Writers Helping Writers^®

Characters

The Importance of Grounding Characters in the Reader’s World

April 2, 2015

The Importance of Grounding Characters in the Reader’s World

April 2, 2015

We all know how important it is to build fully-fleshed characters by digging at their core. Exposing their attributes, flaws, morals, emotional wounds and fears that revolve around their basic…

Top Tips for Writing Multiple POV Novels

March 12, 2015

Top Tips for Writing Multiple POV Novels

March 12, 2015

Lisa Gail Green is here to offer some thoughts on writing multiple POVs. This is a route some authors go, but handling more than one protagonist is not easy. Lisa’s…

Why Should Characters Have a Talent or Skill?

March 10, 2015

Why Should Characters Have a Talent or Skill?

March 10, 2015

As many of you know, Angela and I are have a Talents and Skills Thesaurus that includes many aptitudes that a character might have. We started this thesaurus because we…

The Secret to Creating a Really Good Bad Guy

March 5, 2015

The Secret to Creating a Really Good Bad Guy

March 5, 2015

By CS Lakin Don’t you just love to hate really great bad guys in novels? A list of the most intriguing villains in literature includes characters such as Moriarty in…

Vulnerability: The Key to Compelling Romantic Relationships

March 3, 2015

Vulnerability: The Key to Compelling Romantic Relationships

March 3, 2015

The connection between two characters is one of the most magnetic forces in storytelling, especially in romance novels. Whether they welcome the relationship, fight it, or fall somewhere in between,…

How to Write Vivid Character Descriptions: Be Invisible!

February 17, 2015

How to Write Vivid Character Descriptions: Be Invisible!

February 17, 2015

One of the most difficult areas of description is when it comes to showing the appearance of a protagonist, especially when writing in first person POV. We need readers to…

Writing 101: Building a Balanced Character

January 7, 2015

Writing 101: Building a Balanced Character

January 7, 2015

Here’s the truth about compelling characters: they’re neither good nor bad, perfect nor fundamentally flawed. Instead, they’re all of these things. Each character has a set of good, admirable qualities…

10 Reasons Why Your Protagonist Needs Flaws

December 14, 2014

10 Reasons Why Your Protagonist Needs Flaws

December 14, 2014

When we see the word Hero or Heroine, we think heroic, which is ironic as they are often jaded, lost, and brimming with flaws and false beliefs about the world…

How Morals and Basic Needs Influence a Character’s Strengths

October 28, 2014

How Morals and Basic Needs Influence a Character’s Strengths

October 28, 2014

Since writing The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Attributes, I’ve been thinking about how personality traits are formed. Flaws are important for a character to have—and, let’s be…

Emotional Description: 3 Common Problems with Show & Tell

September 23, 2014

Emotional Description: 3 Common Problems with Show & Tell

September 23, 2014

Writing compelling emotional moments is the lifeblood of any story and the key to building a relationship between characters and readers. Yet steering clear of the show-don’t-tell pitfalls requires practice…