Tag Archives: Creating Characters

It’s a Wonderful Writer’s Life

November 29, 2022Writer InspirationCreating Characters, Storytelling, Writing TipAlice Orr

It’s a Wonderful Writer’s Life. The holiday season is filled with fullness. Days full of activities. To-Do lists full of responsibilities. Hearts full of feeling. Heads full of memories. And – for the storyteller in you – a house full of fabulous secondary characters. Whether they are in your actual residence or not, they are there. Eager to enrich your pages.

Think of Yourself as the Hostess at a Party of Fiction Inspiration. These are your honored guests, ready to be honored further by your imagination. You are the creative force and they are the raw material for your creations. Each one is wrapped up bright and sparkly. Each one is a gift waiting to be opened by you and invited into the world of your story.

Think of Frank Kapra and It’s a Wonderful Life. He and his co-writers adapted an obscure short story into a classic. In Philip Van Doren Stern’s The Greatest Gift, the main character witnesses his world as it would be if he had never existed. Kapra and company changed his name from George Pratt to George Bailey, and the saga of a 75-year-old holiday hit began.

Think of How They Populated George’s World. Henry Potter, the villain we love to hate. Mary Bailey, the steadfast mate. Uncle Billy, the family screwup. Clarence, the angel second class. Who fails to smile when he appears on screen? Plus – Bert, Ernie, Violet, brother Harry, friend Sam. And Bedford falls – a town full of unforgettable secondary characters.

Each of Them is a Character Type. Each type is defined by a dominating character trait. Greed. Loyalty. Forgetfulness. Optimism. Each behaves according to the dictates of this personality definition. They do not step beyond its bounds. Their job is to maintain that predictability. Significantly, because of them, It’s a Wonderful Writer’s Life.

Recollect a Holiday Gathering from Your Personal Past or Present. A family fixture. An office party. A community event. Imagine yourself there and look around you. In your mind’s eye, tag each person with their dominant character trait. Feel free to take creative license with the portrayal. This is your Bedford Falls. Populate it with whomever you prefer.

Remember these are Secondaries – Not Your Hero. But each of them is connected to your hero and affects her life in some way that benefits your story. Find the villain first. There he is in a corner making somebody uncomfortable. Find your hero’s mate or best friend next. Smiling and taking care of things and people because that is what he or she does.

Continue this Exercise by Identifying One Character Type After Another. These folks fill the streets of your Bedford Falls. They surround your hero and move her story forward – or backward – as your storyline requires. They expand your fictional world and give it real life dimensions. They are the people of your plot and their roles are anything but secondary.

Without these Characters Your Story is a Hollow Shell. Your hero’s world is hollow also. These characters give your reader a sense of your hero’s community. They give your reader individuals to identify with, to root for or rally against. These characters make your work resonate on the page. They cause you to rejoice that It’s a Wonderful Writer’s Life.

Alice Orr Says – 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 Orr – Teacher. Storyteller. Former Literary Agent. Blogs for Writers. Author of 14 novels, 2 novellas and a memoir so far. Wrote No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves.

Alice’s Holiday Novel – A Vacancy at the Inn – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 3 – is available HERE. Celebrate the Season!

How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side - www.aliceorrbooks.com

Praise for A Vacancy at the Inn. “Grabbed me right away and swept me up in the lives of Bethany and Luke.” “Undercurrents of suspense move the story along at an irresistible pace.” “The Miller family is rife with personality quirks, an authentic touch that demonstrates Alice Orr’s skill as a writer.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.”

All of Alice’s Books are HERE.

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Inspire Yourself to Inspire Your Story Characters

October 12, 2022Storytellingam Writing, Creating Characters, Story Conflict, Writing TipAlice Orr

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.

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.

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Story Characters We Have Seen Too Often

September 28, 2022Storytellingam Writing, Creating Characters, Writing, Writing TipAlice Orr

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.