Yoga Poses for Writers

I just love plot twists. 

Plot twists are my favorite.

5 Must-Dos for Creating Believable Characters

She came to you in a dream, at the dinner table, in the shower. What did she tell you? Did she speak at all? Did her looks explain everything?

The majority of writers understand they cannot completely control their characters. Why? When you create them they become their own person. The writer is just there to report the journey through the conflicts they made. 

(If you need help with conflicts, start here: Conflict and Character.)

I've read from several reference books on how I go about creating characters. It's not so much that they help me come up with one, they help me dimensionalize (oh yes, new word) them into helping me create plot. Once you understand your characters it's easier to make the plot-plot-plotting as you type-type-type your pages. Your characters are the ones that move plot as they deal with the conflicts you've put in their way. Does that make sense? Comment if it does or doesn't.

To figure out your character the best way is something we all know and love, but somehow we get the descriptors prioritized differently, perhaps wrongly. What do I mean: the color of your character's hair does not matter when it comes to the reader (unless it's purple, or it's an indicator into something else in the story, or both). The reader cares about caring: the heart, the mind, the soul. Create your character from the inside-out, and let the outside reflect inside. 

Designing Your Character

1. Establish Goals and Motivations
2. Prioritize Traits
3. Believe The Lie
4. Cue their "Aha" Moment
5. Flesh Out the Face (and body...and hair)

Here is my character template sheet I customized on Scrivener. If you don't have this application, I wish I could throw it into your computer right now, so you could get to work on it right away. But I can only send you this handy link from Literature & Latte. (It's a free trial; please take advantage! I adore Scrivener. It makes outlining and note-keeping so much easier. I'm an index-card kinda gal and this app really works for me. )

BRIE'S BODACIOUS CHARACTER TEMPLATE:

Look at all that craziness. Okay. It's not totally crazy. Actually makes some sense. Are you ready for the explanations? Here we go:

Establish Goals and Motivations

This is foremost because this is your plot-driver. Your character is nothing without desire, and your book is plotless if the character isn't wanting enough to be motivated. Establish a concrete goal and figure out why they are motivated to achieve it. 

A motivation might be an over-protective family and the goal might be freedom to be their own person. 

I have a character who comes from an abusive household. She wants to be independent and do her own thing but her family restricts her. The motivation might also be the conflict. It depends and that's another subject. Focus!

Prioritize Traits

You don't want an info-dump to make the reader groan and toss your book aside (or over the fence...cough). Put your character in pieces throughout your story. What trait do you want to show first? Choose wisely. The first trait is the one that'll stick to them the entire book. Like a first impression. This trait will be in their first scene. Are they a womanizer? Lazy? Hot-headed? Family-oriented? You choose. And then choose another. Remember Shrek? Your characters are onions. Make them sweet, sharp, or purple (purple poppin' everywhere today!), but peel the layers one by one, and give your reader a taste. Just a taste.

Believe The Lie

The Lie is their belief. What do they strongly believe in? What are they convinced about that is their truth? 

Possible Lies: 

• all women are manipulative See-You-Next-Tuesdays
• You can only rely on yourself
• money brings happiness
• people are too stupid to live independently
• killing murderers is not murder, it's justice

K.M. Weiland wrote an excellent post on Believing the Lie and it's where I got all the questions for it: The Lie Your Character Believes

Cue their "Aha" Moment

Characters will grow. They will change. Their belief system may be shattered. An "aha" is the moment of realization. Their Lie will be put in the spotlight and crushed before the character's eyes. Truth rises from The Lie's remains and the character sees everything, from their first scene up to the "Aha" moment. What has changed? Why? How? If your character has no "aha" moment, there is no growth, and the reader will be left empty, and your book flying over their fence.

Flesh Out the Face (and body...and hair)

I said the outside should reflect the inside. Now is the time to look at their personality through their goals and motivators, their traits, and beliefs, and consider their physical appearance. A lot of factors come into play here: their location, origin, discipline, vocation, positive or negative traits, finances, etc..

You're not going to have a soldier with long hair and a beard (unless they're special ops) but maybe they have a tattoo that indicates something more. Or a woman who is very uptight and doesn't have a single wrinkle in her wardrobe. Maybe you have a rebel teen who can't afford a professional haircut, so they cut and dye their own hair against their parent's wishes.

Physical descriptions are lesser priority than what will help move your story. There are a couple exceptions that I use, but they don't overrule the goals and motivations which push the characters through conflict.

Ultimately, it's up to you. I have given you my template in hopes of inspiring you to build your characters with depth.

My character sheet is from months of adding and subtracting what I need to make it work for me. As you can see, I have "Food" and "Song" as a helper.

I'm a former chef who worked in the Navy for eight years. The culinary world is a part of me and I know how it feeds into people's lives (you see what I did there?). Favorite food might not be priority, but it gives me perspective on my character. Kinda like going out on a date with them outside the book and just seeing them as a person. That's this blog, by the way: Dating Your Characters.  Their food doesn't even have to show up in the book; it's just something to help dimensionalize them.

Just like the Song, which is my interpretation of their theme. When I need some motivation to write and need to get into a character's head, I have a playlist. But their theme song generalizes that playlist. For instance, my boy Caelum's song is "King Me" by Lamb of God. I listen to it if I need to and feel the anger, the frustration, the driving factor of him. That's why it's in the template. Add Song to your template, if it helps you.

What would you add to your template? Would you take away anything? Please comment below and tell me if this helped or didn't help. I'd love to hear from you.

I'm also on Facebook if you wanna stalk me there. 

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Dating Your Character

One of the funnest things I get to do as a writer and artist is submerge myself in the characters. Often, I walk around the house responding to common chores as they would, and see where it leads. While I'm doing the dishes, I'm talking out a scene. Showering, singing their theme songs, or imagining their scene according to whatever instrumental I've chosen. And this is me taking a break from writing.

The brain never stops. Curse, meet habeñero-chocolate-coated Blessing.

What do you do when you've exhausted your writing? Or you've tripped over a character block? Because you're not understanding the character enough, your story doesn't seem dynamic enough, maybe even believable. Maybe it's boring. Whatever the reason, you tired of the work; so do your characters. Time to take them out for some casual entertainment. 

Yes. A date.

1. Pick Your Person
2. Pick Your Place
3. Pick Your Picture
4. Go to Town (or park, or studio, or...)
5. Archive it

Pick Your Person

Pick one you don't know very well. Maybe pick one you really enjoy (yep...exactly like a date). Is it a double date? A group? Just you plus one? You're dating to get to know them and let off steam. Make it count, especially if they like you. My antagonists usually say so, but then they don't call for a week, and I'm forced to torture them with the protagonist's success. That's what they get.

Pick Your Place

Set the setting. Set the mood. Set the table. Your table, actually. Or lap. What's your medium? You're not limited but since I can draw, we'll focus on that. 

What are you doing with your character? Concert? Ballroom? Deli? One of my characters happens to really like sandwiches. 

Pick Your Picture

If you haven't figured it out, the whole date thing is just getting you to pull out that sketchbook, and think about your character outside the story. Take my two protagonists (prots), Sven and Darlana. These scenes are nowhere in the book, but I wanted to see what these two would do between the chapters. Darlana's drunk face, the serious catwalk strut from an explosion (maybe) straight to lunch--all of this helps the writer see what kind of friendship the prots would have outside the plot. Think of your antagonists (antas). What would they do?

Some of my sketches never become line art or colored. I just keep them for the sake of enjoying the character. Seeing them with other characters, seeing them with me, makes writing so much easier. You're building a relationship with them. The more you love them, the more you want to write, and write well. And some others might benefit from the sketch as reference for their own work. I like to share as long as people don't steal. 

Go to Town

Have a blast! 

There are many ways to date your character. You can even try and be them. Take my expression reference for Sven:

Charismatic character? You'll want to keep references like this on a wall somewhere as a cheat sheet to know what tone and personality boundaries you can't cross. You want to be consistent in your writing. And knowing what your characters do in their spare time, deepens your knowledge about them.

Sven isn't the dull type. His dialogue doesn't show it, his face doesn't show it. You might even hear his accent through these expressions alone. He is one of my favorites. (Bradley Cooper is his lookalike, by-d-by.)

Archive It

Keep your sketches handy! Use them as you will. Find other people's references and, if they say it's okay, work off theirs. I have my own art website you can go to see these drawings. Always keep your sketches. I have a folder that's like a scrapbook. But some of these sketches are on my wall to keep them fresh in my mind. 

Hope this gives you some idea of lightening the writing mood when you're not writing. If you're on DeviantArt also, +watch me and I'll watch back. Later kiddos!

6 Hacks to Motivate Writing

I struggle every day to motivate myself out of bed, turn on the Keurig, and sit in one spot and write until my four-year-old wakes up. His waking occurrence can happen five minutes after I start typing, or four hours later, when I kick myself for not making lunch. I am in no way an expert, but I found, throughout my years of writing, a few life hacks to get you going:

1. Minimalize Your Workspace
2. Find Your Habits
3. Psyche Yourself Up
4. Personal Development
5. Eat Simple
6. Focus on your Triforce

#1 Minimalize Your Workspace

Not minimize. Minimalize. Some photographers have a style called minimalism, where less is more in their shots. You must be free of distractions. Your work space is your sanctuary for your characters and you must treat them with respect. You are torturing them with plot and could possibly kill one of them. Being respectful is the least you can do. 

Consider your space like a date scene. You have a date with your book and all the characters want your attention. You don't talk to them while you're playing a game on your phone, or have sidebar with someone else in the room. You just don't. Unless you're talking to yourself (which could be #2 or #3 on the list) you can't afford wasting your characters' time. You have a world to suck people into. Simplify your holy ground and get to work. You have torture to do.

#2 Find Your Habits

All writers have them. You don't have to copy them, maybe you just want to try them out, but you need to find you. You find you by figuring out your quirks, your weaknesses, your strengths, and your style. This comes with every day practice.  Some writers couldn't write unless they were naked, or not wearing pants. Some had to be outside, some had to be hiding in a loft. 

I have to wear a beanie. 

Said beanie.

I caught myself playing with my hair with one hand on the keyboard, not doing anything but re-reading my work, or staring blankly at the screen. I put a beanie on my head one day and both hands got busy typing. The distraction was gone. My habit was curbed. Now I don't wear a beanie all the time...but it helps when I have a very hard time focusing.

#3 Psyche Yourself Up

What's your style? What helps you get your muse in gear? There are different learning styles for people just as there are inspiration styles.

Consider creating a playlist for your book. You're in the shower and you play songs that get your imagination going. 

(Confession: I do this all the time, even sing out loud, and pretend the characters are right there in front of me [clothed and dry, mind you...sometimes], either singing along, or acting out a scene. It helps me organize my story, especially if I'm struggling with moving the plot along.) 

I also have playlists for each major character and mood lists, depending on what mood I need to get into to write specific scenes. I have battle sequences, death, love, sex, nostalgic, etc.. I read somewhere that Audiosparx is where filmmakers go to nail the perfect track for their trailers or movie scenes.

Some inspirational music I have is from Two Steps From Hell and more well known composers like Hans Zimmer. I collect soundtracks so I can't list them all, but Two Steps From Hell is a great starting point. "Archangel" will always be my favorite when I need to get into the action scene mood.

I did mention weaknesses in #2. Your weakness can be your undoing; you can overcome it if you know what it is. Mine is perfectionism. I overcome this by whole-heartedly knowing people must read my story. They will love my characters as I do and they will love the world I pulled them into. If I don't write, I lose my mind. This is my passion. And no dark whispers in my head saying I should just give up because I will fail can stop me. 

Psyche yourself up by looking through Pinterest and finding motivational quotes from authors. Make your own board of all these (mine is called "Brie's Self-Motivation Vocation") and read them. Guaranteed one of them will spark something in you.

If you're still struggling, I would print out pictures that motivate you, or draw pictures of your characters. Draw your own fan art. As an artist, this is fun to do when I'm not writing. I draw them out of character as well. You gotta lighten up sometimes. Torture miserable characters with happiness. You might just kill them outside your story. Mwahahaha.

#4 Personal Development

Reading about writing for at least fifteen minutes will sharpen your writing skills, especially if you do this at least once a day. So take that fifteen and read a writing book. K.M Weiland and Angela Ackerman have great books on Amazon. A good writer always has learning tools in their arsenal. Buy a couple. If you're pressed on money, buy the one book that you would really benefit from. Mine was "How to Write a Novel in 90 Days" to get through my first book. I didn't make it in 90 days but I made it further than I ever would have. And I finished, so that says something. 

You'll hear from dozens of people how they want to write a novel someday. Maybe you're one of them. Be that person who actually commits. Don't wait around for something tragic to happen in your life to get you started (yes...like I did. More on that another time.).

#5 Eat Simple 

I don't mean go out to a fast food joint and overload on calories (that'll lead you to a carb coma), Stay in the house, fix something quick, eat it, then get to writing. I will post another blog on fast nutrition that's healthy and helps your brain focus. For this, I will say avoid making omelettes or other time-consuming products. Being a Beachbody coach, I have tricks to help you stay on track without slaving away in the kitchen. 

In the morning, I usually make Shakeology, but if I don't want to make a lot of noise, I make a cup of greek yogurt and granola, or cottage cheese and berries. It takes less than five minutes to prepare and my brain will thank me for fueling it something besides black coffee.

#6 Focus on Your Triforce

Mind, Body, Soul.

• Your soul is the writing but your mind is conflicted, your body is tired, and your soul has temporarily lost its passion.

• Your body craves something physical or nutritional. If it doesn't get exercise or proper food, your mind loses focus, and your soul is left to wait, buried in a weak body.

• Your mind is not learning; it's bored and all those perishable skills are waning. Your body is sluggish and your soul cannot be happy with a distracted, lazy brain. 

• Your soul is not being fed things that make it happy. You're not relaxing and are worried about work, school, or fitness. Life is getting in the way of actual life: your purpose. 

This is the balance of life. We have to find a way to keep our Triforce in check because if one piece fails, they all fall apart. 

Personal Development helps with mind issues, but so does going to Bible Study, or meditating, or avoiding family drama. Learning something new every day makes your wit sharper and your curiosity satiated. Watch the mental stress levels. 

If work is straining you, try soothing your soul with a hobby, which may help destress you. If my husband comes home from work (yes, I said if. It's a military thing.), he'll either watch TV, or play video games. He doesn't want to deal with physical stress, like playing with our kid. He may try, but Tag is out of the question.

After I clean the house and run errands, I like to write, draw, or game. I also have a habit of running out of the house before sunset with my camera gear, and practice shooting. If you don't believe me, I have a Flickr account here. And this is one of my shots (it is available for print):

For balancing the body, I cannot stress exercise enough. I used to be very overweight and was miserable. There was no sense in pursuing my dreams because I didn't like myself enough to do anything. I was a horrible role model for my son and I am glad that chapter in my life is done. But it is never closed. I want people to know my struggles so they don't feel alone. While I started my first book, I also got into P90X. Everything started falling into place when I took care of myself. Thus, the Triforce revelation.

Leave a comment or question! Let me know how I have helped you or confused you. :D 

If you're interested in healthy living, find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/tomacrux. I'm happy to answer any questions you have. Or if you have a body transformation story, I'd love to hear it! Always excited to meet new people!