Greeting, fellow writers! It’s Hannah again! And today, class, we are going to talk about characters! Who doesn’t love characters?!!! I LOVE CHARACTERS!!!!!!!!! THEY ARE MY FRIENDSSSSSS!!!!!!!!! I LUV DEMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*Deep breath* *Frets to self* “Calm down,
Hannah, you’re writing a blog post here. Get serious.”
Okay, so.
0.o
Characters. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm……………… as you have
probably guessed by now, I really like characters. Especially MY characters. I
know them better than anyone. I have plans for them. I can make their life be
perfect or awful! I can make them sad, happy, thoughtful, angry, strong,
powerful, scared, weak, afraid, etc. Anything I want! They are in my control.
Awesome, right? This goes for
everyone! Which ROCKS!
But sometimes… well, we just
have to be careful.
I’m a culprit of this, but I’ve
gotten better. And it is…
You can’t make your character perfect. They can have their wins, but they have to have some
losses. They can have some victories, but they have to suffer some defeat. They
can have bravery and strength, but you have to allow them to be weak and afraid
in some spots too. It’s not fun, but we’re humans. We all make mistakes. (And
even if your character isn’t human, this still applies) If your character is
beast with, let’s say a sword, have someone beat her in a sword fight. If you
character has great aim with a bow, have her miss an elusive target or someone
hit a bull’s eye she couldn’t manage. Failure is a part of life. When you read
about a character’s failure, you also get to understand that character more,
and it makes for a better, stronger character.
One other important thing is:
Be Unique.
I’m not saying you have to be
completely out there. if your story has something to do with a 2000 year old
dissected lizard or a deceased water buffalo, then maybe you should get some
help… But you don’t want to have a story where the hero is perfect and super
awesome and he/she is the only one who can save the world from the evil villain
who is just evil because he/she feels like. There needs to be motive in all
your characters. What makes them do what they do? Why do they act how they act?
A big part of motive is backstory. Backstory is what happened before the book
started. You might slip in hints of back stories in the course of your book to
help understand your character better.
Villains’ back stories are
especially fun! I love a good villainous backstory! Let’s use Harry Potter as
an example again!
Harry Potter is an orphan with
terrible relatives and no family. This automatically makes you feel sympathetic
towards him. Your sad he has a hard life. You want him to WIN. You want his
life to get better. You root for him!
Voldemort was an orphan
likewise. He was creepy and demented from childhood, but played the perfect
student when he arrived at Hogwarts. Everyone loved Tom! Tom couldn’t do
anything wrong! Only wise Dumbly-dore could see through him. And he knew what
evil was hidden in that black heart. (WOW sorry, kind of poetic there hehe)
Ahh! My cat is trying to sit on the keyboard! *Slight interlude*
Okay, hehe sorry about that!
Yes we were talking about villains. SO. Do you have a deliciously complicated
villain? It doesn’t have to be too twisted, but the twisted ones are the best
and most fun! In my book for example, the ultimate villain is an immortal
illusionist who has made different names for himself and is scattered all
throughout the history of earth, and my world. He’s immortal and has been
waiting three thousand years so he’s patient, cunning, and crazy. Bent on
revenge for reasons that I will not mention here because (1) you probably are
tired of my blabbing and (2) it would spoil things because when I become a
totally fabulous famous author (Sarcasm intended) I wouldn’t want the series
spoiled for you!
Sorry guys, I’m on my third cup
of coffee and just watched Sherlock last night so yeah… I’m kind of hyper…
lolzzzzzzzzzz.
So, I’m going to wrap this up,
but just so you know, there is SO much more to characters. Every story has to
have that good old fashion hero/heroine and that twisted villain. The
characters make the book. They are what bring realism and life to the story!
And you’re going to be stuck with them for a while so you gotta stick with them
and love them, even if they are just words on a page. But you know you’ve
mastered the character when they begin to become more of that. A bit of every one of your characters
is in you. That’s what makes them so special… :)
So, yeah, Emily will be back
Friday, won’t you Emily? *Smiles crazily* Yeah, y’all are probably getting
tired of gittery, giggling Hannah so enjoy Emily’s company when she joins you
Friday!
Lots of love and best wishes
from the crazy-writer-girl-who-is-hyped-up-on-coffee,
Hannah W. =)
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