Our guest Terri Osburn, author of Meant to Be,  has a wealth of questions to help you turn flat characters into characters that keep your readers turning pages.

by Terri Osburn

I've been judging a lot of contest entries lately, which led me to the topic for this blog. After reading the entire entry, I had to basically point out the good and the bad in each one. After several entries, I realized almost all of my feedback went back to the characters.

Because the characters make the story.

Every writer has to start somewhere when developing their characters. Maybe you want to create a story about the jock and the bookworm. No problem. It's a popular trope. (Think Duke and the Wallflower or Vampire and the new girl.) But you can't stop with these simple descriptors. These characters have to be unique individuals, not cardboard cut outs that move around the setting and say fun things. Find the person inside the character. Dig deep into who they are.

There's no one way to do this, but I highly recommend some sort of character detail sheets, or even a string of facts and traits written in a notebook.

Start with basic questions:

1. Where did she grow up?
2. Where did she go to school?
3. Who was her best friend?
4. Does she have siblings?
5. Was she good in school?
6. Did she go to college?
7. Were both parents around?
8. What kind of relationship did she have with her parents?
9. Are they still around today?

Some of this may seem pointless, and very little will be shared with the reader, but it all makes up the person walking across your page.

Take the question "Were both parents around?" Seems like a yes or no, but then you learn her dad was in the military and died right before she was born, so she never knew him. Then her mom couldn't finish college because she had to go to work and raise the heroine alone. Why does that matter? Well, if that jock is considering joining the military, that heroine could have all sorts of issues.

Or if he's in any dangerous line of work. Or wants to get married too soon. Or wants a house full of munchkins, and expects her to stay home to raise them with no support unit around.

With one question, you've found a conflict. Or many conflicts. To know where these answers lead, you need to figure out who the hero is. Put him through the same drill.

Nearly every time I do this with new characters, I learn things about them I never imagined. Sometimes big things. I learned a heroine had lost a child a few years before the story started. I learned a hero felt inferior to his older brother.

Both were important facts I needed to know to bring those characters to life on the page, and I firmly believe these details are what made the characters real.

So once you know who they are, you're ready to write, right? Not quite. There are more questions yet to be answered.

There are the usual ones:

• What is her greatest fear?
• What would she never do?
• What does she want?
• What is she willing to do to get it?

It's so important to ask these questions before you start, but sometimes you don't have the answers right away. I'm sure there are pantsers reading this (if they haven't clicked away already) thinking knowing all this going in would ruin everything. But even if you write the story by the seat of your pants, you have to eventually prod the answers to these questions out of your characters.

You need them to be real people, with real wants and fears and goals. And you MUST make the reader care enough to want to see her get/face/achieve them. Only by making them unique and special will the reader care. That doesn't always mean the reader has to like her (or him.) But they need to become invested enough in that person to want to keep reading.

If you plug in stereotypes with no unique traits or history, or make them caricatures of a classic character we all know, you're going to lose the reader. The reader will get to chapter two and think, "I've read this so many times, what else do I have on this Kindle?" Or worse, think "I could care less what happens to these people," then close the book and instantly forget about them.

In order to find the heart beat that makes the character come alive, you have to know her. To know her, you have to ask questions.

The more you pry, the more you learn, and the more real the character becomes. Whether it takes days or weeks, get to know their quirks, their hang ups, their romantic history, and even their philosophy on life.

With every answer, your story gets better. Your job as the writer gets easier. (Relatively speaking, of course.) And your readership will grow.

One last note. In the end, trust your characters. They know their story better than you do. There are times they'll surprise you. Let them. Those surprises will almost always pay off in the end.

For more on character development, I highly recommend a blog C. S. Lakin did on Larry Brooks site. You can find it here.

Here is Terri's Character Details Sheet:

 

Would you like to share additional questions you ask your characters?

About Terri Osburn:

Born in the Ohio Valley, Terri relocated below the Mason Dixon line in the early 1990s after experiencing three blizzards in eighteen months. Seeking warmer climes, she landed in Nashville, did a stint in Arkansas, and eventually moved to the East Coast, where she settled near the ocean.

In 2012, she was named a finalist in the Romance Writers of America® Golden Heart® contest for unpublished manuscripts. An agent and contract soon followed. Her debut release, the first in her Anchor Island Series, MEANT TO BE, was released in May 2013, with book 2, UP TO THE CHALLENGE, to follow October 22, 2013.

Visit her website at www.terriosburn.com.

And now, for the winner of last Friday's THE TRICKY PART contest: Congratulations to Evelyn Berry, the winner of Laurie Schnebly Campbell's writing class. Evelyn, you can contact Laurie directly about your class.

Today we welcome guest blogger Marcy Kennedy, author of Strong Female Characters, with advice for all of you who blog--or are thinking of blogging--as part of your platform.

by Marcy Kennedy

Half a dozen words shouldn’t be so hard to write, but when it comes to titles of any type--and especially blog titles--they can be the most frustrating handful of words imaginable. Once you learn the secret behind them, though, they become much easier.

So do you want to know my secret? Here it is.

Make a specific promise about what’s in it for the reader.

This breaks down into two parts—specific promise and value for the reader.

Be Specific

Blog post titles are the wrong place to channel your creativity.

Creativity and word plays in blog titles don’t work. If people need to read the blog post to understand your title, it’s a bad title. It’s a bad title because if people don’t understand your title, they’ll never reach the blog post you’re sharing. See the catch-22?

For example, a fiction writer I know did a fun post on bacon and she titled it…Bacon!

This post didn’t get nearly the traffic it deserved because people didn’t know whether this was a post about how much the author loved bacon, the best way to cook bacon, or a million other bacon-related topics.

WITS own Jenny Hansen, however, recently did a very similar post and did an amazing job on her title. She called her post 5 Bacon-Themed Gifts to Add More Pork to Your Life.

Do you see the difference? In one you don’t know what the post will be about. In the other, you know exactly what you’ll find.

If your tweet is too vague, you can use all the formulas you want and it will still fall flat.

Too Vague = The Shocking Truth About Doctors

We don’t care because we don’t know what shocking truth you might be revealing. About whether doctors practice what they preach? About whether doctors are stealing from their patients while under anesthetic?

Specific = The Shocking Truth About What Your Doctor Might Be Doing to Harm Your Health

Give the Reader the Obvious Benefit They’ll Receive from Reading the Post

What’s the takeaway from your post?

Your post should offer to meet a need your ideal reader feels (even if they don’t realize they feel it).

This could be a need for entertainment. It could be a need for a solution to a problem they have.  It could be encouragement, either spiritual or psychological. It could be a combination.

Example:

Okay Tweet

Every Successful Writer Must Learn to Say “No”

You’re hinting in this title that the benefit in your post is success. Learning to say “no” to some things will make you a more successful writer. That’s okay, but why should I click through to read the whole post? What will I get in the post that the title hasn’t already given me?

Better Tweet

Why You Need to Learn to Say “No” to Succeed as a Writer

This title makes the content of the post more clear. It’s going to give you reasons to say “no” to some things in order to succeed at others. Better, but if I already know I need to say “no” there’s no motivation for me to click through. Where’s the practical takeaway for me?

Best Tweet

Six Ways to Say “No” With Less Guilt

Everyone can tell us that we need to say “no” to be successful, but not everyone can tell us how to do it in a way that’s easier and less stressful for us. That’s an amazing benefit. If you wanted to be sure that people understood the post was tips for writers, you could write “Six Ways for Writers to Say No With Less Guilt.”

When All Else Fails, Ask a Question

We all feel compelled to answer a question or to want to know the answer. It immediately gets us thinking. It’s also a great trick for fiction writers who might be writing about a topic in a post that doesn’t lend itself easily to an obvious takeaway.

I’m a fantasy writer and part of my brand is showing that fantasy isn’t about escaping this world. I write fantasy that helps us see life in this world in a new way and gives us a safe place to explore problems that might otherwise be too difficult to face. So part of my signature is posts where I take a life lesson from fantasy or science fiction. That’s difficult to translate into a title, so I pose a question about the topic we’ll be discussing.

Do You Ever Feel Like You Don’t Fit In? (based on How to Train Your Dragon)

How Do We Know If Someone Has Truly Changed? (based on Once Upon a Time and Rumplestiltskin)

Do You Believe In Second Chances? (based on Lord of the Rings and Gollum)

Have you written or seen great blog titles? Can you write a blog title based on your WIP? Are you willing to share them?

About Marcy

Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) is a speculative fiction writer who believes fantasy is more real than you think. Alongside her own writing, Marcy works as a freelance editor and teaches classes on craft and social media through WANA International.

You can find her blogging about writing and about the place where real life meets science fiction, fantasy, and myth at www.marcykennedy.com. She offers a free PDF called Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Hiring a Freelance Editor to anyone who signs up for her newsletter. Click here to sign up for your copy.

Congratulations to Ella Quinn, the winner of Debbie Herbert's contest last week. Ella, you can contact Debbie via her website. You're lucky to be one of the first to read her debut book, Siren’s Secret!

And the winner of Chuck Sambuchino's contest is Judi Moreo. We'll let Chuck know the snail mail address on your website. Let us know whether you'd like a free copy of either the brand new 2014 GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS or 2014 CHILDREN’S WRITER’S & ILLUSTRATOR’S MARKET. Congratulations!

Writers in the Storm welcomes back James Preston, author of the Surf City Mysteries to share how he uses screenplay structure.

by James Preston

Today we're going to talk about a big fish with a very bad attitude.  But first . . .

When I was working on Read 'Em and Weep,  the second installment of the Surf City Mysteries, I had a wonderful experience. Two of my characters came to life and started talking to me.  Katerina Kohl and Heather Rubinski are two Las Vegas showgirls who wanted desperately to tell me about their lives.  It was great.  I loved it.  And they tried to kill my book.  To explain why, I need to talk about the seven-part screenplay structure, the skeleton that underlies most commercial fiction.

Fair warning, this is going to be full of spoilers.

If you have not seen the classic Stephen Spielberg film Jaws, I am going to take it apart as an example.  So, if you care about how the story goes and don't want to know, be warned that I am going to give it away.  All of it.

Fair warning #2: Once I studied this and internalized it, I started to see it in much of the fiction I read.  Sort of like seeing the man behind the screen, so if you think that might spoil your reading, save yourself; it's too late for yours truly.  However, I found that looking for the bones under the skin enhanced my appreciation for the craftsmanship of the writer.

Still with me?  Okay enough with the warnings.

Remember, a story is about somebody who wants something.  Something stops them from getting it.  They try to get it and either succeed or fail.

A Plot Point is something that changes the story, turns it into something unexpected, usually by changing the heroine's goals.

Since I am talking about adapting this structure to novel writing, I will use page numbers to show locations in the manuscript.  Assume a 200-page manuscript.  We'll see how it works as minutes.

Let's talk about the bones, the skeleton that is one way of building your story.

1.  Hook.  Something interesting happens that grabs the reader's attention.  This is the very beginning of the story and it is important!
2. Twist. The story goes off in a different direction.  It's not what you thought it would be.  This can come anytime before . . .
3. Plot Point One.  About 20% in.  For our mythical 200-page books, this is around page 40.
4. Midpoint. A watershed moment.  You guessed it.  Page 100 .
5. Plot Point Two. Everything the heroine did is wrong.  Page 160.
6. Climax. The heroine solves the problem, or doesn't.  This is less precise.  Say around page 180.
7. Denouement.  Loose ends are tied up.  Everybody who wasn't killed and eaten goes home.

So let's see how this works in real life.  Hear the music?  Da dum.  Da dum.  Da dum.  Are you ready to go back in the water?

Hook.

Chrissie and her boyfriend are partying their brains out on the beach with a group of college kids. She talks him into going skinny-dipping.  (Personal note:  He's reluctant.   Is he insane?  Did you see what Chrissie looks like?  I would have been in the water ahead of her, drunk or not!). Anyway, he passes out on the beach and she meets Bruce the Shark.  Bruce has a much better time than Chrissie.

Twist. 

Crissie's remains are found,  but no one believes it's a shark.

Plot Point One. 

Expect this to be about 20% in, and it is.  At 17 minutes in, Alex Kintner, a young boy on an inflatable raft, is killed.  Now we and everybody in Amity know it is a shark.

Midpoint.

At 58 minutes in, Ben Gardner's boat and body are discovered by Brady and Hooper, but the Mayor still insists on keeping the beaches open, and this leads directly to the attack in the pond and the hiring of the irascible Quint.  The police chief, the marine biologist, and Quint go out on the Orca to hunt the shark.  The stakes get much, much higher -- it's a fight now.

Plot Point Two.

94 minutes in, Quint, never the most stable of individuals, smashes the radio.  Now they can't get help.  Now it's fight to the death.

Climax.

"I ain't got no spit."  In a last ditch effort, Hooper goes down in the shark cage.  (We'll have to leave a serious discussion of foreshadowing for another day, but for a good example, think back to Hooper loading the equipment on the Orca, when Quint mocks the cage, hinting that the shark could get through it.)  Bruce the Shark bites right through the cage, probably thinking, "Oooh, crunchy on the outside." Hooper gets away, maybe, and Sheriff Brody has to face his fear of water as Quint is killed and the Orca sinks.  He shoots the shark.

Denouement.

Brody and Hooper are paddling back to the island on a piece of wreckage.  Brody says, "I never used to like the water.  I can't imagine why."

So, will this structure work for your novel?  You bet!  To adapt it, keep in mind that you have more flexibility than a scriptwriter.  In Black Sunday, Thomas Harris puts his second plot point forty pages early.  His villain, the psychotic blimp pilot, comes down with viral pneumonia.  It works because it's a big book with a lot going on.

On the other hand, in the awesome One for the Money, Janet Evanovich puts her midpoint right at the middle. (Morelli throws Stephanie's car keys in a dumpster.  When she is rummaging through garbage to find them, she finds a newspaper article saying John Kuszack has been gunned down.  This expands the story because Stephanie now knows that witnesses are being killed.)

More things to remember when you are adapting this technique to the printed page.  You need to alternate between tension and relaxation.  Each incident needs to be more intense than the one before.  When the heroine wins it has to be by her own efforts, deus ex machina is handy but a trifle dated.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot.  Throw out all of these rules for a literary novel.  They don't apply.  And if you're a one-of-a-kind genius like Janet Evanovich you can use them or not.  For the rest of us, a skeleton is useful.

You may be thinking, how can I possibly remember all this and keep it straight when I'm figuring out the next scene?  Don't worry.  Some folks map out their entire novel beforehand, others don't.  For me, these guidelines come into play at the second draft stage.  I like to start up the bulldozer and move some earth before I fine tune the result.  (I borrowed the bulldozer metaphor from Stephen King.  Thank you.)

So, how did Katerina and Heather try to kill my novel when they were telling me about their lives?  They told me all about their lives.  I know about Heather's abusive father, and how Trina went to a community college, studied accounting and hated it.  This background was fascinating, helped me get to know them, and they wanted to tell me about it, but it just didn't fit.  No matter where I put it, it altered the structure of the book and failed to move the story forward.  So I didn't use it.  My hope is that your characters come to life and speak to you, and that later, you will select what you need and file away what you don't.  Just listen that first time around.

There are many variations on the structure I have described.  If you feel like sharing I would like to hear some of them, and examples from your current work.  Thanks, and I'll see you next time.

James R. Preston writes the Surf City Mysteries, the most recent of which is Pennies For Her Eyes.  He has signed at Men of Mystery, where he appeared on the same bill as New York times bestselling, awesome writer James Rollins.  (That sound in the background is Preston’s own horn tooting.)  Check out www.jamesrpreston.com for more information.  And if your book club wants a live one, send an email.

Don't forget that Thursday at 6p.m. PDT we'll pick the lucky winner of a free class from commenters on Laurie Schnebly Campbell's post from last Friday, The Tricky Part. The winner's name will be announced in two days, on Friday. Good luck to all.