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Category Archives: Characters
Did You Really Mean What You Said?
Dialogue in writing differs from real conversations. Fictional characters rarely ramble on for pages, circumventing what they really want to say with phrases that sound good but have hard to pinpoint meanings. Most of the uh’s, um’s and pauses in … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Literary devices, Style and voice, Writer's resource, Writing trends
Tagged catch phrases, conversation, descriptions in dialog tags, dialog, dialog tags, editing out style, filler words in dialog, quality dialog, removing personality from characters, voice in writing
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The Villain’s Motive
There are multiple ways of uncovering how a person can become a villain. I can look at my own life and see what others did to harm me or what I have done to them by preventing them from accomplishing … Continue reading
A Likable Villain?
Authors sometimes seek villains that their audience can identify with because they want the readers invested in the villain. This helps to propel a person to finish a book if they really don’t know what is going to happen to … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Creativity, Literary devices, Literature, Trends in books, Writing trends
Tagged sympathetic villain
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Woman on a tightrope
Recently the movie Not Okay hit a nerve by using “Unlikeable female protagonist” as one of the content warnings for its rating. What did the likability of the main character have to do with identifying the appropriate audience for this … Continue reading
Who’s the Real Villain?
As a legend Robin Hood represents the kind of principled nonconformist on which many heroes are based. We love to read about people who confront government wrong-doing even in a criminal manner as he did. But, if a similar character … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Literature, Story structure, Trends in books, Writing trends
Tagged fairy tale, gray hero, legend, principal nonconformist, superhero
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The Most Memorable Kind of Hero
Is this true that a memorable hero of incredible wisdom and strength can only show full worth when pitted against an incredibly powerful villain?. The similarities between villains and heroes are often noted in fiction. So how does an author … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Creativity, Drama and movies, Literary devices, Writer's resource
Tagged hero, memorable, strength
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When Do the Ghosts Show Up?
According to my friends I read depressing books, such as Cry the Beloved Country and Crime and Punishment, and actually enjoy them. What kind of books do I avoid reading because I find them depressing while others seem to relish … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Creativity, Literature, Psychology, Trends in books, Writer's resource
Tagged edgar allen poe, fictional monsters, Henry James, horror
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The Sports Hero’s Journey
When advised to base stories on the hero’s journey, I realized that the “monomyth model” constructed plots based on a large sampling of Greek mythology. I’ve always had a suspicion that these myths were based on real people. The characters … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Drama and movies, Literary devices, Story structure, Writer's resource, Writing trends
Tagged monomyth
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Emotionally intelligent characters?
Readers may seek out stories with a hero with greater than average athletic ability and high intelligence because they are drawn to the larger than life character who is strong or ingenious. However, when a reader asks for a character … Continue reading
Uncontrollable Characters
Some authors claim that characters live in their head, sometimes ignore their directives, and even argue with what the author has planned for them. These authors long for characters that seem as real to their audience as they feel to … Continue reading
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