Category: character development
During a ramble around Pinterest two years ago, I spotted an interesting visual: Ball of Grief: A Tangled Ball of Emotions. I printed it out (sans author, sorry) and have kept it in my file to remind me of how truly tangled and interconnected our emotions can be. The skein-like ball of emotions shares over 40 emotions, ranging from sadness and inadequacy, to despair and denial, to rage. It provides a great resource for writers as potential characters enter problems and situations and must deal with their entanglements. And… Recently I read a novel about a woman who lost her...
Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Gore Vidal That feels true to me. My stories build up in my mind, crowding out everyday thoughts. I think of the mass of characters I’ve invented as real beings. They must be real; they have names, personalities, quirks, and boyfriends as well as moments of joy and disappointment. I talk with friends, including my imaginary characters and come close to sending them birthday cards each year. Then I remember they don’t age; they are perpetually the age I leave them when my books end. Sometimes I wonder what...
When I cleaned out my files, I found several unused story ideas from 84 Ribbons, book one in my ballet trilogy. Here’s one of them. More to follow this month. Spam and An Empty Garage One of the greatest opportunities in my life came when I was four. I learned to dance. My family didn’t have money for extras, but they found a way to scrape enough together for me to take dance lessons. I think those savings came in the shape of canned Spam which we ate once or twice a week. I hated the clear gooey fat that...
Throughout the trilogy, I invited many characters to step into my books. Here is a list of story characters in no particular order. Select the top 5 you feel were the most antagonizing. Madame Cosper Steve Mason Noel Elijah Mrs. B. ? Lynne Meadows Marta Selbryth Damien Black Uncle Leo Carol Dennis (carpenter) Lily Rose Ida ? Suzette Bartley Timmons Elle Selbryth Wallace Cheryl Menkins Karl Lynne’s parents Lucia ? Kitsy Arty Madame Zelb Jae...
Writers never stop looking for ways to improve their writing. One such way is conferences. Our local conference, Write on the Sound, is a perfect place to gain ideas and techniques while meeting with fellow writers. And, as good fortune would have it, we had a perfect weekend of weather, classes, and vistas from the Plaza Room at Edmond’s Francis Anderson Center (formerly the place where I began my teaching career half a century ago). Ouch. that sounds ancient; maybe it is! The conference strictly showcases writers as presenters with no agents or publishers making presentations. Listening to fellow writers...
Once every decade or so, a super talented dancer comes along and takes the ballet world by storm. Currently she’s Misty Copeland, the thirty-two year old dancer just named as a principal for the American Ballet Theatre. The fact that she is an African-American is highlighted but, her raw talent is the true measure of her success. Like every über successful performer she’s become an overnight sensation. Of course it took her nearly twenty years to attain that status! She wasn’t all dancer to the exclusion of high school like many dancers seem to be. She kept her life in...
What makes a good character? Here’s a starting list. Please send me your ideas so I can grow the list and re-share it with you. * flawed with strengths and weaknesses, scars and oddities in their lives * well-developed personality * distinctive ‘voice’ (you often know which character is speaking without the ‘said’ tag) * approachable yet filled with secrets * has a story worth our time learning about as we read * share both their inner and outer conflicts * grow and change over the course of the story
Misty Copeland, a soloist with New York’s American Ballet Theatre was interviewed last Sunday, May 10th, on 60 Minutes. [See: 60 Minutes Season 47 – Episode 33] As I watched, I wondered how Marta, my 84 Ribbons and When the Music Stops leading character compared to a real ballet dancer. Let’s find out. Both young women stand at five feet. Both were raised mostly by their mother. Both began their training in simple settings rather than ballet academies and worked far beyond their regular class hours to perfect their dancing. Both felt music rather than danced to music. Both sustained...
