Creating Stunning Character Arcs, Pt. 2: The Lie Your Character Believes People hate change. We may sit around and wish our lives were different, but when the rubber really starts streaking the tarmac, we usually find ourselves wishing we could just hang out here in our safe and familiar haunts. Characters are no different. They resist change just as staunchly as any of us—which is a good thing. Out of resistance comes conflict; out of conflict comes plot. A good way to conceive of movie stories, like Die Hard and Love, Actually, is to think of the visible story as the metaphor for the invisible story. In other words, the plot is all about the character’s inner journey, whether the connection is immediately evident or not. The Change Arc, at its simplest manifestation, is all about the protagonist’s changing priorities. One of the most common mistakes made by authors of every level of experience is to create a problem for their Main Character that has nothing to do with the story at large. The Lie the Character Believes What Is the Lie? Might makes right. 1.
11 Secrets to Writing Effective Character Description The following is an excerpt from Word Painting Revised Edition by Rebecca McClanahan, available now! The characters in our stories, songs, poems, and essays embody our writing. They are our words made flesh. Here are 11 secrets to keep in mind as you breathe life into your characters through description. 1. It reads something like this: “My father is a tall, middle-aged man of average build. This description is so mundane, it barely qualifies as an “all-points bulletin.” When we describe a character, factual information alone is not sufficient, no matter how accurate it might be. 2. It’s hard to think of adjective descriptors that haven’t been overused: bulging or ropy muscles, clean-cut good looks, frizzy hair. 3. In my earlier “all-points bulletin” example, the description of the father’s hair might be improved with a detail such as “a military buzz-cut, prickly to the touch” or “the aging hippie’s last chance—a long ponytail striated with gray.” 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
Monomyth Joseph Campbell's monomyth, or the hero's journey, is a basic pattern that its proponents argue is found in many narratives from around the world. This widely distributed pattern was described by Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949).[1] Campbell, an enthusiast of novelist James Joyce, borrowed the term monomyth from Joyce's Finnegans Wake.[2] Campbell held that numerous myths from disparate times and regions share fundamental structures and stages, which he summarized in The Hero with a Thousand Faces: A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.[3] A chart outlining the Hero's Journey. Summary[edit] In a monomyth, the hero begins in the ordinary world, and receives a call to enter an unknown world of strange powers and events. The 17 Stages of the Monomyth[edit]
Guy Hasson's Blog - Story Design Tips: Better NPC Interaction, Part II The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. Towards Better NPC’s This is the second in a series of three articles, which will hopefully lead to richer NPC interactions, interactions that looksmore human. The first article talked about redefining NPC interaction by treating a dialogue line as an action (positive or negative) of one character on another. Doing Away with Dialogue Trees, Not Dialogue Before we begin, I’d like to clarify a point about the last article. The whole point is this: The player knows what kind of information or action he wants to get, and he chooses how to try and get the information out of the NPC (intimidate, befriend, sweet-talk, etc.) Now we’re getting to how that system should work. The Basic Build-Up of the NPC Step #1: Create a Personality for Your NPC Say you’re creating a new NPC. Our Example
Stephen King’s Top 20 Rules for Writing | Margaret Langstaff As you know I in the habit of publishing “writing rules” from various well-known writers as I stumble over them on the web. They won’t write your books for you, but they are food for thought. For what it’s worth here are Stephen King’s. They are more discursive that some, but contain some pearls. Happy writing! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. This list was posted on Open Culture ( on March 16th, 2014. Like this: Like Loading... A lifelong critical reader with literary tastes, a novelist, short story writer, essayist, book critic and so on for many years...A consultant to publishers, providing manuscript critiques, a friend and supporter of others, admittedly a small group but my kind of people, interested in literary things and of writers who aspire to writing not just books (or poems, stories, novels, plays etc.) but literature.
Writing Characters Using Conflict & Backstory Seven Steps To Creating Characters That Write Themselves Creating characters that are believable takes time and discipline. Creating dynamically real individuals and not imposing your own thoughts and impressions upon them is not easy to do, and is often the difference between a novel or screenplay that sits in a closet and one that finds its way around town and into the hands of audiences. Spending your time building your characters before they enter the world of your story makes the process of writing an easier and more enjoyable ride, and creates a finished product that agents, publishers, producers and readers can truly be excited by. You must first agree to operate from the understanding that the three-dimensionality of your characters is not created magically. The complexity that you desire comes through: 1. The first key to deepening your work is finding the major motivators in the lives of your characters that drive their actions. 2. 3. 4. 5. Emotions are extreme. 6. 7.
Reverse Dictionary <div id="needs_javascript"><center><b>Note: OneLook Thesaurus requires JavaScript.</b><br /><img src="/img/a.gif?q=omg_a_user_without_js"> If you have disabled JavaScript in your browser, please <a href=" it for this site</a> or use the <a href="/?w=entersearchhere&loc=revfp_legacy">old version of the reverse dictionary</a> here.</p><p></center><div> How do I use OneLook's thesaurus / reverse dictionary? This tool lets you describe a concept and get back a list of words and phrases related to that concept. What are some examples? What are patterns? I'm only looking for synonyms! For some kinds of searches only the first result or the first few results are likely to be useful. Filters Your search can be refined in various ways using the filters that appear in the "Filter by..." menu on the results page. How does it work? Other ways to access this service: Is this available in any language other than English? OneLook is a service of Datamuse.
Character Action and Reaction October 20, 2011 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill last modified October 20, 2011 I’ve written a lot about characters at The Editor’s Blog, but I’d like to take a deeper look into character reaction, the response of a character to the actions or words of another character or to a story event. A character’s reactions can reveal facets of his personality that cannot be revealed by action or dialogue initiated by that character. Reactions reveal issues that mean something for a character. If a character goes after the man who’s gone after his dog, readers know that the dog means something special to that character or that he is possessive/selfish, unwilling to let others touch or hurt what belongs to him. When a character responds to the actions or words or intentions of another character, the reader notices. Writers direct readers into key revelations by showing character response. A character does not need to reveal his response overtly to other characters, of course. How Characters React
10 of My Favorite Writing Craft Sites The writing journey is all about discovering what works best of for each of us as individual, and very unique, writers. Learning from others is valuable in helping us glean tips and fit together the puzzle pieces that will form our own writing processes. Today, I’d like to share with you ten of the sites that inspire, educate, and help me refine my process—plus, they’re run by a bunch of super awesome folks! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.