Learn to listen...
My wife understands baby talk.
Whether a groan, squeak, niggle, cry, scream or even just the flapping of arms, she knows exactly what our son needs.
I don't.
With me, it's a process of elimination: feed me, burp me, change me, smile at me, play with me or put my dummy back in my mouth. And very often it is all of the above, just not in that order. It is usually a case of feed me, burp me, feed me, smile at me, burp me, feed me some more, and finally, clean my bottom.
When writing, I have a similar situation, and that because my characters are always based on people I have met at one stage or another.
We have conversations, negotiations, and lay out a general list of actions to be taken. Most of the time they would say, "You want me to do what?"
In real life, the average human being is driven by the primal instinct to survive. Whether creating a safety net for those within their bubble, working towards that promotion or mending bridges to achieve emotional peace, the situation dictates the way they would react to (and in) a situation.
Like a large percentage of marriages, my first ended with a divorce.
No details necessary other than I had to find a way to deal with it, so I wrote a book where my MC lost his wife in a car accident. In a way the two are very similar, because one day they're there and the next they are not.
So, his wife died and he's a mess, but if you listen to what your character is saying you will realise that there is a lot more beneath the surface. Feelings of loss, guilt and blame come to mind.
But search deeper... Ask questions like: How do you see yourself going forward - Will you ever love again - Are you able to love again seeing as, at the moment, you are emotionally numb...?
This applies to the romance genre and how I write it, and has also helped me when developing three-dimensional characters in other genres I have written. I may be wrong, but as a reader I like being able to relate to the character. Get inside their head. Feel what they are feeling.
So listen. Talk to your characters. Share a beer or a shower - whatever it takes to make them as real as you can, and you'll find that writing them becomes second nature.
Even though it has been done over and over, I will one day have a writer as a character, and describe how it feels to send out queries...
Whether a groan, squeak, niggle, cry, scream or even just the flapping of arms, she knows exactly what our son needs.
I don't.
With me, it's a process of elimination: feed me, burp me, change me, smile at me, play with me or put my dummy back in my mouth. And very often it is all of the above, just not in that order. It is usually a case of feed me, burp me, feed me, smile at me, burp me, feed me some more, and finally, clean my bottom.
When writing, I have a similar situation, and that because my characters are always based on people I have met at one stage or another.
We have conversations, negotiations, and lay out a general list of actions to be taken. Most of the time they would say, "You want me to do what?"
In real life, the average human being is driven by the primal instinct to survive. Whether creating a safety net for those within their bubble, working towards that promotion or mending bridges to achieve emotional peace, the situation dictates the way they would react to (and in) a situation.
Like a large percentage of marriages, my first ended with a divorce.
No details necessary other than I had to find a way to deal with it, so I wrote a book where my MC lost his wife in a car accident. In a way the two are very similar, because one day they're there and the next they are not.
So, his wife died and he's a mess, but if you listen to what your character is saying you will realise that there is a lot more beneath the surface. Feelings of loss, guilt and blame come to mind.
But search deeper... Ask questions like: How do you see yourself going forward - Will you ever love again - Are you able to love again seeing as, at the moment, you are emotionally numb...?
This applies to the romance genre and how I write it, and has also helped me when developing three-dimensional characters in other genres I have written. I may be wrong, but as a reader I like being able to relate to the character. Get inside their head. Feel what they are feeling.
So listen. Talk to your characters. Share a beer or a shower - whatever it takes to make them as real as you can, and you'll find that writing them becomes second nature.
Even though it has been done over and over, I will one day have a writer as a character, and describe how it feels to send out queries...
Comments
Post a Comment