Writers in the Storm

by Sarah Sally Hamer

We’re often taught to build characters the way you’d assemble a dossier: a handful of traits, a wound, a desire, a flaw, a bit of backstory to explain the rest. But real people don’t move through the world as collections of adjectives. Neither do characters. They move as bodies with breath, tension, instinct, and the quiet calculations of safety that happen long before thought.

But they’re just characters, right?

Yes, I guess so. But characters are created from our imagination and our knowledge of humans, even if we don’t recognize or think about it when we’re creating them. If your characters don’t act like real people, no one will believe them on the page.  

In fact, a character’s nervous system is the truest map of who they are, just as it is with real people. It’s the part of them that reacts before they can choose, the part that remembers what they survived, the part that decides whether the world is a place to approach or endure. When you begin here — in the body rather than the biography — the character stops feeling like a construction and starts feeling like someone you could sit beside and recognize.

Every person carries a baseline state

We all have a way our body organizes itself around danger, hope, longing, and uncertainty. So do characters. Some move through the world with a kind of forward-leaning intensity, as if everything requires a shield. Others stay in motion, not because they are adventurous but because stillness feels like exposure. Some go quiet, not out of shyness but because their inner world is louder than anything around them. And some soften themselves into whatever shape keeps the peace, reading the emotional weather of a room with the accuracy of a barometer. These reactions to outside stimulus create the traits we use to protect ourselves and, if your characters aren’t doing the same thing, they aren’t real.

These states are not personality traits. They are survival strategies. And survival strategies shape everything: the cadence of a sentence, the way a character enters a room, the metaphors they reach for, the silences they fall into, the people they gravitate toward, the people they avoid, the choices they make when they believe no one is watching.

I really see this in beginning writers.

I don’t want to sound like a writer has to write for decades to be able to create realistic characters, but many forget to follow through on a situation. For instance, some writers create an intense scene where a human would probably react with a huge emotion, but don’t allow their characters to do so. A critique partner wrote a American Civil War story where a woman finds out her children have been sold. Her reaction in the manuscript was to ask where they were. I suggest that the woman should jump up, screaming demands, trying to force the man to tell her where they had gone. It’s a matter of extreme and overwhelming anger and grief, not calm. At least, that’s what I would have done in a similar situation. (Just for what it’s worth, no two humans – and therefore, no two characters – will react in exactly the same way.)

How to enhance your character’s nervous system

Through dialogue

Make it inevitable rather than engineered. A character who lives in a braced, defensive body will speak in sharp edges and quick conclusions. Someone who survives by staying in motion will talk in spirals, circling ideas without landing. A character who freezes will speak in pauses and half-thoughts, as if language has to thaw before it can reach the page. And someone who has learned to stay safe by pleasing others will speak in softeners, gentle pivots, and careful calibrations of tone.

Shift the character arc

Instead of forcing a character to “grow,” notice how their body learns safety. A character who has always braced might finally unclench. Someone who has always run might take one still breath. Someone who has always softened themselves might finally hold their own shape. These are small movements, but they are the kind that change a life — and therefore a story.

Use relationships to create new texture

Match characters against each other by understanding the nervous systems inside them. Two characters who both survive by appeasing others will create a quiet ache, each waiting for the other to declare a preference. A character who freezes paired with someone who flees will create distance without ever meaning to. Someone who fights paired with someone who fawns will create a dynamic that feels inevitable, even if neither of them wants it. These patterns are not plot devices; they are the emotional physics of human connection and very real in the human realm.

Make sure you don’t forget the visceral reactions of the body

Write from the pulse of emotion instead of writing from the mind. Use the involuntary action of the body to bring the character back into focus. How do they breathe when they’re alone? What happens in their chest when someone they love or are afraid of says their name? What part of them tightens when they hear footsteps behind them? These are the questions that reveal a person.

The best place I can send you to learn visceral reactions is margielawson.com. She has several lecture packets that helped me immensely to understand and reframe a lot of my writing. I recommend Visceral Rules: Beyond Hammering Hearts. She knows her stuff!

Final Thought

Remember, a character is not built from adjectives but from the way their body braces against the world. Before they speak, their nervous system has already chosen the tone. And when they finally change, it isn’t because the plot demanded it — it’s because something inside them softened, warmed, or steadied enough to let a new possibility in.

Write from that place, and your characters won’t just appear on the page.
They’ll arrive.

How do you make your characters human-like instead of cartoons?

About Sally

Sarah "Sally" Hamer has a B.S. in Psychology (which only makes her dangerous) and an MLA in history and philosophy. She is a multi‑award‑winning author (with two RWA Golden Heart finals) who has taught creative and nonfiction writing at LSUS for over twenty years.

She writes for two of the top one‑hundred writing blogs in the world (writersinthestormblog.com and thewriteconversation.blogspot.com), teaches online for three academies, and has been a long‑time columnist for The Best of Times senior magazine. She speaks nationally on writing, history, and philosophy, and believes wholeheartedly that every human being is an amazing story waiting to be told. She can be reached at sally@mindpotential.org.

Featured picture from Pixabay.com

by Michelle Johnson

We all have questions, hesitations, and those moments when we lack courage. As a writer, you will also often encounter doubt. It is an enemy you will have to defeat more than once. 

Doubt takes many forms.

It is the voice that questions your right to create, the one that rehearses worst-case scenarios, the one that keeps you safe by keeping you small. Doubt can protect you by making you consider if there is a better option or another perspective. Should you consider how the intended audience might misunderstand your message? What if there is a better way to make your point?  

But too much doubt can stop you from starting.

This is when doubt gets in your way. Your thoughts will begin to focus on limits. This leads to thoughts such as “What if I’m not good enough?” As you can see, this is definitely a battle. The push and pull of doubt could paralyze your creativity and passion for writing.

Good News from Your Imagination

In a perfect world, writers would just sit down and type a first draft that is meaningful, exciting, and beautifully edited. Alas, ‌it would be easier to win the lottery. The good news is that you don’t care if it’s bad because, when you write the first draft, you are throwing ideas on the page while your mind gives you the gist of your story.

Forget about stress, because your imagination plays tunes in your head long after that first draft. You’re still on the train tracks and looking to fuel your story with steam. 

What if Stephen King had written his book, Christine, about a car owner who is obsessed with his 1958 Plymouth Fury (something classic car owners can relate to) and instead went with the first idea that came to mind, such as a 1968 Mustang convertible? 

Let’s pretend that he did.

Suppose he spent time imagining and saw that the Plymouth was bigger, stronger, scarier, and, in a word, better. He may have even looked at cars on the internet or randomly seen the Fury at a car show. Anything that sparked his imagination would be worth the time spent asking himself the question, “What if ?”

Imagination is your sword to fight doubt. 

It challenges your hesitation and limits that keep your first idea smaller than it might need to be. Some of your ideas may be perfect the first time, but the test will come when you try other options. Your result may surprise you!

Let’s explore the tension between Doubt and Imagination.

Instead of enemies who must win every time, you may prefer to consider them as two friends who don’t think alike. Doubt will negotiate the situation as an editor, reminder, or guardian. It covets fear and wants things to be short and specific. Imagination will want to push for more details, imagery, and may go overboard.

The result is a compromise of ideas after a series of negotiations.

Doubt	Imagination
Questions one's ability	Explores possibility
Creates hesitation	Encourages creativity
Focuses on limits	Pushes boundaries
Doubt thinks, “Not yet?”	Imagination thinks, “What if this is amazing?”

Writing Insight

Your first drafts need imagination to get ideas flowing, so think of them as a sketch of a house. 

You haven't built the house yet, so you still have time to decide how many rooms and cars you want, whether it's in the city or country, who will live there, and so on. You are not spending money on materials, and using your imagination saves you money. 

This is why so many movie scripts get revised. I’d like to think that they make additions and spend more money to make the movie better as well. Big moments are exciting in books and movies. 

Please do not limit your imagination. 

Remember:

• First drafts need imagination
• Editing needs a little doubt
• Good writing happens when both are balanced.

If your writing looks too much like a strict parent or a teenager who wants to describe every detail over a three-hour phone call with her friends, you need to work on balance. 

The Doubt and Imagination Team Interact

Doubt immediately shows fear. It asks questions, does not want to take chances, and wants to stay inside. Imagination is like a puppy that wants to play in the mud and see what happens. Negotiation may look like this: “I will give you X if you give me Y.”

Doubt works!

• It protects by predicting pain
• It conserves energy by preventing risk
• It borrows authority from past voices and past hurts

Imagination helps!

• It is a rehearsal without consequences
• It lets you try on outcomes, practice courage 
• It helps create evidence for possibilities

If our team of Doubt and Imagination can work in tandem in our minds, then we should find it interesting to share the fun with our friends or family. 

Note: I recommend using the Imagination version for this random sharing of ideas. 

If you have a writing group, they can be your best allies for rehearsals. For example, in my group, we were writing short stories for an anthology, and someone used her grandfather’s story about his service in World War II for inspiration. 

She wanted a grand ending to the romance, but struggled to find it because her grandfather had been a French interpreter in the war. While brainstorming with a group member, she was asked, “Why couldn’t he be a pilot who flies his plane to his girlfriend’s farm after the war?” 

It was a sweet ending, and it worked. 

Final Thoughts

The Doubt-Imagination team works if you allow yourself to see both sides and the benefits that each provides. You are the creator. You are the doubter. You are the “Imaginator.” Let yourself explore the possibilities and negotiate boundaries. Build the house in different ways, let the puppy play in the mud, put the hero in the airplane, and get the teenage girl off the phone.

Doubt will thank you, too.

 What ideas come to mind when you consider the doubt - imagination balance? 

About Michelle

Michelle Johnson, B.A., M.S., MBA, is a mom, wife, retired English teacher, academic with lots of letters behind her name, traveler, and lifelong learner.

This is her first time blogging for writersinthestormblog.com.

"Louisiana life is ripe with stories, great food, loyal friends, and family. Y’all are welcome, anytime!"

Featured photo by Pixabay

by Dr. Diana Stout

Did you know that our habits are science-driven, and so is our procrastination? Have you ever tried to create a better writing habit only to fail or fall into procrastination?

Would you be surprised to learn that it’s not about you, but the science of you? And, that changing or creating a habit doesn’t have to be hard? Once I understood the science—the why—I better understood the how. How to make the changes without feeling deprived or having to work harder.

My Journey With This Topic

Earlier this year, I published a short how-to resource guide, The 3 Secrets of Time Management & Eliminating Procrastination that features the science of how and why we procrastinate, how to overcome what is a natural inclination within us, and the various things you can do to increase your writing time.

This blog post represents one of those chapters—the one entitled, “Habits.” For this blog post, I’ve added even more specific advice for writers. So, here goes.

Defining “Habits”

What we do repeatedly becomes habit, and our habits become so ingrained that we perform them without thought. Our lives are composed of daily, weekly, and yearly habits, including our procrastination habits.

Have you ever driven the same route to school or work and wondered how you got there, as you don’t remember driving it? Habit.

Applying this to Writing

When we can use our willpower and tie it to a habit, that’s when success happens. You can easily increase your writing time by purposefully creating a new habit.

For example, I created a daily three-hour writing window and connected it to Zoom, inviting writer friends who were struggling to write every day to join me. This was two years ago. Some writers have come and gone, but there is a core group of us who still participate. Some leave early; others arrive late. Most aren’t here on the weekend, but I’m here almost every day.

I schedule other activities around those three hours, making those three hours a priority. It’s now a habit. Plus, we’re each provided accountability, camaraderie, and are a support group. The thing is, we’re all writing and most of us are publishing.

Forming Habits

Your future is tied to the habits you’re engaged with now, so this is the time to make changes if you want different results later. A different future.

What do you want to manifest for that future?

Be specific. It’s a goal.

To achieve the goal, you’ll want to break the habits that hold you back or are stopping you from reaching that goal.

If all habits are heavily traveled neural pathways (the science I talk about at the beginning of the book) that we travel along without thought, it makes sense to stop traveling the pathways of bad habits and replace them with fresh, alternative paths.

Any rut we’re currently in is the result of a habit. Change the habit that maintains the rut and you’ll be replacing the rut with a new brain path.

What holds us back?

The problem most of us have in wanting to do something new, we think in terms of stopping something first.

That’s where we flounder.

Don’t ever just stop doing something. Replace it with another activity or action. If a replacement isn’t engaged, the original pathway remains, and the old habit will return because our brains seek out patterns and easy paths first. Thus, a replacement blocks the old path.

When changing habits:

• be verbal
• be specific
• make statements in the positive, not the negative

For example, instead of saying I’m going to drink less soda, instead say, I’m going to drink more water.

Tying a Habit to Writing

Be specific about your writing.

Instead of saying, I’m going to write more every day, say, “I’m going to write three pages every day,” or “I’m going to write half an hour every day.”

Why specific? So that you’re better able to track it, be sure to keep a written record of your habit. You can look back and see if you’re fulfilling that desired change. For instance, are you finding you’re writing fifteen minutes every day instead of thirty minutes? If so, then change your expectation and commit to a time you can do.

Change the time to accommodate what you’re doing. Why? Because you’re more likely to repeat that recent change every day. And, you’ll be building on positive success rather than negative disappointment.

When changing a writing habit, focus on what you’re going to do rather than what you’re stopping. This is how the brain’s rut pathway disappears as the new habit pathway replaces it.

Timing is Important

Whatever change you want to make, start doing it today! Not tomorrow. Today. Right now! (After reading this post.)

Don’t let procrastination win today.

Even if you’re writing nothing more than a sentence or two today, or jotting down ideas, it’s a strong start!

And then, make yourself do it every day for a week or a month. Start small, not big. If you find yourself happy and satisfied afterward each day, you’ll want to continue it tomorrow. After a week or a month’s time, re-evaluate your daily goal—your new habit.

Is it working? Can you increase it by just a little?

My recommendation:

I recommend recording the time spent writing after every day’s writing so you can see that you are making progress.

Do this new habit long enough and you’ll have created a new pathway where you’ll soon perform without thought. You’ll want to write or need to write every day because it’s now a strong habit.

Because my Zoom group’s three-hour writing window is a strong writing habit I’ve created, it’s nearly impossible for me not to write every day or perform a writing task. Even when I travel, I take a project with me. It’s habit.

Final Thoughts

Remember these four things…

• Behavior + repeated behavior = habit.
• Positive, purposeful change of behavior + repeated behavior = changed behavior.
• Purposeful to-do list + managed time = a to-do list getting done! Success!
• You will never change your life unless you change a daily habit.

What writing habit would you like to start? Do you already have some strong writing habits in place? Share them with us!

About Dr. Diana

An award-winning writer in multiple genres across multiple media, Diana is a screenwriter, author, blogger, writing coach, and indie publisher through her production company, Sharpened Pencils Productions.

She recently published her first thriller, Harbor House: Deadly Intentions, a gripping split-time psychological paranormal of two women separated by a century yet bound by peril, legacy, and the haunting secrets of Harbor House Island.

Since then, she’s published The 3 Secrets of Time Management & Eliminating Procrastination as part of her Finding Your Fire series. And just last week, the first guidebook in her Grammar & Writing Rescue series, the I Hate Commas Comma Book: Commas Made Easy Short Read.

Currently, she's writing her next thriller, Buried Trash: A Shelby Hale Thriller.

Featured image purchased from Depositphotos.