Create Captivating Characters – How to Heart-Hook Your Reader

Storytelling, ,

Create Captivating Characters. This is what all writers want to do. No doubt about it. The doubt arrives when we come to the How. How do we Create Captivating Characters to inhabit our stories? How do you make them inhabit your story?

Success for the storyteller is all about the characters you create. I’ve said that already in my last post, “Tell Strong Stories – How To Write a Great Main Character.” This is especially true for the storyteller of commercial fiction. The writer who must attract readers in large numbers.

We must Create Captivating Characters who possess the storytelling power to enthrall those readers. These characters captivate because our readers care about what happens to them. Before we explore how, specifically, to make that caring occur, let’s pin down your basics.

If you’re working on a novel now, where are you in that process? Are you at the beginning? If not, let’s imagine you are – either at the beginning or near it. Let’s put Beginner’s Mind to work for us and start from scratch as we explore how to Create Captivating Characters.

First of all, do you have a single, specific Main Character? Most successful stories have one main character. A first among equals who gives the story focus. Reader interest and agent-editor interest are best captured by a single, strong protagonist.

Have you named your single, strong protagonist? Give your main character a name up front, when you begin creating the story. Naming gives characters substance and reality, especially in your own consciousness as their creator. Even though that character name may change later.

If you are not working on a novel now, choose a character from someone else’s story. Use that character for the exercise to come in this post. Feel free to change that character from the original author’s version. My personal choice would be Scout Finch, daughter of Atticus, in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Why is a strong main character so important? Because when we read about his joys, his hopes and dreams. When we witness his admirable qualities in practice, or sometimes the qualities we less readily relate to, as with Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we recognize that this character has something important to lose.

We don’t want this strong main character to lose this important thing. The strength of his portrayal has invaded our imaginations. We identify with him as the valiant person we wish to be. We identify with what happens to him. We’ve been hooked in the heart because we care.

The more we care what happens to your character, the more solidly your story hook is set in us. You are succeeding most spectacularly as a storyteller when you create a character whom we will care about not just a little, but intensely. The way we care about, even weep for, Celie in The Color Purple by Alice Walker.

Make us care about your character, then make us care even more. Start by answering this question for your main character, or the character you are working with today. What, specifically rather than in general, makes us care about this character as she is currently portrayed?

Now, what can you add to that portrayal to make us care even more about her? You have created a character we already care about. We are emotionally tied to her fate. We hope for only good things to happen to her. To make us care even more, you must frustrate our hopes for her.

You must make bad things happen to this character we are growing to love. Circumstances must block her from what she needs. Circumstances that are scary for her must arise. Physically scary and emotionally scary obstacles must explode onto her path.

In other words, you must put your main character into Trouble and Danger. You must make her fate uncertain, preferably perilous. Put her on a roller coaster ride. Most crucial to your success as a storyteller, put us, as your readers, on this thrill ride with her.

Plunge your main character into hot water, then turn up the heat. You have made bad things happen to her, now you must make those bad things worse. Mercy is inappropriate here, no matter how much you have come to love her, as have the rest of us, your readers.

Intense, dramatic, powerful events make your character intense, dramatic and powerful. Trouble and Danger are intense, dramatic and powerful, especially when they inflict themselves upon someone you have made us care about – a lot.

This is the How – How to Create Captivating Characters. Intense, dramatic, powerful characters are Captivating Characters. They captivate us because we can’t take our eyes off them. We can’t take our hearts off them either. We care too much for that to be possible.

Create Captivating Characters and you will have us hooked. We will be hooked by your characters and by you as their author. We will prove how captivated we are by – drum roll please – buying your next book. And, that is something else all writers want. No doubt about it.  Alice Orr – https://www.aliceorrbooks.com

– R|R –

A Time of Fear & LovingAmanda Miller Bryce is a captivating character. Find out why in Alice’s novel A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 5. Meet Amanda HERE. You can find all of Alice’s books HERE.

What readers are saying about A Time of Fear & Loving. “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.”
“A budding romance that sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.”
“The best one yet, Alice!”

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Tell Strong Stories – How to Write a Great Main Character

Storytelling, ,

Tell strong stories. That’s what every writer longs to do. What are strong stories anyway? To conquer an audience and make it your own you must tell a story that moves them. A story that moves them emotionally. Emotional Power is the impact your story must have.

The key to an emotionally moving storytelling is Character. The success of your story hangs on the strength of the main character you create and the way you employ that character as a storyteller. If your goal is to Tell Strong Stories your main character must move the narrative forward emotionally.

Why is your main character so important? Because your protagonist’s story is what connects you with the reader. You draw the reader in and make her care. That’s how you hook a reader. Mastering the art of the narrative hook is essential to writing a successful story.

You set that hook by creating a story in which the reader cannot help but become emotionally involved. First and foremost you do this by creating a character with whom the reader cannot help but become emotionally involved.

Which means that the reader must care about what happens to your character. The reader must begin to behave as if the Protagonist of your story were a real-life person they know personally. Your character’s defeats are the reader’s defeats. Your character’s triumphs are the reader’s triumphs.

When you make your readers feel this connection you have them hooked. And they will stay hooked from beginning to end.

[For example, I was hooked by both Rick and Ilsa in the film Casablanca and wanted both of them to triumph. The conclusion turned out to be more complicated than that, which hooked me deeper still. Those screenwriters knew how to Tell Strong Stories.]

Here’s how to begin creating characters as real as Rick and Ilsa.

#1. First, the character must hook you. You as author must be as emotionally involved with your character as you want the reader to be.

#2. Which requires that you as author must know your character intimately. You must know your characters – especially your main character heroine or hero – from the Inside Out. Which means you must understand as deeply as you possibly can what it’s like to be your protagonist.

Why do you need to know so much about your protagonist? In practical terms, you must know enough to keep your readers reading. You need to know a lot about a character to make her sufficiently complex to carry the weight of your story from the beginning to the end of a book.

You must know enough about this character to bring him to life on the page and make the reader care about him.

[For example, Charles Dickens brought Ebenezer Scrooge to life on the page in A Christmas Carol, and made us care what happened to him as well. Dickens knew Scrooge from the Inside Out.]

Here’s an exercise for getting to know your character from the Inside Out. Project yourself into your main character. Become your main character in your imagination. Then ask yourself the following five questions about that character.

#1. What does my main character want in this story? Is this desire significant enough to make a reader also want this thing for my character? Is this desire significant enough to make a reader want it for my character all the way through the length of an entire book? Or at some point does this desire pale into “Who cares?” territory for the reader?

#2. How much does my main character want this thing? Is this the most crucial need my character has ever experienced? Have I effectively communicated my character’s sense of urgency? How in specific scenes, action and dialogue can I turn up the story heat on the intensity of my main character’s desire?

#3. Why does my main character want this thing? Are her reasons – her motivations – admirable? Are these motivations logical in this story situation? Are her motivations believable to the extent that a reader will accept them as legitimate enough to motivate an intelligent, independent protagonist throughout the entire length of my story? Will a reader not only believe these motives but also adopt them on behalf of my character and root for her to achieve her desires?

#4. What does my main character not want? Is my character running away from something? If so, what is it and why is he on the run from it? Is my character avoiding something? If so, what is he avoiding and why? What is my character afraid of? Why is my character afraid of this thing?

[Here’s another way to Tell Strong Stories in terms of drama, intensity and power. Make sure every character fears something. Especially your main character. For example, what does Scarlett O’Hara fear in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind?]

#5. What’s at stake for my main character in this story situation? What will happen if she fails to achieve what she wants or needs? Are those consequences dreadful enough to make a reader dread them as well? Who in my story besides my main character could also be adversely affected? How in specific scenes, action and dialogue can I intensify these stakes by making the potential consequences more devastating, pervasive and far-reaching? In order to Tell Strong Stories you must raise the stakes as high as your story will allow.

Brainstorm every possible response to each of these questions. Always push yourself beyond the first, most obvious possibility toward less expected, more original ones. The farther reaches of our imaginations are the place from which we Tell Strong Stories.

Alice Orr – https://www.aliceorrbooks.com

– R|R –

Amanda Miller Bryce is the main character of the strong story that is Alice’s new novel A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 5. Meet Amanda HERE. You can find all of Alice’s books HERE.

What readers are saying about A Time of Fear & Loving. “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.”
“A budding romance that sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.”
“The best one yet, Alice!”

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Kayelle Allen’s Book Launch – Bringer of Chaos: Forged in Fire

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Kayelle Allen’s Book Launch. Bringer of Chaos: Forged in Fire tells the inspiring story of Pietas, a hero who is the template of what a hero should be, even when his strength and determination put his very existence in jeopardy. Pietas is the kind of character we want to follow, as his people follow him, because he makes us believe he can and will triumph over impending disaster despite overwhelming odds.

Forged in Fire is the second book in Kayelle’s Bringer of Chaos science-fiction romance series. We discovered Pietas’ dangerous physical world in Book 1. Now Book 2, Forged in Fire, introduces us, and our hero, to the equally dangerous world of emotions. How will Pietas fare in such unfamiliar territory, while he struggles against perilous obstacles at every turn? Don’t miss this wild, other-worldly ride.

About Bringer of Chaos: Forged in Fire

When the immortal Pietas is marooned on a barren world with no food and few survival tools, he knows it could be worse. He could be alone. But that’s the problem. He’s not.

Half a million of his people sleep in cryostasis, trapped inside their pods and it’s up to Pietas to save them. He can’t release one at a time. It’s all or nothing. He’s facing over five hundred thousand hungry, thirsty, homeless, immortals all looking to him for answers.

It’s not all bad. The beautiful telepathic warrior he’s loved for lifetimes is at his side. He’s bonded with a sentient panther. He hates humans but the one dumped on this planet with him has become a trusted friend.

But before Pietas can build shelter, figure out how to grow food, or set up a government, he must take back command from a ruthless enemy he’s fought for centuries. His brutal, merciless father.

Immortals may heal, but a wound of the heart lasts forever…

Available at Amazon and in print. Free on Kindle Unlimited http://amzn.to/2ABIcCI

Excerpt from Bringer of Chaos: Forged in Fire

In this scene from Bringer of Chaos: Forged in Fire, we get a peek at the weird weather on this world. It’s not like Earth’s. It is dangerous to be out in a storm. When a mini-tornado wreaks havoc, Pietas finds himself in an awkward situation.

The sky turned tornado-green. A few fat drops of rain slid down Pietas’s neck, leaving a cold trail in the heat. A few others smacked his hair and face. These scouts warned of the threatening army advancing. Higher up, ominous thunderclouds glowed a menacing pink and orange.

He and the rescue party picked up their pace. In the distance, the oncoming storm blackened the sky. The wind whistled, calling its dogs to hunt.

Icy fingers dragged down his spine. Pietas swallowed, fighting back bile.

The hill they’d crested led down to a jagged claw-rip of darkness, a slash in the velvet forest forming a lightless, foreboding tunnel. The coffin-shaped slice emptied into an abyss of shadow, swallowing every indication of depth and life.

Despite knowing he needed to hurry, Pietas slowed his step, dragging his bare feet through straw-colored grass. Turning in a slow circle, he held out his arms as high as he could and lifted his face to the cloud-covered sun, a child wanting one more minute outdoors before bedtime. He cherished the open air and light, unwilling to relinquish the beauty of his freedom.

“Pietas!” Joss called to him. She’d gotten far ahead. “Come on!”

He started toward her. The forest maw ratcheted open. An unhinged jaw of a snake. An uneven patch of ground beneath a foot cost him his balance. Pietas stumbled, tripped, and threw out his hands to break his fall. He landed on hands and knees and then sat, cross-legged. His scraped palms stung and bled. A potent swear word flew to mind, but he denied it voice.

His sister slowed as she passed, but didn’t speak. If an Ultra did not ask for help, none was offered.

The twins, however, tasked with guarding the party, did stop. Aid was their duty.

“Guys.” Six stooped next to him. “You go ahead. I’ll stay with Pi.”

Pietas flicked his fingers. Without a response, the twins joined Dessy.

Joss looked up and around at the sky. “Pietas, I’ll wait for you.”

“No, go ahead. The rain’s almost here. I’ll join you under the trees.”

When she had gone, he examined his palms. The injury had healed.

“How’s the ankle?”

“Fine, ghost.” He wiped off his hands.

His friend studied him, glanced toward the forest. “Gotcha.” He stood.

When Pietas shifted to rise, Six offered a hand.

“Thanks, but I can manage.” He stood and brushed himself off.

The wind picked that moment to set a dust devil whirling into the sand and dried grasses around them. It flew up, stinging exposed skin.

Six covered his eyes. “Oh, man!”

Pietas shielded his own. The whirlwind ripped the cloth tie holding back his hair and whipped strands into his face. He tried facing into the wind, but the circular current spun the tresses back into his eyes. As fast as it had risen, the wind subsided.

Full of static electricity from the wind and storm, his long settled over his shoulders and adhered to his neck.

Six dug into his pockets. “I have another strip.” They had torn several from a ragged shirt. Six wore the biggest piece around his neck. He set down his pack and opened it.

“Six,” Pietas hissed. He did not turn his head, but looked toward the others. “Leave it!”

The ghost glanced up at him, then the immortals, waiting ahead. “You want the women messing with your hair? Is that it?”

He closed his eyes, counting to ten. To a hundred would not erase this embarrassment. “No.” When he beheld Six, the man had the discourtesy to smirk. “Don’t look at me in that tone of voice.”

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Interview with Kayelle Allen

Forged in Fire is Book 2 in your Bringer of Chaos series. What inspired you to create this science fiction romance world? How did the idea come to you?

I’ve had the idea rattling around since I was a teenager. Honestly. The Bringer of Chaos series steps back in time from my current story universe. I wanted to understand Pietas and I figured the best way to do that was to write his story.

Could you tell us a little about Book 1 – Bringer of Chaos: Origin of Pietas?

Pietas, an Ultra, leads a race of immortals. His psychic gift allows him to manipulate the emotions of others and cause disruptive thoughts. He’s known among his people as the Bringer of Chaos. His loyal troops call him First Conqueror. He earned the title after almost single-handedly wiping out the First Division, a group of human special ops soldiers trained to fight Ultras.

The Ultras were originally created by humans to serve as servants, soldiers, and protectors. Downtrodden and used like slaves, they revolted and followed Pietas. He declared war on humans and the conflict dragged on for centuries. Pietas wanted to eradicate humans as if they were germs. Humans possessed no honor. They lied, cheated, and signed faithless treaties they had no intention of keeping.Following centuries of battle, Pietas learns with dismay that the Ultra High Council has agreed to human peace talks. He suspects a trap, but when his people elect him to the top position in the Council, he complies, intending to disrupt the talks and take over the government. Upon arrival at the talks, his worst fears are realized. Cornered, out of options and with his beloved mother’s immortality at stake, Pietas surrenders to humans.

Now a captive of the people he loathes, Pietas is brutally confined and left for dead on the planet Sempervia. Six, a human soldier who guarded him on their long journey, has become an ally. But only because Pietas cannot survive on his own. He has no intention of letting the human live once they land. Though Six did not personally harm Pietas, he is responsible for his capture and imprisonment.

Once Pietas gets to know Six, listens to him and hears his stories, he begins to question his assumption that all humans are worthless scum. But is the friendship Six offers a means of gaining protection once they locate Pietas’s people, another subversive trap, or the one thing

Pietas has never had in all his long, solitary, endless life: a friend.

To survive and gain his freedom, Pietas must do the one thing he detests. Trust a human…

Your main character, Pietas, is a true hero in every sense of that word. Could you tell us about Pietas, and what makes him so heroic?

I should tell you up front that Pietas has a twin sister. Where he has platinum blond hair and teal blue eyes, Dessy has black hair and eyes the color of a stormy sky. She is his opposite in attitude as well. His motto is “Honor. Always.” Dessy’s is “Winning is everything.” From the time they were seventeen, they have been enemies. I won’t spoil the story by saying why.

His personal code of honor requires Pietas to always tell the truth, no matter how uncomfortable. He makes no attempt to be cruel about it, but he will not bend the truth. At times, he omits details rather than lead a person to a conclusion he could have covered up with a lie. He will find a way to rephrase an answer or outright change the subject. His honor means more to him than life. If there is one force that drives Pietas, it is honor. He does the right thing, even if no one else will ever know.

One of Pietas’s quirks is that he does not use vulgar language. Yes, he’s a soldier. Yes, he hears it “in the trenches.” But to him, such language is a mark of the uneducated. For that reason, there is no profanity in this book.

As a child, Pietas was treated like a soldier. From the time he could hold a weapon, he was taught to kill. The topic at dinner was often, “Tell us a new way to kill humans.” Small wonder he grew up hating them. It was as natural as breathing.

One other thing I was surprised by when I wrote this book. In other stories, Pietas is a narcissist. He knows he’s beautiful and that he’s powerful. What I didn’t know is that being conceited is all a front for his enemies. In reality, he could not care less what he looks like. He chops his hair with a dagger and takes no credit for his appearance, other than his uniform. His father created Pietas to be as perfect as possible, including his looks. He lets his father take the credit for that. It was nothing he earned.

In this book, the fearsome warrior bonds with Tiklaus, a sentient panther who was trained to kill Ultras. Pietas abandons all dignity and rolls in the dirt with the panther. Tiklaus, whose name means Loyal Warrior, follows Pietas like a shadow. When no one’s looking, Pietas scratches the panther’s ears and coos, “Who’s a good kitty?” Tiklaus flops down on his back for a belly rub, content as a pussy cat.

The one thing about Pietas that surprised me the most was how he always puts others before himself. He will give away the last bite of food, sleep on his feet so others can have a bed, and take the first watch — then stay awake all night so they can sleep.

He fears nothing. He’s been through every kind of death you can imagine, and has come out a victor. There is no consequence too great for him to bear. A person with that attitude truly could rule a galaxy.

Pietas forms an unusual and potentially dangerous bond with a character named Six. What makes this relationship unusual for the world of your series? What makes it dangerous?

It’s unusual because Six is human and Pietas is an Ultra. Mortals and immortals have been deadly enemies for centuries. Their battles have devastated whole planets. At one time, in the distant past, humans and Ultras had been friendly. There’s an old saying among Ultras. “Immortals should never befriend mortals. Not because mortals aren’t worthy, but because friendships last their lifetime. Missing a mortal friend lasts yours.”

There are three facets of danger in their friendship. One is that other immortals don’t know Six, don’t trust him, and can’t see past his mortality. The second is that Pietas already has a broken heart and his trust has been shattered. Losing Six would devastate him. The third is because of the second reason, Pietas could lose the confidence and trust of his people. How could he stoop to befriending a human? Scandalous.

Bringer of Chaos: Forged in Fire is a science fiction romance. Could you tell us about the romance in this story?

There are strong romantic elements in this story. When Pietas and Six find the other Ultras, one of the people among the rescue party is Joss Avaton. Joss is a weapons designer and warrior, and she’s also a master telepath who can crush a windpipe with a thought. Pietas is several hundred years her junior. In fact, she’s the same age as his mother, who was her best friend. When Joss meets Pietas, he is in his first life and he’s only seventeen. She is immediately attracted to him but she refuses to get involved with someone so young and inexperienced. Once he reaches about twenty, however, the bond between them sparks into a romance that lasts for centuries. When the story picks up, neither of them can remember why they broke up. But the past is not their focus, and they quickly reunite. While there is romance in this book, there are no on-page sex scenes. Readers who like romance but not graphic details will be comfortable reading this story.

What’s next for you, Kayelle? Do you plan another addition to the Bringer of Chaos series?

I’m already at work on Bringer of Chaos: Watch Your Six. This book will have a lot more about Six. Anyone who’s read the stories so far knows that Six is not his real name. He refused to reveal his true name to protect his family. Although he trusts Pietas, he would not put it past the others to find a way to slaughter them. After all, they’re human and humans exiled Ultras to Sempervia. In Watch Your Six, we’ll finally learn his name. But how and why? That will be a special reveal. There is more with Tiklaus as well and with Joss. Dessy will be back. Pietas’s sister is like a bad penny. And the hate-hate relationship between Pietas and his father will continue.

Thank you for letting me share my immortal king with you and your readers.

About Kayelle Allen

Kayelle Allen did a tour in the US Navy, where she climbed around airplanes (on the ground, thankfully) fixing black boxes that helped pilots find their way home.

She wrote her first science fiction novel at 18 and to this day, it’s hidden under the bed, where she vows it will remain. Gems from it, however, launched several series in her galaxy-wide universe of stories.

From childhood, Kayelle was the victim of an overactive imagination and inherited the Irish gift of gab from her mother. From her father, she got a healthy respect for mechanical things.

No wonder she writes Science Fiction and Fantasy peopled with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role-playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She’s been married so long she’s tenured. Welcome to Kayelle Allen’s Book Launch – Bringer of Chaos: Forged in Fire.

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Dear Friends. Thanks to Kayelle for being with us today. I suspect you have heard the drumbeat of both the thrilling pace and warm heart of her stories in everything you have read here. Begin your new year with the thrill and warmth of  Bringer of Chaos: Forged in Fire.  Blessings. Alice

TAGS: Series Novels, Second Chance Love, Story Ideas, Guest Blogging