By Ellen Buikema

A character bible is a document filled with all you need to know about your characters’ motivations, personalities, physical characteristics, and background story, including family.  Not everything in the character bible will find its way into your manuscript, but the information will be easily available for your reference when needed.… Read the post

By Ellen Buikema

Animal characters are created in all genres, either in cartoon-like or realistic forms. They may be walking, talking substitutes for human characters, or reality-based beings that may or may not be augmented with special abilities. No matter how you incorporate an animal into your story, they should be a memorable character.… Read the post

By Ellen Buikema

Every writer dreams of developing characters who continue to lurk in a reader’s memory long after the story is over. Memorable characters, well-rounded dynamic beings who grow and change over the course of a book, will make a great story even better.… Read the post

by Ellen Buikema

More than half of human communication consists of body language, which we use to communicate feelings, thought, and ideas without speech. Body language impacts other people’s perception and conveys our emotions far more than we think it does.… Read the post

by Ellen Buikema

The antagonist is a character that many readers love and many writers hate. In fact, one of my author friends told me that writing her antagonist was a painful experience. “It was a really hard book to write.… Read the post