- Easy ways to create unique, memorable characters
- Tricks and tips that make working with characters
easier
- How to keep track of your characters
- How to get to know them properly
- Finding the perfect name
- A fast and very easy guide to psychology
- The 16 personality types
- How different characters interact
- How different characters react to stress
- How to find a character's breaking point
- How to make your characters more vivid and complex
- How to make your minor characters more realistic in just
two words
- Why a fictional character never leads
a quiet life
- The different types of villain
- Creating better villains
- Why a villain should always be a villain
- Why your characters are not you
- How to improve your people-watching
skills
- How to use real people
in your stories - and
what you
must
avoid
- Why every story must
have two sides
- Reverse psychology,
reversing stereotypes
and switching
roles
- Why witnesses aren't
always reliable
- Plus
more than
35 versatile,
ready-made characters you
can drop straight into
your
stories, build
new stories around,
or adapt
to fit
- And much more
- far too
many great
ideas
to list
here!
Sample idea: An easy way to find characters
Characters have shape and 'character'. They aren't just short
or tall, thin or fat, young or old, beautiful or ugly. If you
write like that then you obviously haven't looked closely at
real people. Go out and sit quietly for while, pretend to read
a newspaper or something, and watch in amazement at the sort
of people who come past.
I'm doing exactly that at this very moment, so my apologies
to everyone who passes me in the next few minutes - it might
look as if I'm reading a book, but I'm not. (Note: I am in a
different town, I don’t know who any of these people are,
and as far as I'm aware none of them live near me.) There are
hundreds of perfectly ordinary people walking past me, but these
are the ones who stand out:
There's the woman shaped exactly like a balloon. The wiry looking
girl with a huge backside and tree trunk legs. The massive woman
in a wheelchair who pushes herself along with sticks, cigarette
clamped firmly in her mouth. The very thin man who bends in the
middle. The guy with the massive beer gut, and trousers that
squeeze under it so tightly you wonder how he gets into them
- it looks extremely uncomfortable. The nasty looking guy with
the tattoos and beard, hand-in-hand with a well-dressed little
girl who he obviously takes good care of and who seems to think
the world of him. The pretty girl who smiles as she goes past
- she has the most massive teeth you have ever seen! The mother
who comes past with her young daughters who have dyed hair, piercings
and cropped clothing that reveals everything. Why does she let
them do it? Don't they get into trouble at school for looking
like that?
There you go: ten minutes; eight extraordinary (yet very ordinary)
people.
Alternative product: You
might prefer the complete Volume 1 (The Elements of
Fiction)
Includes: Characters, Description & Setting,
Dialogue,
Plot, Structure, Theme
799 very clever ideas, 310 pages, £15.99
 
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