A 2 Z Blogging Challenge, C is for...

 

Character Bios:

A necessary piece of writing, that should begin before you start writing your first draft or Vomit draft, these beginning bios are usually just a few lines, the name, age, description and why they are involved, they later expand (during this vomit draft) to include more stuff like where they were born, are their parents alive, do they have siblings, their relationships to the others in the novel, where they went to school, their qualifications, and then even later to become more in-depth.

This bio file can be hand written A4 sheets, record cards, or stored on your comp in a file, under the characters name and saved (plus backed up) to the same folder that you have the novel first draft and this draft saved to.

Don’t forget to ensure that you include any new notes that you may have made regarding your character in this read through, or draft into the bio when you are done.

Don’t forget to ensure that every detail that you have regarding your character when first introduced is consistent through the entire novel, such as brown hair, shoulder length with green eyes.

Don’t forget, your characters should not be perfect, good guys should have a lot of flaws, bad guys should have some form of ‘caring’ or ‘gentle’ about them in order to make them believable.

Also when utilising Beta Readers, don’t forget to ask them if your characters ring true / authentic to them. If not, why not…

I have a bio that I like to use, it’s an in-depth one, and I’d be only too happy to share it with you and the webpage where I’d originally found it, if you ask in the comments.

Characters Introductions:

When introducing characters (especially secondary characters) ensure that you have done it properly and find subtle little ways of reminding people of who they where and what their connection to the story is. At this point, you could create a master list of characters with a BGP (back ground person), BG (Bad Guy) and GG (good guy) tagged beside them, the main character would have MC and MV would stand for main villain. With this list you should be able to keep track of everyone.

 Character Arcs:

Over the course of the novel, do your characters change? Do they become better people, worse people, loose it all to gain it back, gain everything just to let it all go? It’s very important that your character grow in someway. Does the hero / villain achieve their goal (one should) and does this goal make them happy (it’s not always the case), or sad (not everything we think we want will bring us joy, sometimes it makes us sad for one reason or another, being alone, losing a close buddy, family member, the world).

All characters that appear more than once in the novel should have some form of an arc, even if it’s say a gay detective realising that maybe he and his partner are indeed ready to adopt after all, and has found a kid in the ruins of a cult who needs a family.

 Characters Missing in Action:

Make sure each character you have created actually serves a purpose, that they aren’t just cardboard stand ins. Make sure if you have a character at the beginning that you have them at the end (unless of course you have killed them off). A character that has been created at the beginning but that ‘disappears’ through the novel may be a character that you can cut out altogether, especially if someone else, or something else has taken over the job you had created them to do.

Bare in mind if a character is created, does something, vanishes, and comes back, then vanishes again and comes back again, you may need to add information about why they keep vanishing, OR, remove them and give their role (if possible) to someone else who is always available and can do their role.

 Characters Motivation:

What is your characters motivation? Is their motivation clear? Is their motivation believable? Now these questions can be asked not only of the main good guy, but also of your villain. Your characters need to have Motivation or a reason behind what they are doing. For your Villain it could be the death of a close relative, being fired unfairly (in their head) from their job, or 'just to see what would happen'. For the heroine it could be the death of a close relative, or to thwart the bad guy / girl. Just make it clear, and believable.

Complications and side plots in the novel:

If you have had added complications for your characters, did they work? Did they distract from your plot? If the first answer is no and the second is yes, then maybe that distraction or side plot needs to go.

If looking for a plot twist, maybe a ‘friend’ of the villain or the hero can turn out to be something they weren’t made out to be.

Continuity in your novel:

Continuity doesn’t just apply to your characters, oh no, it also applies to time, seasons, buildings, animals, dimensions, and myth. When you introduce something into your novel, that you must describe, or a time of day, or year, you must ensure that that initial description stays the same over the entire novel, or that if your season changes you are very clear of the time passage. Morning can’t become midnight without you mentioning something about the passage of time.

If your character is drinking a goblet of blood, make sure you remember where they put it, or that they do put it down before they rush off to kill the enemy, or be killed themselves. Little things like that can mean a lot. Some writers say that you don’t need to detail the making of a cup of tea, but…if the scene you are writing it in, is supposed to be tense, then by all means, describe it, but between each part, put dialogue or a description of what is happening to make it tense, and at the end, either break the cup, or leave it standing, while the character is off doing whatever. You could have someone outside a window watching someone make that cup of tea, willing them to be done so they can break in, or escape…

  Conflict:

In every novel there needs to be conflict, every single book has conflict, something that needs battling and winning or losing against. Conflict can be an argument, an illness to be beaten down, a company to rail against or a late train or bus. It’s not just about a villain and hero.

Cutting things out:

It is the job of the writer to write and rewrite their work until they have created something that they can and will send out into the world. A piece of writing will not stay the same, so don’t be afraid to cut out scenes. If you are nervous or think you might need that scene again, make a document, and save that scene to it under the chapter heading. If using the notebook write the chapter name / number, the page number, and then the paragraph number (yes number your paragraphs if you must), and mark it as being cut, so that you can go back to the original and see what you may have removed, saving that, get a pair of scissors, and cut it out, save in an actual cardboard folder, in case you need it, then continue (these are only suggestions).