Dogwood Writer's Conference April 26-27


The DOGWOOD WRITER'S CONFERENCE 





I'll be a guest speaker at The Dogwood Writer's Conference at Greenbo Lake State Park,  at 965 Lodge Road, Greenup, Kentucky 41144, on April 26-27 this week. Registration is available on Saturday the 27th if you're interested. It will last all day.
https://www.facebook.com/events/2038086056494195/

I'll be teaching a workshop on building 3-dimensional characters and how to stay organized while you're doing it.  I wanted to use my blog to post some of my favorite books on the subject and the writing forms and tools I use consistently when I build my characters.

The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook By Sherrilyn Kenyon ( find this book very helpful when naming my characters.)

 You can also use baby naming books and baby naming websites.  Depending on the country or area of the United States you're writing about this is just one website you'll find helpful. there are numerous ones out there.  https://www.babycenter.com/0_popular-baby-names-from-around-the-world_1429034.bc
This one is popular baby names by state. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/state/

The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes and Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes by Tami Cowden, Carolyn LaFever, & Sue Viders  (Love this book on Archetypes.  It was one of my first books on the subject and one I have referred to numerous times.)

Writing Character and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card  ( Another favorite)

Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author's Guide to Uniting Story, Structure, Plot and Character Development by K.M. Weiland

Creating Unforgettable Characters  by Linda Seger

Creating Character Emotions by Ann Hood

Building Believable Characters by Marc McClutcheon

Writing Dialogue by Tom Chiarella

James N. Frey has a very good series of books
How to Write a Damn Good Novel
How to Write a Damn Good Novel II
How to Write a Damn Good Thriller
How to Write a Damn Good Mystery

In every one of these books,  Frey gives insights into character and how they fit into the story.

Story by Robert McKee   Mckee is a screenplay writer for television and movies so Character Motivation and Dialogue are BIG things in this book.  I bought the book and the CD.

MY BOOK BIBLE:
All the things I'm going to post below are the things I put in my book bible. I build one every time I write a book to help me keep track of the information I have about my characters, where my plot is going and the book itself. 

Things that will go into your bible are your character plotting sheets.
Your character interview sheets.
Your character arc sheets
Character insights
Research or the links to online research.
The rough draft of your story as you complete each chapter.
Notes on things you think about.
Your 20 things that can happen in each chapter.


FORMS AND SHEETS:

Since I write Romantic Suspense I have my own take on the Plotting Stairway. This helps me plot the story which is what is going to happen to my characters and how they feel about it. For every action your character takes they have to have a motivation behind it. And their experiences in the past, their profession, their emotions will drive those motivations and actions.

Stairway to Suspense
1st step: The hook (the Call to Action.)   
Romantic Hook
2nd step: The decision that turns the story.
The decision or choice the heroine/hero makes that turns the story in the direction it will travel. This choice is based on some character flaw that guides the character’s motivation toward the choice.  
Romantic call to action.
3rd stepThe choice creates obstacles to solving the situation.
First Kiss
4th stepAnother choice, More problems, situation worsens. The character makes another choice, which causes more problems and the situation worsens.
First Time They Make Love
5th stepMore choices, more obstacles.
The more choices a character makes, the more obstacles will fall into his/her path. 
Gray Moment
6th stepThe climax.
The greatest obstacles are faced and the greatest attempts are made to overcome the situation created in the hook.
Black Moment
7th step: The resolution.
It’s short, sweet, and should tie up all the loose ends and leave the reader feeling completely satisfied. 
Romantic Resolution

 I always do a CHARACTER INTERVIEW SHEET  for my hero, heroine, and my bad guy. In order to write about these characters, you need to know them. These are only some of the questions you can ask your characters to get a clue about their personality and motivations.

In-Depth Character Interview:
Color Guide

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Physical Appearance
Favorites
Habits
Background
Family
Attitude
Personality
Traits
Perception of Self
Interrelations with Others
Goals
Problems/Crises
General
Uncategorized




Full Name

Reason/Meaning of name

Nickname & Meaning

Age – how old does he/she look?

Eye color – glasses or contacts?

Hair color – wears hair how?

Weight – height – type of build?

Skin tone – skin type?

Facial shape – distinguishing marks?

Predominant (favorite) features?

Looks like?

Is he/she healthy?

Fav color

Fav music

Fav food

Fav literature

Fav expression

Fav expletives

Smokes? What? When and how much?

Drinks? What? When and how much?

Hobbies?

Hometown

Type of childhood

First memory

Most important event that still affects character? Why?

Education?

Religion? Practicing? Why/why not?

Financial

Mother

Relationship with her

Father

Relationship with him

Siblings

How many?

Birth order

Relationship with each

Children of siblings

Most at ease when…

Most ill at ease when…

Priorities

Philosophy

How he/she feels about self

Past failures he/she would be most embarrassed to have people know

If granted one wish, what would it be, and why?

Greatest source of strength in character’s personality (whether he/she recognizes it as such or not).

Greatest source of weakness in character’s personality (whether he/she recognizes it as such or not).

Character’s soft spot

Is this obvious to others? If not, why not?

Biggest vulnerability, why?

Is he/she an optimist or pessimist?

Introvert or extrovert?

Drives and motivations

Talents

Good characteristics

Character flaws

Mannerisms

Peculiarities

Biggest regret

Minor regrets

Biggest accomplishment

Minor accomplishments

Character’s darkest secret

Who (if anyone) knows about it?

How did he/she find out?

One word character would use to describe self.

Complete description of how character describes self.

What does character consider best physical characteristic?

What does character consider worst physical characteristic?

Are these realistic assessments? If not, why?

How does character think others perceive him/her?

What would character change about self? Why?

If that change occurred, would character be as happy as he/she thinks he/she would? Why?

How does character relate with others?

How is he/she perceived by: Strangers? Friends? Lover/Spouse? Hero/heroine?

Character’s first impressions of hero/heroine. Why?

What happens to change that perception?

What do friends and family like most about character?

What do friends and family like least about character?

Immediate goals

Long-range goals

How does he/she plan to see these goals accomplished?

How does he/she react in a crisis?

How does he/she face a problem?

What kind of problems does the character usually have?

How does the character deal with NEW problems?

How does character react to change?

Favorite clothes

Least favorite clothes, and why?

Jewelry

Vehicle, and why?

Places he/she wants to live, and why?

Spending habits (frugal, spendthrift, etc.), and why?

What does he/she do too much of?

Too little of?

Most prized possession, and why?

Who does character secretly admire, and why?

Person character is most influenced by, and why?

Who is the most important person in his/her life before book starts? Why?

How does character spend the week before the book starts?



I also always fill out a Character Grid for my hero, heroine, and bad guy. I need to know their motivations before I can understand why they're doing what they're going to do. 


Character Grid



Hero’s name

Heroine’s name


Inciting Incident

Plot point number one. This is an external event. It’s what takes your hero/heroine out of the ordinary world.


Long Range Goal

This is internal. It’s a part of the character’s self-image. This is what really drives your character toward reaching his/her goals.


Short Range Goal

These are the plot points. You will get most of your scenes from these. They are external.


Character Flaw

This must be something concrete. It is the barrier that keeps the character from being who he/she can be. Change MUST come here in order to achieve resolution and growth. This also ties into the black moment. This flaw will lead the characters to the black moment. Without growth in this area, resolution cannot occur. The long-range goal is linked to this flaw.

.

Relationship Barrier

What’s inside your character to keep him/her from loving. This is distorted thinking. The black moment is grown directly from this barrier which is grown directly out of the character flaw. Avoid misunderstandings here, this must be concrete.


Black Moment

Grown directly from the relationship barrier and character flaw. It is the identity crisis, which means this black moment must crack the character’s life long beliefs. It’s the worst thing that can happen to someone with this specific long-range goal and character flaw and relationship barrier. The black moment occurs because the character won’t give up the long-range goal.

.


Realization

The growth. An epiphany. The character realizes the flaws in his/her beliefs. He/she doesn’t need the long-range goal anymore. Somebody HAS to change.


Resolution

This is an extension of the Realization. One of them HAS to toss away the long-range goal and show he/she has changed and grown to bring about a satisfying resolution to the story.


(NOTES) Misunderstandings create a false sense of tension. A misunderstanding that can be cleared up easily with a frank conversation is not true conflict. Make sure the conflict in your story is something concrete the hero and heroine must overcome.



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Keeping Track of the Characters in Your Series  


 I always create a table in Word to create a Character chart for names, physical descriptions and how they will fit into my story. Every character I introduce or mention in my story has a place on my chart because if your character is talking about them you're going to have to remember what they looked like, where they fit into your character's life and why they're talking about them in the first place. If they're in the book, you'll have to know about them. Possibly not as in depth as your hero, heroine and bad guy, but you'll have to know something in order to write about them. 

Create a spreadsheet or table to organize the characters for each book. Continue to build that spreadsheet or table with each book, but also create a separate one for each book bible.
THE CHARACTER CHART 

Name and nickname
Characters  place in the story
Physical description & other info

















-
 I keep a running character chart because I write SERIES.  And you never know when one of the characters from one book will pop in on another. If that happens, I list the character and all his information in that section of the chart and any changes that might have taken place in their history so I'll know what's happened in their life that may affect how they behave in my story. 

THE TIMELINE FOR A SERIES


Your series time line
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Breaking Free









Hawk & Zoe






Hawk makes Lt. Commander


2012
BREAKING THROUGH









Brett/Tess









Zoe/ Hawk
Zoe has baby








Clara/ Russell

Russel loses his son
2012












2013
Breaking Away

 Flash surfaces







Flash Harold Carney/ Samantha



Flash and Samantha are married


Harold is Senior Petty Officer


Captain James Jackson /






Captian Jackson is now an admiral



2014
Building Ties









Brett & Tess



Brett and Tess Marry Brett is Lt. and has his own team






2014 Breaking Ties









Oliver Shaker/ Selena


Selena survives Cancer and has a new baby


 Oliver is now an Lt and has his own team



2015  Breaking Boundaries









Calahan / Rose




Rose and Calahan are married






2016 Breaking Out









Doc-Zach O’Conor / Piper




Doc has his own team
 Doc and piper are living together and planning a wedding.



2017 Breaking Point









Langley/Trish









2018 Breaking Hearts









Bowie- Reviera / Alaina






Bowie has promoted to LT. and will have his own team.


2019 Breaking Chains











Derrick Armstrong/ Ella Bailey






 Derrick is out of prison and
Is readjusting.

2020 Building Strength  Introducing new team . First story  Bullet









































































 These are just some of the things I'll be covering in my presentation. I'll also be going over using Setting as a character, motivation, and numerous other things. I thought I'd post these few things here on the blog for all writers to enjoy. Feel free to use any of my ideas.  

Write on,
Teresa Reasor 






Comments

You're welcome. Thanks for leaving a comment.
Teresa

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