: Step-by-Step Instructions"
12. 5 Ways To Write Characters That People Care About - Writer's Relief, Inc. http://ow.ly/JaeVp

Happy writing and running, Kathy