Total Pageviews

Translate

Monday, September 1, 2014

Avoiding Mistakes With Characters

So, there I was happily writing my new book entitled at present, Mistake (I am toying with the idea of a new title). Somewhere near the middle of the book I noticed friends Beth and Lil had switched boyfriends. What a mistake. I now had to endure the task of combing the book for where the switch occurred and fixing each instance. What an undertaking that was.

I have a way of saving myself time and heartache by preventing this going forward. First of all I have invested in a character notebook. I prefer this over sticky notes. My sticky notes were falling off their designated home and landing on the floor over time with use. With the notebook, I have designated a page for each character, including minor characters because you never know when they will make a surprise visit.

At the top of the page is my character's name. The page is graced with physical attributes as well as emotional attributes. I also include tone and traits of the character such as whether the character is   serious, playful, a pessimist, an optimist and so on. I also include family relationships an friendships between the characters. After-all, my readers would have been confused wondering how Beth was now involved with Richard and Lil with Andrew or was Beth involved with Richard and Andrew? Who was involved with who? Now you see, don't leave the reader confused with a mistake. By the way you can meet Beth, Lil, Andrew and Richard in my new book MISTAKE, coming soon.

Now when I need to refer to a trait or a physical attribute later in the story, it is at my fingertips.

Add you email for the date MISTKE is available. No spam.
Brigitta



No comments:

Post a Comment