Tag: Character development

Editing Rant: Drunk Secrets

Erin Penn

1677053 © Photoeuphoria | Dreamstime.com

Why does everyone think that drunk is an acceptable way for a character to spill secrets?

Ugh – the story was going so well until then.

Chapter 8 of 25 – I sooo want to burn chapter 8 to the ground and tell the author to rebuild. This is an immortal character, why, why, why????

If I didn’t see this device used again, and again, and again… (head-desk)

Look either people are sh*t at keeping secrets and regurgitate them at the drop of a hat, or those secrets have been tossed down an oubliette and will never be seen again. Maybe some people are burning to tell a secret and the release of inhibitions created by the depressant gets the secret pass their normal filters – but then SHOW us this if we are in the character’s head. It shouldn’t come out of nowhere, especially for an immortal (like a vampire or a deity) who has kept secrets for decades or even millennium.

Editing Rant: Likeable

Erin Penn

Photo by Taylor Smith on Unsplash

I read a book which if the book hadn’t been chosen by my book group, I would have jettisoned the book into the “abort” pile in chapter four, the verbal fight felt too manufactured.

More importantly, why I would have willingly swiped the book into my delete file is the main character (MC) took forever to develop one likable trait. Only during Chapter 9 – 25% through the story – did the MC show compassion and sympathy for another human being. Until then she used, lied, cheated, and manipulated everyone around her; only her tenacity in solving murder cases and drive to bring out the truth into the light of day etched marks on the “good person” side of the ledger.

Taking 25% of a manuscript is too long. Once the MC had showed emotional connection with the rest of humanity did I personally, as a reader, connect to her. And the rest of the book became interesting, the mystery engrossing. But until then, the only thing that kept me going was “book club.”

I’ve previous touched on how to make the MC engage the reader on 6/1/2017 (Magical Words May 13, 2014) “Characters Who Matter”. Engagement requires empathy and the MC needs AT LEAST two of the five following character traits: Sympathy, Jeopardy, Likability, Power, and Humor. And these traits need to introduced before Bad traits – like using and manipulating other people. Read the Magical Word post for the full discussion on this matter here: http://www.magicalwords.net/specialgueststars/darynda-jones-how-i-make-my-characters-unfogettable/

This MC wasn’t sympathy, those were the victims she gaslit to help her in her investigations. No jeopardy, she put others in jeopardy. Nothing to show why anyone would spend time with her, so likability is out. Power, yes a gun, but in general, the MC was a standard down-on-their-luck gumshoe. Very little power. Humor … the fights were very funny. That was it, good fun fights.

Too often people write the main characters as users, without showing the investment the MC made into the friendship before needing to use them. Instead the MCs come across as gaslighting, narcissistic monsters. Just because MC is the baddest dog in the pen does not mean any of the other dogs are going to play with them.

Writing Exercise: The Ride

Erin Penn

Acquired from the internet hive mind

From here to there, transportation and locomotion occurs for the characters. How did they get there? I just bought a new vehicle this month, so I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot recently.

People judge other people by the vehicle choice – public bus, private taxi, foot, car, shuttle, horse, or hoverboard. Same is true in fiction, even more so. Each option reveals something about the story and the characters. Many times a main character’s transportation choice becomes a character of its own within the series.

WRITING EXERCISE:
Pick a transportation from one of your works (present WIP or previously complete work) and describe it in 50 to 100 words in the words of its owner.

Postscript: In case you were wondering, I am now the proud owner of a gray minivan … with the license plate frame saying, “I rather be reading”.

Writing Exercise: Motivations

Erin Penn

Can’t find the original poster – but this gem has been shared far and wide on the interwebs. Search on “seerya we can’t make this character.” Looks like it was first published in early 2020. 

WRITING EXERCISE: Write a flash where the character is ace and/or aromantic showing a motivation with another character in the same scene with the same motivation.

My attempt

I responded to the Facebook post made by a friend in the comments with a short story. I posted it as Pizza and movie night (2/21/21) earlier this week.

Writing Exercise: Pets

Erin Penn

Photo by Chris Smith on Unsplash

Have you ever written about the aliens among us? Those non-humans allowed into our homes and lives, pets. Canines, felines, avians, reptiles, and fish. The work animals moved indoors like pigs and sheep. The exotics treated like domestics, for example,  tigers and alligators. The geeking science aspects of how cats talk to us like they do their offspring instead of other adult felines amuses me (See A Cat Meows).

Writers often attribute human reasoning to them, but pets are as alien to adult thinking as children. Animals are used in allegories, and sidekicks, and comic relief, and comforting. All the ways pets fill our lives appearing in writing.

WRITING EXERCISE:
For your current work-in-progress, consider your characters and create a pet for one of them. Tell us below why this particular character would have this pet and how long they had it.

BONUS EXERCISE:
Create a scene or flash where a character gains a pet.

READING EXERCISE:
Think to your most recent read with an animal character. Was it a pet, working animal, monster, or “scenery”? What impact did it have on the story?

 

My attempt

Pet flashes I’ve created include – Hellhound Puppies (1/26/20) – character gains a pet, Chich-a-whoo Feathers (12/22/19) – a working animal, The secret of cats (7/28/19), and Crossing over through the Dog’s Eyes (4/24/16).