We've been looking at Les Misérables to see what writings lessons we can glean from it. Last post, we looked at the Plotting and Sub-plotting, and this time, I want to look at the characters. Hugo has an enormous cast of characters in this book, and honestly, there are times when even the most attentive readers … Continue reading Writing Lessons from Les Mis: Characterization
Tag: Characters
This is part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog-hop, designed to help encourage authors and foster discussions about writing topics across the internet and the world. This month's question is "How do major life events affect your writing? Has writing ever helped you through something?" Most of the time, life affects my writing by … Continue reading How Life Intersects with Writing
This is part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog-hop, designed to help encourage authors and foster discussions about writing topics across the internet and the world (I missed the memo about it needing to be posted yesterday, apparently). This month's question is "What's are your ultimate writing goals and how have they changed over … Continue reading Ultimate Writing Goals and How They Can Change
This is part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog-hop, designed to help encourage authors and foster discussions about writing topics across the internet and the world. This month's question is "What's harder for you to come up with, book titles or character names" For me, it's definitely coming up with a book title. Because … Continue reading How to Pick a Character’s Name
Characters do all kinds of things in fiction. Their actions make up the stories we write, and if they did nothing...it'd be pretty boring. But how much motivation should there be in what they do? Do you, as the author, need to always know why they're doing it, or can they just "do something for … Continue reading Character Actions: Should There Be a Reason Why?
Yesterday we discussed how a memorable character need not be described in more than a few phrases to stick in our mind (as seen in Jane Austen's minimalistic approach in describing Elizabeth Bennet). When an author uses this approach, we may not know the character's hair color, their overall height or appearance, but a feature … Continue reading Describing Memorable Characters: Anna Karenina
Whenever you write a character into existence, there is an expectation that you must describe them. You've made them, so you have to tell other people what they're like, elaborating on the height, weight, eye color, hair color, skin color, general features, behaviors, and facial features...or so some readers would have you believe. Yet, if … Continue reading Describing Memorable Characters: Elizabeth Bennet
I've been thinking about characters and their appearances in preparation for the "Characters in Costume" blogfest for the end of October, and I've also been reading some of the classic Disney stories to my two sons. As a result, I've been thinking about the way Cinderella's stepsisters come across in the books and film. Anastasia … Continue reading Cinderella’s Stepsisters: Ugly or Mislabeled?
I've been dealing with writing romance lately. Not the genre but the plot component, the seemingly inescapable phenomenon that crops up when writing fantasy, science-fiction, historical fiction, and just about any other genre, provided you have a few single characters floating around. And I've written about how authors can woefully get a romance wrong before, and … Continue reading The Art of Making a Good Match
This isn't a guide to writing typical "Christian fiction," but an exploration of how one writes fiction as a Christian. After writing my last post about "What Makes a Christian Author 'Christian'?," I realized there was still some unanswered questions. What does fiction written by Christians look like? How is it different from fiction by … Continue reading Developing a Novel as a Christian
Andrea Lundgren 