Are Your Characters One Dimensional?

I wanted to pass along some great information and tips regarding character development. No matter where you are on your writing journey, developing deeper and likable characters is what draws readers.

  Image Courtesy of Simon Howden         www.freedigitalphotos.net

Since Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, from The Bookshelf Muse, moved to a new site, WritersHelpingWriters, they held an amazing race last week by paying it forward and helping writers. There were authors and others who stood by to help critique queries, synopses, and to offer help with marketing, etc.. They also gave away some neat stuff. So, thank you Angela and Becca.

K.M. Weiland, one amazing author hopped on board. She’s posted 10 Things To Build Likable Characters, so you might want to hop over there and check out her site. She says, “Make me like your character and I will follow him to the center of the earth.” Great advice.

We must create these kinds of characters if we want to gain a fan base and have our story be a success. We must dig deep and discover who our characters really are, especially our MC/Hero, when no one is watching. What do they like? Dislike? Hate? What’s their passion? Their deepest desire? Their main goal? What do they want/need to accomplish?

And we can’t have our MC stand back and watch the action. He/She must roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. They need to fail. They need to get back up. They need to fail again, and again, until they finally get back up in the end, hopefully learning a valuable lesson and becoming a stronger person than what they were before we met them in the opening paragraph.

I learned a lot from Angela’s and Becca’s Amazing Race and thank them for putting in some grueling hours. And I’d like to thank Author Elizabeth Spann Craig for doing some critiquing for me.

I hope you will find these sites and the information helpful.

Have a wonderful week!