WriYe Blogging Cricle: Characters and Names

Characters: How do you come up with your characters? Do you pull from real life and people you know or someplace else? Do you have a hard time with characterization or find it a breeze? 

Bonus: Names: How do you come up with names? 

They kind of just come to me. I usually figure out the plot first and the characters fall into place. Sometimes a name really sticks with me or a picture I see on Pinterest and it starts an idea that grows. My character develops with it. There are times when I have the characters in my head but they don't have names so I give them a temporary name until one finally fits the character.

I don't pull characters from real life or people I know. A character might have a certain trait, but I would never base a full character off of someone I knew. It would be too weird for me because I don't feel like I know people well enough to actually write about them in my story and it makes me a little uncomfortable. So, I stick with creating my own characters with maybe a trait or two from someone I know. Do this makes it less complicated.

Sometimes I do have a hard time with characterization. My MC for Hourglass was a lot harder for me to get into his head but after a few exercises I was able to do some. Also, the writing group I'm a part of really loves doing character building so I pulled a lot from that as well. I might not have joined them for their fun but I certainly learned by reading back on what they did. Maybe next time I'll join them. 

Bonus Answer: Sometimes I meet someone with a really cool name. I work with kids and some of the children that pass through the center have some interesting names but I don't always use them. I usually get my names from a baby names website. The one I've been using a lot has been Nameberry. I've also been "collecting" names in a file called "name bank" that I can reference if I need a name quickly. I can access it anywhere so it makes it easy to add more names to it as I hear them.

Character Driven vs. Plot Driven

It's amazing how many people don't know the difference between character-driven stories and plot-driven stories. It's pretty self explanatory. To make it as simple as possible, character-driven stories usually always deals with more of an internal focus. This is where the story is more about the character changes throughout the book more than the outside forces. Plot-driven stories are more external. The things happening around your character are what drives the story.

There should be a good mixture of both aspects in a novel but writers tend to lean heavily toward one compared to the other. Knowing which one you tend favor can really help you direct your story.

I'm the kind of person who tends to favor plot-driven stories especially for my fantasy and science fiction novels and novellas. I like  having the external conflict be the main drive of my story. Getting to a deep emotional level and having that drive it, is really hard for me but with the novel I'm currently revising for publication, I've discovered that it's heavily character-driven.

How can I tell? Well, my characters emotional and mental state are huge factors on what's going on around him. I color-coded my main plot, my series plots (over reaching plots) and my subplots. So when I outlined, I could see how it all fit. My character's emotional and mental state ended up being huge and crucial for the story and his development also becomes a cause of some of the events that happen in this series. (I will probably write a blog post about this Friday.)

If I had to compare it to my novella The Survival Agreement, I would have to say that they are completely different in terms of style. The story is being moved by the plot and the situations that my characters have to go through. Their internal conflicts aren't prominent. They are important but not heavily brought up. (Does that make sense?)

Normally, I write lists for these blog posts but I feel like this one is fairly simple. I mostly wanted to bring up this topic because I struggled creating an outline for my novel due to the fact that I didn't realize how character-driven it was. So, it's good to know your style.

Luca Moran from Mirror Magic

This week, in order to get ready for NaNoWriMo in less than a month, answer the following questions about as many of your characters as you’d like.

I saw this and thought it would go well with my blog post about getting to know your characters. This might be a fun way to get you started. 

I've decided to just do my main character, Luca. The story will remain in her point of view throughout both novels so it's good to start there. There is a reason why she is named Luca but that will be explained later.

Full name: Luca Moran (Female)
Birthday: December 3
Hair Color:  White (used to be brown when she was younger)
Eye Color: Gray
General appearance: She looks very washed out when it comes to color but she is lanky and looks homeless because she is. Her clothes get torn from traveling constantly. What really makes her stand up is the mark in the middle of her forehead known as the "Gods' Mark" that makes her stand out more.
Personality-type (this can either be Meyer-Briggs or you can write out their personality): Since I don't want to do the personality test for her or any of my characters, I'll just write it out. She can be shy at first, mostly because of what happened to her. She is weak, physically, and doesn't know how to fight at all. She gets anxious when dealing with something she's never encountered before - which is a lot. Despite being weak physically, she has a strong sense of will and is pushes her to continue on. She tends to think about things logically and is wary about jumping in blindly.

 I did not create this myself. If you would like to find this for your own blog, click on the image below.

Know Your Characters

Knowing your character is a must when writing your novel. They are usually a selling point to most stories since you want your readers to connect with them. So, you want to know all about your character and how they will react to things, to make them seem more believable.

This is a task that can happen differently for each character but for this post, it's about developing your main character.

• What is your character's name and age? These are pretty basic when it comes to writing but they can be important. Age will explain a lot of things about how they view things. How the world sees them. Their experiences as well. A 30-something-year-old is going to have way more experiences than a 16-year-old.

• What changed in their life that made this story important? I've read a lot about characters and this is a common thing that comes up. Something has to change in the character's normal life. So what made this change so much more different.

• What was their past like? Someone's past is important to who they are in your current novel. Even childhood scars can still effect them. Make connections with their personality and how it changed them.

• What kind of personality do they have? This connects with the past question. Something might have a huge influence on who they are in your novel. This is important to how they will react to certain instances in your novel. And make sure that you follow it. 

• Name some of their flaws. Flaws aren't the same as imperfections. You characters need to have flaws that will conflict with something in the story. It has to cause some kind of issues.

• What is their culture? Culture can have a big impact on who they are as a person or some of their strange habits.

• What do they look like? This one can be tough. You don't need to know every single detail of your character unless it's absolutely important. If their tattoo is nothing more than a mark on them when they got stupidly drunk and really has no purpose...then we don't really care. But if the tattoo becomes a mark that causes your character to become a target, then we might need to know about it. 

These are the absolute basics of what you need. Characters are another thing you want to develop as your write. You want them to grow. You want to learn somethings about them too. By giving them room to grow, you'll build a more realistic character.

Introduction to Planning a Novel

It's October. Just a little under a month away from National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I figured it would be the best time to do this kind of post. It's a planning post, kind of. It's more like an overview of what I'm planning on posting this month. Since it is close to NaNoWriMo, I've decided to do a planning series where it goes through basic points of planning.

What is planning in a novel? It's where you figure out what your novel is going to be about, your characters, and your setting. It's simple. There are various ways to go about planning, but these are some of the key things that are consistent for me when I plan.

Things I plan on covering:

• World Building. World building is essential to a lot of writing even in contemporary settings. You've got to know key/important places and why they are important. 

• Character Building. This is also important since characters are kind of needed to tell a story, whether it be human or non-human. You've got to have some kind of information down about them.

• Plotting and Outlining. I'm a huge supporter of outlining. It's a good way to track what you are doing in your story. My reasons are in a different post that I will link HERE.

Unfortunately, there are only enough weeks in the month for three more posts but these are the bare essentials for planning a novel. Especially if you writing for NaNoWriMo. It's easy to lose motivation during the month it's best to know where you are going with your novel. 

But the one thing you need is an idea. You've got to start somewhere. If you don't have an idea then you need to get one. How you go about getting ideas for novels/stories is up to you. I can't tell you how to generate your ideas as they vary from person to person. Do some exploration, you'll find something to write about.

The Importance of Outlining

Some people believe that outlining a novel or story isn't always important. The people who we call "Pantsers" as they are the ones who write by the seat of their pants. I used to be one of them until I discovered the wonderful thing called an outline.
An outline is basically a guideline for your book. You write down your scenes in order of how you want them in your book. Or you outline by chapter, it really depends on you as a writer. It's important for you to have one at some point in your writing process.

What outlines can do for you as a writer:

• They keep you from taking your characters down an unplanned road.  I don't know about you but some writers lose track of what they are writing. An outline is a way that you can keep your characters down the right road.

• You have a clear cut visual of your story. Sure there are still things that might surprise you here and there but not everything should be a surprise to you as the writer. What might come as a surprise is more of an epiphany moment. You finally figured out how to connect point B and C or something along those lines.

• Outlines can keep you from writing unnecessary scenes. This kind of goes with the first point. Outlines can keep you from writing filler scenes or anything that is unnecessary to the plot of your novel. If you follow your outline, you're sure to not write filler scenes. As long as you don't plot filler scenes (a post I'll get into later).

• It keeps you organized. Writing can be absolute chaos sometimes. You've got to research and figure out your characters and all sorts of things. Sometimes you have to create some kind of chart to figure out how your character(s) get from point A to point B or how object C connects with the suspect of your character. Having all of this in various places can be really hard to find. It's best to find a way to keep it all in one place. An outline is a nice way to keep it all right there, even if it's just a little note or however you add it to your outline.

•  It won't add unnecessary characters. This kind of goes along with the unnecessary scenes. Basically, anything that you don't need, it will help you keep them out of your story. It helps when you're editing so you don't have to trim them out later.

• It helps you explore new ideas for your story. This is one of my favorite things about outlining. It opens up new ideas and subplots for your novels. You will be able to see where a story will go if you changed a scene even in the slightest. You might even find a way to make your story stronger. 

• It's fun. Okay, this isn't why it's important but I feel like I should add it anyway. I love outlining my novels. There are so many ways to do it too. I do a lot of different things but I generally end up going back to the index cards. 

There are benefits to outlining. If you've never outlined a novel before, then you should consider trying one. Going about it is easy but you should try different methods to figure out which one suits you.

What I Do With My Time

Procrastination
What is your worst time waster? How long do you allow yourself to procrastinate? Do you regret it, or do you think it’s worth it?

Bonus: Try to forego one of your time wasters this month and see how much higher your WC is! But not that school, work, necessary stuff. We need you happy, healthy and not in trouble for truancy.

Lately, I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos. I have my moments but I just get really tired when I get home and just want to veg. My hours at work at changing and I'm trying to get used to it all, not to mention school has started. Sometimes I just want to kick back. YouTube videos are usually short and I try to use them as more of a character study since I don't have the energy to go out and people watch. It's really easy to pick up on certain quirks that people have. You have to go and find the right ones though. Not the scripted messes that people tend to make.

I don't know if that's considered procrastinating since I'm actually doing something but I think it's procrastinating. It's not something I do for long, maybe an hour or so before I get bored and go back to writing. My attention span for watching videos/TV/Movies is really short. I don't mind when I'm doing something while its playing in the background but I can't always just sit down and watch stuff.

Since I tend to pick up a few personality traits that I can use, I don't tend to regret it much...until I see the pile of work I have to do later - then I regret it. So, yes. Yes I do regret it. Actually, writing this post is me procrastinating from the massive amount of stuff I really should be doing...

The Editing Process: Knowing What Went Wrong

Dowsers is one of the longest novels I've written and decided to edit. There are a lot of mistakes that I need to fix before this reaches other people. Aside from the normal grammar and spelling mistakes I have, I found several things wrong with my main and sub plots.

Going through it once was enough to force me to understand where I went wrong. Thankfully, there is no insta-love. Or love triangles (I hate them). The relationship between my characters is important for their development because my characters have problems. Don't all characters, though?

I do need to redo the ending. I'm terrible at writing endings and beginnings. This is something I'm going to have to work on because it's the most important part of the book. I can't having it being lame. That just won't do.

There is also a matter of my antagonist being slightly bipolar. He really shouldn't be that way. I mean, he's good at acting because that how he gets what he wants, but he isn't bipolar. So, that is on my list of things I need to fix.

Now, the plot. I've been playing with some other options that my plot has to offer to see if they work better. It might. I might have to figure out what works best - which offers the strongest plot. It's going to be a lot of work, but it will be worth it in the end.

Pretty soon, I'll have to do some trimming...and adding. Adding is the hardest parts editing but it has to be done.

Second Edits - Done!

Finally! Finally my second edits are done for District Pluto: The Survival Agreement (formally known as The Sacrificial Son). I've even created a checklist for what needs to come next. My third and final round of edits (which is mostly a syntax edit) should be over quickly before I sent it out to Betas. Then I'll be editing two projects at once. The next story in the District Pluto series, Morality Sentence and my stand alone novel Dowsers. I'm hoping to get some of these out to Betas by the end of the year but I have a feeling that Dowers will take me a long time to edit but I really need to get back on it.

One thing I noticed when doing this second edit was that my characters were weak. While typing up my edits, I tried to fix this but I don't know how well I did. I guess I find out when I start the last round of my editing. If not, then hopefully my betas can help me with how they read. It occurred to me that my characters didn't even have the barest of description so I had to add that in. That was a struggle.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome of this short story/novella (possibly a novelette). I can already see the improvements compared to my very first draft. I finally have a name for it too, as I stated above. It's no longer Sacrificial Son, it is now titled The Survival Agreement. I already have the cover art made (and fixed). Actually, I have two. I have one that I picked out but I'll also ask the people who are my betas - if they want to. I'm not going to force that on them. I already have one in mind.

Making Connections

How do your characters connect with one another? What kind of connection do they have? How do you connect your characters to the reader? 


This is a bit difficult to answer. In my current novel, which I'm editing, my characters (my two main characters) are connected through their university. They are opposite in certain aspects but, in a way, they are very similar in their values. I'm hoping that people can connect to them because they both go through some real life struggles.

I think that when a character, no matter the setting, have similar or the same problems that real people go through, then they can form a connection with the readers. Though you can't expect to have that kind of connection with every reader.

Generally, I try to base connections off things that good portion of people go through, or even things that I've experienced before. Being able to relate to a character helps make them feel real to the readers.

Archetypes

Archetype
It’s said that there are only so many plots in the universe and all novels/stories are a twist on them. What about for our characters? Can you pinpoint your current main character’s archetypes? How do you feel about the concept of archetypes? Do you think your character is a blend of a few or one steadily - or unique in their own right?

Bonus: Let’s see your interpretation of your character as the epitome of their archetype. Write us a sample or draw us a sketch

I'm behind! This prompt was for April.


Almost every character falls under at least one archetype. The writer might not realize it but there are some traits a character shows that will cause them to fall under such an archetype. It's not particularly a bad thing. Just because it's categorized doesn't mean the character feels like every other character of that archetype.


My current main character is definitely categorized as a reluctant hero. Though she could fit under few other categories, it's the best she identifies with at the moment. As I said before, even though she falls under a reluctant hero, doesn't mean she's like every other character who shares this archetype. There are aspects about her that make her different, as it should be for every character.

Motivation Behind the Character

Not the final version of my Firewall cover art.

Character Motivation: What is the main motivation behind your characters? Where do you come up with that motivation? Do you tend to use the same sort of motivation in every novel, or do you tend to mix it up more? What is your favorite example of character motivation?

Bonus: Share with us an excerpt from your current or completed novel(s) that demonstrates your favorite example of character motivation.

The motivation for my characters usually vary. In the novel I'm currently editing, Call of the Piper (temp title), my main character Radley starts off by wanting to figure out more about her past, why she ended up in the place she did and the like but later on, it becomes apparent that there is something else motivating her to keep going. That becomes a huge point in her character development. 

That's just my current example. Where they come from is questionable. I'm sure some conflicts come from something I saw in real life or a very indirect connection to something happening in my life.

I try not to use the same motivation but occasionally it will happen. It will come out different than the other story but it's still similar. The common factors are there and are noticeable to me (and possibly to others).

My favorite example of character motivation - that's a hard one. I'm not sure if I have a favorite example but since I've already written about Radley's motivation for doing stuff. I guess I can give you another example of some character motivation that I like and that is from my novel Firewall. My minor character's motivation is to try to gain control of his life (that's the best way to word it without giving away too much). Though he is in the background, a lot of his decisions caused my main characters to be where they are in the novel.

I'm not sure if I explained that right. Well, if it doesn't make sense, I'll try to explain it again in a different way.

Sadly, no bonus again this month.