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 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 step: The choice
creates obstacles to solving the situation.
First
Kiss
4th step: Another
choice, More problems, situation worsens. The character makes another
choice, which causes more problems and the situation worsens.
First
Time They Make Love
5th step: More
choices, more obstacles.
The more choices a character makes, the more
obstacles will fall into his/her path.
Gray
Moment
6th step: The
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
|
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Reason/Meaning of name
|
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Nickname & Meaning
|
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Age – how
old does he/she look?
|
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Eye color –
glasses or contacts?
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Hair color –
wears hair how?
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Weight –
height – type of build?
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Skin tone –
skin type?
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Facial shape
– distinguishing marks?
|
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Predominant
(favorite) features?
|
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Looks like?
|
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Is he/she
healthy?
|
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Fav color
|
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Fav music
|
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Fav food
|
|
Fav
literature
|
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Fav
expression
|
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Fav
expletives
|
|
Smokes?
What? When and how much?
|
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Drinks?
What? When and how much?
|
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Hobbies?
|
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Hometown
|
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Type of
childhood
|
|
First memory
|
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Most important
event that still affects character? Why?
|
|
Education?
|
|
Religion?
Practicing? Why/why not?
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Financial
|
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Mother
|
|
Relationship
with her
|
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Father
|
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Relationship
with him
|
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Siblings
|
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How many?
|
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Birth order
|
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Relationship
with each
|
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Children of
siblings
|
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Most at ease
when…
|
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Most ill at
ease when…
|
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Priorities
|
|
Philosophy
|
|
How he/she
feels about self
|
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Past
failures he/she would be most embarrassed to have people know
|
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If granted
one wish, what would it be, and why?
|
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Greatest
source of strength in character’s personality (whether he/she recognizes it
as such or not).
|
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Greatest
source of weakness in character’s personality (whether he/she recognizes it
as such or not).
|
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Character’s
soft spot
|
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Is this
obvious to others? If not, why not?
|
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Biggest
vulnerability, why?
|
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Is he/she an
optimist or pessimist?
|
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Introvert or
extrovert?
|
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Drives and
motivations
|
|
Talents
|
|
Good
characteristics
|
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Character
flaws
|
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Mannerisms
|
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Peculiarities
|
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Biggest
regret
|
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Minor
regrets
|
|
Biggest
accomplishment
|
|
Minor accomplishments
|
|
Character’s
darkest secret
|
|
Who (if
anyone) knows about it?
|
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How did
he/she find out?
|
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One word character
would use to describe self.
|
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Complete
description of how character describes self.
|
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What does character
consider best physical characteristic?
|
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What does character
consider worst physical characteristic?
|
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Are these
realistic assessments? If not, why?
|
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How does
character think others perceive him/her?
|
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What would
character change about self? Why?
|
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If that
change occurred, would character be as happy as he/she thinks he/she would?
Why?
|
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How does
character relate with others?
|
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How is he/she
perceived by: Strangers? Friends? Lover/Spouse? Hero/heroine?
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Character’s
first impressions of hero/heroine. Why?
|
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What happens to
change that perception?
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What do friends
and family like most about character?
|
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What do friends
and family like least about character?
|
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Immediate
goals
|
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Long-range
goals
|
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How does
he/she plan to see these goals accomplished?
|
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How does
he/she react in a crisis?
|
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How does
he/she face a problem?
|
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What kind of
problems does the character usually have?
|
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How does the
character deal with NEW problems?
|
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How does
character react to change?
|
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Favorite
clothes
|
|
Least
favorite clothes, and why?
|
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Jewelry
|
|
Vehicle, and
why?
|
|
Places
he/she wants to live, and why?
|
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Spending
habits (frugal, spendthrift, etc.), and why?
|
|
What does
he/she do too much of?
|
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Too little
of?
|
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Most prized
possession, and why?
|
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Who does character
secretly admire, and why?
|
|
Person character is most
influenced by, and why?
|
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Who is the most important
person in his/her life before book starts? Why?
|
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How does character spend
the week before the book starts?
|
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.
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Short Range Goal
These are the plot points.
You will get most of your scenes from these. They are external.
|
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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.
|
.
|
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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.
|
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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.
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(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.
Name and nickname
|
Characters place in the story
|
Physical description & other info
|
-
Your series time line
2011
|
2012
|
2013
|
2014
|
2015
|
2016
|
2017
|
2018
|
2019
|
2020
|
Breaking Free
|
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Hawk & Zoe
|
Hawk makes Lt. Commander
|
||||||||
2012
BREAKING THROUGH
|
|||||||||
Brett/Tess
|
|||||||||
Zoe/ Hawk
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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 /
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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
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|||||||||
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
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|||||||||
Doc-Zach O’Conor / Piper
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Doc has his own team
|
Doc and piper are
living together and planning a wedding.
|
|||||||
2017 Breaking Point
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|||||||||
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
|
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Comments
Teresa