Description:
Douglas and Querilla spend the day together in harmony. But that is not to be. The princess gets abducted. Douglas has to save her. That is only the beginning of a journey that takes them to other planets and finding out familial history.
Meanwhile, a revolution is happening on Varia where the Varians are trying to free themselves from the tyranny of the Coaltion.
GUEST POST
Creating Characters
When it comes to creating characters, especially main characters you want to reader to identify with them. This will bring the reader into the book and allow them to enjoy the book much more. One of the more recent examples of a writer bringing characters to life on the page, and one of my favorite authors, is JK Rowling.
She made her characters multidimensional. It was hard at times to tell the good guys from the bad guys. That is how you can throw twists and turns in the story without the readers knowing.
There are a 5 things that you out to do to make sure your characters are multidimensional.
1. Know your characters inside and out.
Knowing your character inside and out will make it easier to show their motivations for what it is they are doing whether it be for good or evil or somewhere in between. Know your characters like they are your friends. JK Rowling, herself, stated once that she had over two hundred pages of notes on every character. She even had birthdays written down along with family genealogy for her characters. She did this even with characters who may have made only one or two appearances within the books.
2. Make them complex
Knowing your characters inside and out is great. But just knowing that they are inherently evil or good is one thing. However, you want your characters to be complex. You need to know what motivates them. What makes your characters who he / she is? What drives your character? Could this character be a savior and be a nasty person in the process? These are all questions you want to answer. Not all of your bad guys are going to be megalomaniacs or psychopaths. That is just not the way society is.
George Lucas and JK Rowling show a character motivation that leads characters down opposite paths. For example, Severus Snape seemed like a nasty character in everything he did, but in the Deathly Hallows we learn that Snape was brokenhearted. He shut his emotions of from the world. He helped Harry only because he loved the boy's mother deeply. On the other side of this coin, a man full of grief over the fact he could not save his mother from death, gets a vision that his wife will die in labor. HE tries to gain the power necessary to prevent it, which is the reason she dies anyways. This is the tragic downfall of Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader.
Both of these characters are really complex beings. Neither is truly good or bad. Their actions may say otherwise. Power to save their loved ones lead both down a dark path, but in the end both redeemed themselves before death took them.
3. Have your characters SHOW emotion
The problem with some books and the characters within is that they are thin on emotions. Or if the characters show their emotions, it is inherently one sided and a thin layer of emotions at best. Even in romances, you cannot have the female or male characters swoon over their loved ones the whole time. That would be boring.
Instead you want to show a range of emotions with your characters. Let them find happiness, but also let them experience pain and unpleasantness. I know that all the readers want happy endings to the books they read. Real life does not happen this way. Some of the stories need to end harshly or in such a way that the characters who get their 'happy ending' have to struggle to achieve it.
4. Characters Need the Journey
The journey, what this entails is the personal journey the character takes to reach their ultimate goal. The journey for people in real life is sometimes boring with a few rocky spots. As for a character in a book, you will want to throw in more rocky spots with a few bumps in the road and mountains in the way which the characters will ultimately need to overcome to reach that final destination. Doing this will build up your character in the readers eyes.
If you are writing a series, this may take a few books to reach that ultimate final destination for the moment. Writing a series means that your characters will face challenges more often than a single book of characters. However, this allows the reader to get to know your characters better with a chance of cherishing them.
5. NOT all characters need to look like supermodels.
Some of the most cherished characters of all time in literature, DID NOT look like supermodels. Harry Potter, for example, started out as a runt in the beginning of the series. He eventually did grow into a strong willed individual who not always followed the rules, but had honorable intentions when he did not.
Characters, like real people in life, need to come in all shapes and sizes. You need to have tall, short, gorgeous, frumpy, lanky, thin, pudgy characters in your books. Although, your characters will reflect how you see them in your mind. Be mindful when describing your characters. Not all of your males have to be broad chested, tall, with dark hair, a chiseled chin, and muscular. Nor do your female characters look like they stepped off the fashion runway in Paris.
Show some variation in the characters. Show some problems with the characters. Not all of them can be in perfect health either. Show personal drama with your characters, show depth in your characters. Looks are what the person sees on the outside. Hide a beautiful person within a horrifying facade, like The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
In conclusion
Readers want characters they can identify with, that they can root for. Don't just have the supermodel be a generous person with a good heart. Have that supermodel with a black heart and devious mind who wants to save the environment. Or have that hideous looking monstrosity of a person be one with a beautiful personality that would win over a beautiful woman or man. Have your characters transform through their journey to be the person they want to be. Don't make things easy on the characters. Don't have your main characters of a romance novel fall in love on page one. Save something for the end.
Characters, the best ones, will jump off the page at your readers. Make your characters complex on multiple levels both in looks and personality. Make your characters come alive. Have your readers wanting more of your characters when the book is finished. Doing this, will not only accomplish in getting people talking, will bring in sales as well.
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About the author:
My name is Brien O’Raighne and I hail from Houston, Texas. I love to write. It is a passion of mine. Some would say an obsession, but those don’t really support me when they call it an obsession.
My writing usually combines my influences of Epic Fantasy, Sci-Fi Sagas, Paranormal, Classic Horror monsters, Superheroes and more. With what I like movie wise it would be hard for most people to understand some of my major influences in writing.
My influences include: J.K. Rowling, E.B. White, Homer, William Shakespeare, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Chris Claremont, Lara Hama, Margaret Weis, Tracey Hickman, J Michael Strasczynski, Todd McFarlane, Scott Lobdell, Timothy Zahn, Roald Dahl, amongst others.
1 comment:
Thank you for hosting my book tour.
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