 Contests & Activities: August 21, 2024 Issue [#12695] |
This week: Character Study Edited by: spidey  
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Welcome to the Contests & Activities Newsletter. I'm spidey , and I'm your Editor this week!
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Character Study
I started watching a UK reality show where artists compete making portraits, and it made me think about how writers compose their characters.
Like painting and drawing, there are all sorts of approaches you can take. You can start with a very vivid, detailed idea or you can just have a vague sense, but in the end, a well-developed and clear character is going to have a better chance of connecting with your reader.
All the elements of writing is important, be it setting, plot, character, etc., but perhaps the most important element in connecting with your readers is characterization.
What works for one writer may not work for the next, and I think it can be fun to find out what style works for you. The approach may even change per piece of writing, but here are some ideas for fleshing out your characters:
Some tips on detailed reviews:
 Find their motivation. A key to deciding how your character reacts and interacts with their environment, other characters, and actions, is to define their main motivation. You can come up with exercises and think about how your character would act in specific situations (whether or not those situations end up in your final work)
Visualize. You can draw or sketch your character, find an image that reminds you of your character so it helps you to conceptualize them so you can then paint with words so your reader can see them, too.
In addition to thinking about their internal motivations and thoughts, think about their external environment. What do they typically wear? What does their home look like? How do they express themselves? Again, not all of these details will make it into the final product, but they can help you flesh out the character.
Flaws. Don't forget flaws! I play table top role playing games (TTRPGs), and one thing I've found that makes it fun is to come up with a flaw in my characters. It makes them more fun to develop, and I think it makes it more fun and interesting for the reader.
The tricky part of all this character development is that we're often limited with contests by word count. We can't go on and on about our characters and what they're like. We have limited space to convey them to readers, and we feel pressure to have them fully developed, flawed, interesting portraits. That's the tough part! It's a balance to give detail to readers in a short time, but also not bog the reader down with details. You don't want it to feel like a list of traits.
My advice would also be to read a ton! Find authors that you find do very well at writing characters (or setting or plot, anything you think you could use some improvement with) and study what works for you and what doesn't, as a reader. Being an involved and critical reader is quite important to writing, don't you think?
And definitely check out this month's official Writing.Com's Contest: "What a Character! : Official WDC Contest" [E]
Take care, and as always, keep on writing! 
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