Inspire Yourself to Inspire Your Story Characters

Storytelling, , ,

Inspire Yourself to Inspire Your Story Characters. This is an Exercise. Go somewhere public. Sit down in a spot where you can take notes inconspicuously. Pick a person from the crowd whom you do not know personally. Do not overthink your choice. Trust the writerly instinct you surely possess that this person will be the right subject for this exercise.

Write Down Answers to the Questions Below. These are your observations and interpretations. Do not worry about the actual truth. Write fast. Free your imagination to fly while this complete stranger lifts you to the sky. Trust the storytelling magic you also surely possess. Enjoy the ride.

His Outward Physical Appearance. Study his face. His eyes,  his mouth, his other features.  How is he dressed? Describe his hair – its length, color, style. What do his clothes and hairdo suggest about his personality? What about him prompted him to make these particular choices? Take a guess.

Her Physical Actions. How does she move? Her walk.The way she holds and moves her limbs.  The way she turns her head. What distinctive mannerisms does she display? What distinctive mannerisms can you imagine her displaying? Spread your wings wider. Invent some tics, visible hints at her inner nature, that offer insights into who she might be.

His External Extraordinariness. What is this person’s most significant physical feature? The thing in his appearance, and the way he carries himself in the world, that other people are not likely to forget. Feel free to invent what may only exist in your mind’s eye. Inspire Yourself to Inspire Your Story Characters.

Her Story. Your imagination is in full flight now. What does she want most in life? Make this the most crucial and urgent need she has ever experienced. Why does she desire this thing so much?

His Inner Character.  Are the reasons for his needs and ardent desires admirable? Why are they admirable, or why are they not? Are his motivations logical? Do they make sense or not, and why? Are his needs mentally healthy, or are they deranged? How deranged is he? Again, you are imagining all of this for yourself on the fly. Do not clip your wings.

Her Fears.  What does she dread and why? Imagine that she is running away from something. What is she trying to escape, and why?  What, specifically, (events or persons) has  caused her to be so worried, or even afraid? How will she decide what to do? What will that decision be?

His Predicament and  Dilemma. What is at stake for him in this situation? What will happen to him if he fails to achieve what he desires and needs? What will happen to others he cares  about? Make these possible consequences dire.

Her Obstacles. What will get in the way of her achieving what she desires and needs? Why are these forces or people determined that she should not succeed? What in her history with them has set them so adamantly against her? Make these obstacles formidable.

 Your Experience. What is your emotional response to this person you have created, and why? What has it felt like for you to perform this  exercise – this process of character invention and inspiration? How do you feel now at its completion?

Your Work. Most important, how can you adapt this person – this character of your creation – to fit into your own writing work? Preferably into the story you are currently writing, or the story you would most like to write next.

Meanwhile, You have Soared. You have inspired yourself to ride a bolt of imagination lightning powered by your own creativity rocket fuel. The accelerant you surely carry within you always. Feel free to fire up and take off into the stratosphere with every story you write. Inspire Yourself to Inspire Your Story Characters.

Alice Orr – You Possess Storytelling Magic. Keep on Writing Whatever May Occur. https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

ASK ALICE Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask your question in the Comments section at the end of this post.

Alice has published 16 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves. Her novel – A Wrong Way Home – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 1 – is a free gift for you HERE.

A Wrong Way Home

Praise for A Wrong Way Home: “The story twists and turns masterfully into danger and romance.” “I highly recommend this page-turner which is romance and suspense at its best.” “The writing is exquisite.”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

Story Characters We Have Seen Too Often

Storytelling, , ,

Story Characters We Have Seen Too Often.  I once made a wish that I would never be bored. When life turns chaotic, I sometimes think better of that wish. But, most of the time, boredom is something very few of us enjoy. Especially not your readers. Especially not boredom with your story characters.

A Character who is More a Type than a Person can Put Your Reader to Sleep. We have read him too many times. Her behavior is too easily predictable. They are monotonous to the max. Imagine how true that is for an editor or agent, confronting submission after submission, brain deadened by hackneyed characters at every turn.

The Spark of Your Story is Snuffed Out by such Functionaries. A cliché does even worse. The crusty, but benign older gentleman. The doddering, but foxy grand dame. The good-hearted prostitute. The down-at-the-heels detective with a bitter edge. Feel free to add more dullards to the list.

These are Types, Known Mainly for a Pair of Characteristics. They inevitably behave according to this two-dimensional signature. They possess limited life and no real emotional depth. Any appendage that comes with them, a  bothersome pet or broken-down car or endless peeve, is a functionary also, adding nothing of substance to the forward movement of your story.

The Usual Purpose of these Characters is to Impact the Hero in Some Limited Way. Beyond that, they have no meaningful significance. This limited role does not justify their presence, if you mean your story to have substance. The last thing you want to create is a narrative populated by stick figures who essentially have no real clue why they are there. Worse still, your reader has no clue either.

Your Purpose is to Give Each Character, however Minor, a Soul. He lives in your reader’s consciousness beyond his few scenes in your story. You may portray only brief moments of her life, but they are real moments. He is not on of those Story Characters We Have Seen Too Often. She enriches your story and deepens the complications surrounding your hero.

As the Storyteller, You must Know  Each Character Well. Even the minor character. You must feel her as a living, breathing being. Then, borrow a slice of that breathing life to insert into your story. Do so at a juncture where this character encounters the conflicted circumstances of your hero and affects those circumstances in an important way.

Here are a Couple of Characters who Accomplish None of That. First, meet Lucy the airhead. Worse than out-of-date in today’s take-charge woman world, she is constructed of cardboard. She is too often overly sexy in a wide-eyed, ingenuous way. She blunders into catastrophe and stays there until she is rescued, usually by a man. Like I said, out-of-date.

Another Character in Need of Update is Cal the Commitmentphobe. We have definitely seen too much of this guy, especially in romance and women’s fiction. His character signature is that he refuses to get into a meaningful relationship, no matter what. He has been burned in the past, blah, blah, blah. He loves his freedom, blah, blah, blah. Cal is a cliché.

I Suspect You Know What is Lacking in these Characters. And also lacking in others like them. Their behavior has no depth. Their motivations are commonplace and shallow. They are familiar because we have unfortunately encountered them before in way too many stories. Once again, feel free to add your own cliche examples to the list.

Police Your Work for their Possible Presence. Choose to improve these story slackers or eject them. For example, with some re-thinking, Cal could become a three-dimensional man. Lucy, however, may be beyond reclamation. Let her rest in peace on the rejection pile. Make certain your story isn’t languishing, by way of boredom, beside her, among Story Characters We Have Seen Too Often.

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

ASK ALICE Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask your question in the Comments section at the end of this post.

Alice has published 16 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves. Her  novel – A Wrong Way Home – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 1 – is a free gift for you HERE.

A Wrong Way Home

Praise for A Wrong Way Home: “The story twists and turns masterfully into danger and romance.” “I highly recommend this page-turner which is romance and suspense at its best.” “The writing is exquisite.”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

The Writer and Her Handsome Prince

Storytelling, ,

The Writer and Her Handsome Prince. Once upon a time – 50 years ago this coming Friday –  I was too harried to be nervous. The next many hours would be my wedding gift to almost-husband Jonathan. He had no idea what I had planned.

A hundred details were yet to be addressed. As always I had made many lists. Thank heaven for that because soon our little house on Burnup Road would be overrun by my womenfriends impatient to launch the day’s events.

This was a homemade wedding from the start. Everything my previous marriage that crashed and burned had never been. No silver embossed matchbooks here. Only the golden-hearted efforts of our community of friends.

The cake baked by someone’s roommate. Turkeys and hams from the ovens of our mothers in law. Hors d’oeuvres and salads concocted in our own kitchen by my sister social workers as the sink filled up with veggie peelings.

They forced me out of there eventually. Off with a self-appointed gaggle of girlfriends to be gowned in hippie homespun still waiting for a hem. My long hair was straight as usual until they advanced on me with curling irons. The brocade slippers on my feet were supposed to keep me from stumbling down the aisle.

I honestly cannot remember getting to the church. Jonathan and I walked to the altar together. Nobody owned me so I did not need to be given away. Neither did he.

I had designed the ceremony to reflect the depth of our love. Still, what happened that late afternoon astonished even me because of the passion of the players. A profound reading from a beloved literary friend. A soulful song composed and performed by my brother. An inspired blessing by a former priest in flowing robes. Jonathan reveled in everything as I had hoped he would.

There were surprises also that I had not planned. Gorgeous baskets for my bridesmaids created by my young son from wildflowers and roses. A vintage Cadillac at the church door to whisk us away with wild applause as a sendoff. A bathtub filled with ice and champagne bottles by our work place friends for our Black River house reception.

All day long enough anecdotes were born to feed a lifetime of memories. Moments that caught in our hearts. Moments to split your seams with laughter. Moments bathed by tears. Moments as sunlit as the bouquet of yellow roses I never tossed to anyone because I could not bear to let it go.

I have written thousands plus thousands of words since then. But this is the first time I have written about that day when we were so very brand new. When I was yet to write anything much at all and Jonathan was yet to become my great encourager of every page that followed.

Meanwhile 50 years of real-life stories have been lived. Adventure. Struggle. Triumph. Disappointment. Joy. Astonishment. Regret. Celebration. Tragedy too because our long time together has been reality not fairy tales after all. Yet to this day we blessedly remain – The Writer and Her Handsome Prince.

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

ASK ALICE Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask that question in the Comments section following this post. Share your writer’s journey and inspire future posts.

Alice has published 16 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves. Her  novel – A Wrong Way Home – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 1 – is another free gift for you HERE.

A Wrong Way Home

Praise for A Wrong Way Home: “The story twists and turns masterfully into danger and romance.” “I highly recommend this page-turner which is romance and suspense at its best.” “The writing is exquisite.”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/