 Fantasy: October 28, 2015 Issue [#7291] |
  Fantasy
This week: A Question of Character Edited by: Storm Machine  
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Main Characters: You can do everything you can to raise them right, and as soon as they hit the page they do any damn thing they please. ~Unknown
Remember: Plot is no more than footprints in the snow after your characters have run off to incredible destinations. ~Ray Bradbury |
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For a few years, we've had the WWJD paraphernalia roaming around, and it's supposed to evoke an idea of thinking about what a specific person would do in that situation. It's also been ripped off in many ways to show that there are different ideals to be passed down in all kinds of ways. (For example, my husband has a WWDD bracelet from his boss. Weird.)
Yet this question can teach a writer so many things. We outline, we brainstorm, and we write our way through the plot, but we have to be true to the characters. Nothing can lose a reader faster than plowing your character through to the end just to meet your overall goals of the story and not following what your character desires. This doesn't matter if your character is likeable or not - they need to make slow and steady progress toward changes rather than flipping like a switch.
My character could be a mousy girl named Daisy. She always apologizes when she runs into someone, even if it's in no way her fault, and she doesn't say bad words. It would take a lot for the reader to believe when she's pushing someone out of her way.
These have to be extraordinary circumstances, which is often what happens in books. We push the characters to their breaking points and we make them change through the events of the novel. But it's also good to remember that our characters also have resilience within them - they often can change during breaking events and return to some of their earlier states - like Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. |
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#2062730 by Not Available. |
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#2062839 by Not Available. |
| |  | Anywhere but Here (18+)
This won the Borough of Manhattan Community College's Writing & Literature Award in 2012.
#2062848 by reyrey  |
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#2063126 by Not Available. |
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writetight
Thanks for mentioning my "Invalid Item" in your Fantasy Newsletter. 
Dan
Always a pleasure.
Elfin Dragon-finally published 
I love this newsletter! At the end you stated, "And it seems like the more time we spend on our journeys, the younger all the newer ones seem." Which is exactly true, especially in fields where there are always younger people coming into them. I spent 11 years in the military and by the end of those 11 years I was marveling that I seemed to be getting older and everyone around me younger. Couldn't say when the phenomenon occurred, just suddenly I had all these "children" around me. And now, in my new job as a data entry clerk for Family Readiness in the military, there are many military members either retiring or separating. And those separating are still far younger than me. Born after I graduated High School. Again, I'm astounded at how many young people there are in the world.
And I'm sure they're going to keep seeming younger. Aging still only goes one way.
Dream ~★~ Justly
Thanks for featuring my story in your newsletter.
You're welcome. |
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