How I write my novels a 10 step beginners guide. Step 4: Characterization

Writing a novel can be a daunting task. I know because it’s taken me 7 years to complete my first one.  However, writing is easier for me now, than when I started. I realize that there are many of you who want to write that first novel, so let me lend my acquired experience to make your journey easier.

I have 10 steps that I realized I have used to complete my book.  During the next 10 weeks I’m going to provide you with the actual and specific tools that have used.  I’m going to put them up on this blog for you to see, and I’m going to give them away to you for free!  Yes, free because I want you to be successful! I know that they will work for you  some of you are more computer literate than others, so my tools are going to help you no matter what level of proficiency you have in software or hardware.  All you need is a desire to learn, and a willingness to implement the steps.

Ok here is step four: Identify the characters.

Who is your protagonist and the antagonist?

Here is an outline to follow.  Answer the following questions. Do this for each of your main characters.

What is their name?  Does the name have a meaning? Who named them?  Do they have a nickname?  Names can have powerful images in your novel.

Give a one-sentence summary of your characters story line.

What is the characters motivation?  What does he/she want abstractly?

What is the characters conflict? What prevents him/her from reaching what they want?

What is the characters epiphany (what will he she learn, how will he/she change?)

Then write out a one-paragraph summary of the characters storyline

Note that you should do this for each character, and if there is an organization or group within your novel, the same should be done for them.  What you are doing here is part of the world creation. However, populating the world is more important than the world itself.

After you answer these basic questions, you can then address issues like attributes such as race, gender where do they live, language accents, tics, special powers etc.

To help you let me link you to a helpful resource that you can use to help you flesh out the characters of your novel.

I absolutely love this site.  It looks at various characters particularly in television, movies, and does an amazing job of helping to understand what makes them work or not work.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharacterDevelopment

Let me know if any of these tips has helped you!

Oh and PS!

I want to hear from you!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of March, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment and link back to my blog, and mention my book The Third Heaven: The Rise of Fallen Stars in your blog…you get your name in the hat THREE times. What do you win? A guest blog appearance!  Yep I’ll feature you in my blog and help promote you!  How about that?

I will pick a winner once a month. So at the end of March I will pick a winner for the monthly prize. Good luck!

Don’t forget to and check out my preview trailer for my new book, The Third Heaven: The Rise of Fallen Stars coming out in a couple of months!