Questions to ask your Characters

Hello Fellow Writers!

I wrote 3,000 words yesterday, bringing me up to 31,000 words. I'm actually ahead of schedule for completing my 50,000 word category romance novel by November 30th.

I'm starting to get to know my characters better. I have a feeling that when I finish my novel and go back to the beginning to reread it, I will have a new understanding of whether or not my hero and heroine are behaving in accordance with their character. I can't go back now, though. The only way for me to finish this first draft is to plow ahead. If I go back, I'll start revising, and that's not productive right now.

See, I love revising. I could revise a novel forever and be a happy camper. That's why I need to lock up my internal editor in order to get a first draft finished.

From WritingClasses.com, here is a list of questions that you can ask about your character in order to gain a better understanding of what your character is like. Check out the website for a second character questionnaire.

Character Questionnaire 1

This questionnaire is found in Gotham Writers’ Workshop’s Writing Fiction.
You might start with questions that address the basics about a character:
• What is your character’s name? Does the character have a nickname?
• What is your character’s hair color? Eye color?
• What kind of distinguishing facial features does your character have?
• Does your character have a birthmark? Where is it? What about scars? How did he get them?
• Who are your character’s friends and family? Who does she surround herself with? Who are the people your character is closest to? Who does he wish he were closest to?
• Where was your character born? Where has she lived since then? Where does she call home?
• Where does your character go when he’s angry?
• What is her biggest fear? Who has she told this to? Who would she never tell this to? Why?
• Does she have a secret?
• What makes your character laugh out loud?
• When has your character been in love? Had a broken heart?
Then dig deeper by asking more unconventional questions:
• What is in your character’s refrigerator right now? On her bedroom floor? On her nightstand? In her garbage can?
• Look at your character’s feet. Describe what you see there. Does he wear dress shoes, gym shoes, or none at all? Is he in socks that are ratty and full of holes? Or is he wearing a pair of blue and gold slippers knitted by his grandmother?
• When your character thinks of her childhood kitchen, what smell does she associate with it? Sauerkraut? Oatmeal cookies? Paint? Why is that smell so resonant for her?
• Your character is doing intense spring cleaning. What is easy for her to throw out? What is difficult for her to part with? Why?
• It’s Saturday at noon. What is your character doing? Give details. If he’s eating breakfast, what exactly does he eat? If she’s stretching out in her backyard to sun, what kind of blanket or towel does she lie on?
• What is one strong memory that has stuck with your character from childhood? Why is it so powerful and lasting?
• Your character is getting ready for a night out. Where is she going? What does she wear? Who will she be with?

Today my goal is to get to 33,000 words. I'm also enjoying reading a Harlequin Historical novel. It's called "From Waif to Gentleman's Wife" by Julia Justiss. Reading a Regency always has me itching to try and write a historical novel, but the few times I've started writing one I found myself caught up in research and neglecting the actual writing. I intend to remedy that at some point, perhaps after NaNoWriMo is over.

Wish me luck and good luck to you too!
Yours Truly,
Shoshanna Evers

Joyce Carol Oates on Characters

Hello Fellow Writers!

Yesterday I got my word count up to 10,084. I haven't been sleeping much (not because I'm writing, because of the baby!) and right now all I want to do is nap, not write. But my sister-in-law is in town so this may be the only time I have to write today, and I need to get up to 12,000 words.

The writing is moving along pretty smoothly. At one point I realized I wrote the wrong thing, and that I had to get rid of it - but in true NaNoWriMo spirit, I didn't go back to revise, I just plowed ahead. I had to pretend that I had already fixed it so I could mentally move forward. The reason I have so many beginnings of novels is I love to rewrite and polish -so this month I will forge ahead to the finish line at 50,000 words whether I like it or not!

Joyce Carol Oates talks in this video about writing, and specifically, how she writes characters. One thing she says that I find so interesting is that she is completely miserable for the first six weeks of writing a new novel - but she sticks with it and it all works out.



Today I will try to get my word count up to 12,000 - although right now I think I need a nap.
Wish me luck, and good luck to you!
Yours Truly,
Shoshanna Evers

More on Writer's Block

Hello Fellow Writers!

Yesterday I reworked a scene in "Marrying a Movie Star", and then I had to rework the following scene in Chapter 3 to follow up with it. It's amazing to me how quick and easy these revisions have been for me to work on - even major overhauls like rewriting a scene are no problem because I am so in tune with the characters that it's almost like they are writing the scene themselves. The revisions that are taking me less than hour to do would have completely baffled me and stopped me cold just last year.

Last night I thought up an really fun idea for my next romance novel, and I got so excited I almost said "Forget 'Snowed in with a Millionaire"! Let's scrap that and get started on "Seduced by her Captor"! But there is unlimited time, I am under no contracts, so what I did this morning was write down my idea for "Seduced by her Captor" and file it away so I can use it when I am done with "Snowed in with a Millionaire" for my next novel.

I wanted to put more information on writer's block. Yesterday's advice from the experts was to work through it, stay at your desk and get it done (that's what works for me, personally) - but this video shows Rebecca Sato, a professional freelance writer, giving basically the opposite advice. She suggests getting up and moving around.



Today is Yom Kippur, so I don't think I will be getting much done today since I have to be at synagogue, I'm fasting, and I have a cold. If I do get anything done it will be - you guessed it - more plotting of "Snowed in with a Millionaire".

Wish me luck, and good luck to you too! If you are Jewish then I wish you an easy fast!

Yours Truly,
Shoshanna Evers

Characterization

Hello Fellow Writers!

Yesterday I received a very good piece of advice from my writing teacher, Vinnie Dacquino, a published author. He said that while he was having fun reading Chapter 2 of "Marrying a Millionaire", there was one piece that seemed out of character for my heroine. And you know what? He was right! So I reworked it and now I think it reads a lot better.

I also worked on my plot for my work in progress, "Snowed in with a Millionaire". I realized, after bouncing ideas off of my husband, that I need to really make the snow storm extreme, and put our hero and heroine stranded together for days, not just one night. So today I'd like to work on that some more.

Characterization is key in any novel, but especially a romance novel, where we know there will be a happily ever after (HEA) ending - so we need a reason for these characters to have conflict.

Bronwyn Jameson, a romance author who has published several Silhouette Desire novels, has a really good article on her website, www.bronwynjameson.com.

"What makes a satisfying end to a romance? What leaves you with a smile on your face, convinced the characters have achieved a lasting happy-ever-after?

1. Satisfying resolution of internal conflict.
2. Plot has a believable resolution.
3. You believe the hero and heroine will make it together, even after the consuming heat of first love has cooled.

What works against this happening? Why would you doubt that the h/H will be happy together and not facing the divorce court in a couple of years' time?

• The I hate you-I hate you-I hate you, swiftly followed by the I-love-you about face without sufficient motivation/credibility
• The relationship is all about lust rather than love
• They have nothing in common beyond a mutual physical attraction
• They haven't resolved the conflict satisfactorily
• They still have issues
• They haven't changed or grown during the book.

In a romance we need the reader to believe that this pair has something very special going on, that despite all the conflict pushing them apart during the pages of the book, they will make it. And yet…if we make that too obvious, too early, we risk diminishing the tension.

How do we set up a believable HEA without sacrificing tension?

We need to recognise that this is a juggling act of conflict vs attraction. We need to acknowledge that our characters will clash and will bond. We can think about the points or road-signs only the rocky path to love.

Ensure your characters clash (conflict) and bond."

There's more to the article than what I quoted here, so be sure to check it out.

Today I plan on working on my plot more for "Snowed in with a Millionaire." Wish me luck, and good luck to you too!

Yours Truly,
Shoshanna Evers

J.K. Rowling - how she did it

Hello Fellow Writers!

Yesterday I had big plans - I was going to do character studies of my heroine and hero for my new romance novel, and I was going to plot the whole novel out ahead of time in meticulous detail using Evan Marshall's "The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing". Instead, my infant son took such a nice long nap that mommy ended up - you guessed it - falling asleep too. Since the plan was to write during his nap time, I suddenly found myself with no more time to write, since we went to synagogue shortly after my hubby came home from work.

Although - now that I'm thinking about it - if I really had to I could have (should have) written when we came home from temple around 9pm. The only thing that I got accomplished was thinking up a working title for my new book. I'm thinking "Snowed in With a Millionaire". I'm not 100% certain on that just yet, but for now it will do. So today the plan is to get what I had promised to do yesterday done. It should be easier to accomplish today with Jeff around to take care of baby Jake.

J.K Rowling, billionaire author of the "Harry Potter" series,was meticulous about her plotting and character studies.

She plotted out all seven novels before starting the first one! There's a BBC special about her that was done in 2002 that chronicles how she went from single mother on welfare to being the only author to ever make a billion dollars from writing - although I don't think she had hit the billionaire mark quite yet back in 2002. I won't post the whole thing here, since it's a) quite long b) belongs to the BBC and c) you can find it yourself on YouTube by searching for "J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and Me".

But I will share a segment of it that I found very inspiring - it shows J.K Rowling on the floor, surrounded by pieces of paper that contain all of her pre-writing notes about the world of Harry Potter. She has a list of all of his classmates, their lineage, now magical they are, etc. She drew pictures, wrote notes, basically anything and everything she could do to make her fictional world complete. It's fascinating.