By Aurorahouse2024 Author Articles • Writing Tips • • • 0 Comments

How to Bring Your Characters to Life

Some people may try and tell you that creating characters for your novel is as easy as selecting an age, gender, hair colour, and goal. But it’s not that simple. If you want your characters to compel readers to care about them enough to read your entire novel, then you have to do a lot better than create a few generic character features. You have to imbue your characters with enough life that they reach out of your novel and yank readers into their world, taking them on an adventure they’ll never forget. Here are four tips to help you achieve this:

Avoid cliché characters

A cliché character is someone who fills a certain stereotype. The Knight in Shining Armour is an example of a cliché character. This type of character is strong, brave, ridiculously good-looking, and runs around saving Damsels in Distress—another type of cliché character. He is also incredibly boring and predictable. Now I’m not saying that your story can’t have a good-hearted knight in it. But if it does, you need to break free of the Knight in Shining Armour stereotype by adding a twist. For example, instead of your knight being fearless, he could be terrified of water because when he was a boy his father tried to drown him along with his mother. Or maybe he’s a knight who doesn’t believe in violence. Small details like this add more depth to your character.

Show don’t tell

Yes, I know, that phrase is repeated on a daily basis to writers, but it’s great advice for bringing your characters to life. Instead of telling readers that your protagonist is hot-tempered and hates ice-cream, show them. Have your protagonist toss an ice-cream cone on the ground in disgust before kicking over the ice-cream vendor’s cart. Showing readers what your character is liker rather than telling them will help readers see them as people rather than as words on paper.

Give each of your characters a defining feature and mannerisms

Generally in novels, there are a wide range of characters whom readers are expected to keep track of. If you’re giving each character a standard description of hair and eye colour, then your readers will probably see your characters as a blur, struggling to differentiate each one. To avoid this, you should give your characters a defining feature, an attribution that sets them apart such as always smelling like jasmine, having oily lank hair, or having an obsession with wearing diamante headbands. Once you’ve worked out your character’s defining feature, you should consider what mannerisms they have. Why are mannerisms important? Because everyone has mannerisms—little habits they’ve developed over the years such as twirling their hair when they’re thinking. These little details really help make your characters more realistic. Some examples of mannerisms include: tilting head slightly to the right when listening to someone talk, fiddling with necklace when nervous, smacking lips together when eating etc.

Give your characters a life story

This is where the magic happens. This is where characters transform from words on paper into three-dimensional people. If you do this part correctly, you’ll know because your characters will outgrow you. They will cut themselves free from your pen and tell you what’s going to happen from now on, instead of the other way around—much like a defiant teenager who’s had enough of you controlling their life.

So how do you do this? By asking questions, lots and lots and lots of questions. The basic questions to start with are what is your goal? Why is this your goal? What’s holding you back from achieving your goal? These questions establish the basic foundation of a character; they reveal the character’s purpose and their motivation behind it. While these questions are enough to create a character, they’re not enough to bring a character to life. For that you need to ask more personal questions; you need to imagine your character has an entire life outside of your story and find out what happens in that life. Ask questions such as what are your flaws? What is your happiest childhood memory? What is your biggest regret? What’s your favourite hobby? What are your pet peeves? And for each question you ask, you should always ask why, because it provides the motive and tells you more about your character. For example, if your character answered that their favourite hobby is painting, you can assume they’re creative. But if you ask them why it’s their favourite hobby, they might answer that it’s because their mother was a painter before she died, and that painting offers a connection to her. So instead of your character just being creative, you learn that they had a close relationship with their mother and painting is a way for them to try and re-access it. These little defining details are really what bring a character to life.

A great way to flesh out your characters and uncover their life story is to fill out a character development worksheet. This way instead of you coming up with questions, you can just answer the ones provided for you. A simple Internet search will provide plenty of character development worksheets. Not every question will apply to your character, so only answer the ones that are applicable. 

Sarah, Editor at Aurora House

By Aurorahouse2024 Author Articles • Writing Tips • • • • 0 Comments

How to Battle through Writer’s Block

You’ve woken up, eaten breakfast, and have sat down in front of your laptop. You open the file titled Best Selling Novel and push open the door in your mind that grants you access to the fictional world you’ve spent the past few months creating. You poise your fingers above your laptop’s keyboard, ready to glimpse what happens next in your story. But fog swirls around you when you step through the door, concealing your view. You stumble forward, calling your characters’ names. But only silence greets you.

This horrifying scenario is known as Writer’s Block, and symptoms include:

  • Staring at a blank Word document for extended periods of time
  • Banging your fists against your keyboard
  • Frequent trips to the kitchen and bathroom (aka procrastination)
  • Slamming your laptop shut
  • Yelling
  • And, in severe cases, crying

Now having Writer’s Block is nothing to be ashamed of; it’s generally guaranteed that you’ll suffer from Writer’s Block at least once in your life—okay, probably more like several hundred times. One day, after spending weeks pouring words onto paper, you’re going to sit down and find that you’ve got absolutely nothing to write. Not a single word. Your mind is a complete blank. But don’t worry, there are ways to re-trigger your muse and gain access back into the world you created.

1. Walk away

Staring at a laptop screen and willing words to appear may work, but it will most likely give you a headache—or make you want to toss your laptop over the balcony so you don’t have to stare at that blinking cursor in Word, which you’re pretty sure is mocking you. It’s better to walk away and do something else, because your subconscious mind is an amazing thing and will continue working on bypassing your Writer’s Block while you go for a run, clean the house, or even just sleep. If your subconscious manages to succeed in spying the next section of your novel, it’ll send you a memo—also known as a light bulb blinking to life above your head.

2. Grab a pen and paper

If you’ve been typing your novel on a laptop, I recommend changing to pen and paper. There is something freeing about scribbling in a notebook. Probably that you can write without Word being a Grammar Nazi and underlining every second word in red or green, making your feel like you never should have graduated Year 1 English. Instead you can focus purely on the story and avoid being distracted by highlighted spelling and grammar errors—things you can correct later.

There’s also the added bonus that you can sit down and write anywhere when you’ve got pen and paper, like the beach or an isolated cabin in the woods, and you never have to worry about your pen’s battery dying like you do with a laptop.

 

3. Try free writing

Free writing is basically where you write and write and write and write. Don’t panic, there is a time limit on how long you have to write for. I generally find 10 minutes is a good time to start with. All you have to do is set a timer, focus on your story, and keep your pen moving until the timer runs out.

It doesn’t matter what you write, as long as you write something. If your mind is a complete blank when the timer starts, then write my mind is a complete blank over and over again until something else pops into your head—hopefully the next chapter in your novel. But if the best you can come up with is Charlotte likes ice cream sundaes sprinkled with chocolate flakes that’s fine. Set the timer for another 10 minutes, and you’ll probably find your mind is a lot clearer, enough to squeeze out one sentence that triggers a tidal wave of words to shatter your Writer’s Block.

Now before you run off to start free writing, there are a few rules:

  1. Keep writing until the timer runs out.
  2. Do not correct any spelling or grammatical errors you make—throw out basic English rules for this exercise. No one will read what you write but you, so don’t be embarrassed.
  3. Do not re-read anything you’ve written until the timer runs out.
  4. Have fun. Free writing is all about letting go and unleashing your subconscious.

I know sometimes it feels as though Writer’s Block will never pass, and that you’ll have to move your novel into a folder marked Dead Projects, but I promise it will. One day a vortex will open in the sky and suck up the fog surrounding you, revealing the fictional world you created as well as your characters. You just have to be patient.

By Aurorahouse2024 Author Articles • Writing Tips • • • • 0 Comments

How to Battle through Writer's Block

You’ve woken up, eaten breakfast, and have sat down in front of your laptop. You open the file titled Best Selling Novel and push open the door in your mind that grants you access to the fictional world you’ve spent the past few months creating. You poise your fingers above your laptop’s keyboard, ready to glimpse what happens next in your story. But fog swirls around you when you step through the door, concealing your view. You stumble forward, calling your characters’ names. But only silence greets you.
This horrifying scenario is known as Writer’s Block, and symptoms include:

  • Staring at a blank Word document for extended periods of time
  • Banging your fists against your keyboard
  • Frequent trips to the kitchen and bathroom (aka procrastination)
  • Slamming your laptop shut
  • Yelling
  • And, in severe cases, crying

Now having Writer’s Block is nothing to be ashamed of; it’s generally guaranteed that you’ll suffer from Writer’s Block at least once in your life—okay, probably more like several hundred times. One day, after spending weeks pouring words onto paper, you’re going to sit down and find that you’ve got absolutely nothing to write. Not a single word. Your mind is a complete blank. But don’t worry, there are ways to re-trigger your muse and gain access back into the world you created.

  1. Walk away

Staring at a laptop screen and willing words to appear may work, but it will most likely give you a headache—or make you want to toss your laptop over the balcony so you don’t have to stare at that blinking cursor in Word, which you’re pretty sure is mocking you. It’s better to walk away and do something else, because your subconscious mind is an amazing thing and will continue working on bypassing your Writer’s Block while you go for a run, clean the house, or even just sleep. If your subconscious manages to succeed in spying the next section of your novel, it’ll send you a memo—also known as a light bulb blinking to life above your head.
 

  1. Grab a pen and paper

If you’ve been typing your novel on a laptop, I recommend changing to pen and paper. There is something freeing about scribbling in a notebook. Probably that you can write without Word being a Grammar Nazi and underlining every second word in red or green, making your feel like you never should have graduated Year 1 English. Instead you can focus purely on the story and avoid being distracted by highlighted spelling and grammar errors—things you can correct later.
There’s also the added bonus that you can sit down and write anywhere when you’ve got pen and paper, like the beach or an isolated cabin in the woods, and you never have to worry about your pen’s battery dying like you do with a laptop.
 

  1. Try free writing

Free writing is basically where you write and write and write and write. Don’t panic, there is a time limit on how long you have to write for. I generally find 10 minutes is a good time to start with. All you have to do is set a timer, focus on your story, and keep your pen moving until the timer runs out.
It doesn’t matter what you write, as long as you write something. If your mind is a complete blank when the timer starts, then write my mind is a complete blank over and over again until something else pops into your head—hopefully the next chapter in your novel. But if the best you can come up with is Charlotte likes ice cream sundaes sprinkled with chocolate flakes that’s fine. Set the timer for another 10 minutes, and you’ll probably find your mind is a lot clearer, enough to squeeze out one sentence that triggers a tidal wave of words to shatter your Writer’s Block.
Now before you run off to start free writing, there are a few rules:

  1. Keep writing until the timer runs out.
  2. Do not correct any spelling or grammatical errors you make—throw out basic English rules for this exercise. No one will read what you write but you, so don’t be embarrassed.
  3. Do not re-read anything you’ve written until the timer runs out.
  4. Have fun. Free writing is all about letting go and unleashing your subconscious.

I know sometimes it feels as though Writer’s Block will never pass, and that you’ll have to move your novel into a folder marked Dead Projects, but I promise it will. One day a vortex will open in the sky and suck up the fog surrounding you, revealing the fictional world you created as well as your characters. You just have to be patient.