Creating Believable Characters

by Holly Jahangiri

How do you create believable characters?

1. Give Them Flaws

Believable characters are not perfect characters. Superman would not be half as interesting if not for his weakness when exposed to Kryptonite. No child wants to read about Little Miss Goody Two-Shoes, the perfect child who always obeys her parents, never has a messy room, and gets straight A’s in class. Perfect characters make for terrible stories.

Believable characters are not perfectly awful, either. Hannibal Lecter would make a lousy villain if he weren’t so…frighteningly likable. Children can’t relate to a protagonist who behaves all the time, but neither do they want to identify with one that is in trouble all the time. Pure evil is also deadly dull.

For your characters to be believable, they must have just the right balance – slightly off kilter towards “good” or “evil.” Give your protagonist a nasty habit. Give your villain a strong protective instinct for small children. Ask yourself, too, whether their “goodness” or “evil” is a natural inclination or a choice and a constant struggle.

Courage is not the absence of fear. It’s feeling fear, but doing what must be done in spite of it. To be good is also a choice; it’s not the absence of an urge to do the wrong thing – it’s doing the right thing in spite of temptation to do otherwise.

The good guy usually wins the war, but it’s no fun if he doesn’t lose a few battles, just to keep the reader guessing. Likewise, the antagonist ought to challenge the protagonist – maybe the reader even wants him to win a round, now and then.

Know your characters’ back story, understand what motivates them. Visualize their socio-economic status. Where did they go to school – public or private? What did they study, and what do they most enjoy?

2. Use Realistic Dialogue, Gestures, and Body Language

Can you imagine a nun taking the Lord’s name in vain – or a hard-boiled cop who never swears? If you can, make sure that other character traits – thoughts, actions, history – support it. It can be fun to toss stereotypes on their heads.

If your character comes from a region where dialect is pronounced, it’s important to get it right – or to use standard English and forego all attempts at conveying the “sound” of your character’s speech. If you need help with accents, the speech accent archive is a useful resource.

3. Use Realistic Props

You should dress your characters appropriately for their time and station in life. Costume History at The Costumer’s Manifesto has lots of information and pictures to guide an inspire you. A good physical description of your character helps the reader to visualize, but do not give in to the temptation to do all the work for your reader. Leave a few details to the imagination. Lengthy blocks of narrative and description can also become tedious and detract from the story itself, so think of it like a sketch – you can always add paint later, as the story progresses.

Remember that here, too, perfection can be boring – not all dresses are “beautiful” and not all men are “handsome.” What clothing might uniquely suit your character’s personality? Perhaps it’s a conservative gray suit for her (with a hot pink bra underneath as a concession to her wild side), and a Batik shirt pulled from the Goodwill basket – maybe for sentimental reasons - for him.

Put the Pieces Together

Think of the details like a jigsaw puzzle, putting all of the pieces together to gradually reveal each character. Take your time – don’t load up the first page with a detailed description. Weave together descriptive details, dialogue, and action – that will keep the reader turning the page.

How do you pick out your pallet?

by Aidana WillowRaven

You have a new project. Great! Now what? Myself, I start doodling with my colored pencils, but I have a bad habit of trying to use every color ... lol. So, I try to use color schemes in order to reign in that tendency, so I don't end up with a mess. A pallet that's too broad can distress and distract the viewer.

When deciding your pallet, which I hope you do at the very start of a new project, isn't as easy as one may think. A lot depends on your audience and subject matter.

Analogous colors are any set of three or five colors, that are closely related in hue(s), and are usually adjacent (next) to each other on the color wheel. Some examples are green, yellow green, and yellow or red, orange and yellow. Analogous color schemes are often found in nature and are pleasing to the eye. The combination of these colors give a bright and cheery effect in the area, and are able to accommodate many changing moods. When using the analogous color scheme, one should make sure there is one hue as the main color.

Color schemes are used to create style, mood, clarity and appeal. A basic color scheme will use two colors that look appealing together, while more advanced color schemes involve several colors, usually based around a single color.

In the following example, the pallet is very analogous. If you compare it to the color wheel, and draw a diagonal line running from the red to the green, you can see the upper left side of the pallet was used. It also happens to be a warm color scheme, which I'll go over warm and cool color schemes. It just fit the theme.

an example of an analogous color scheme

A monochromatic color scheme is made of different values (tints and shades) of one color. This color scheme is easy to get right and can be very effective, soothing and assertive. They do, however, lack the diversity.

The next example was done in varying shades of the same color of blue. I wanted moodiness here, too, but a cooler mood was wanted. Do you see how color affects a scene? Would it feel different if I had used a full pallet?

an example of monochromatic

 We'll go over more pallet options in future posts.

 

Aidana WillowRaven

Art Director & VP of Operations
4RV Publishing

Now, "That's a baby!"

by Ginger Nielson

When we were growing up we usually lived in a neighborhood.  The houses were close enough that families got to know one another, did a fair amount of visiting, and shared their joys and concerns with one another. We shared the chaos of growing families.

Because our homes were often very close to our neighbors' we knew what was going on in their homes and the homes of their friends.  Every time a new baby was born into the neighborhood the new moms would come visiting to show off their little ones.

After all the waiting and anticipation the new  babies were paraded up and down the street to each home for inspection.  Everyone loved seeing the new babies.  Mothers had them dressed in their cutest pink or blue outfits and the hair, if they had any, was swept up into a cwepie doll curl.  The ooos and the ahhs were expected responses.

Just the same, there were times, when we children could not exactly agree that these newcomers were worth all the oooing and ahhing.  Some of them were not at all as beautiful in those early visits as they might eventually become. But, let's face it. Not all babies show their potential in the beginning.  Squish-  faced, red blotched, bald headed, toothless, crying little creatures are not at their best.


When our mother cautioned us to be nice and not say anything unkind, we had to ask for guidance.  How can you say an ugly baby is "Oh so beautiful" and really mean it when you don't.

Our sweet mother borrowed a line from a current comedian and told us just to say, "Now, that's a baby!"
It seemed to fit the occasion more than once.

Why this story?

It seems that some writers and artists as well are like those mothers.  After waiting long months for the manuscript they created and submitted to be recognized, they have a tendency to think it is perfect.

Everyone should love it .  Right?

Only if you are one of the rare few who can produce a masterpiece in one version, could this be right.
Any manuscript needs more than one eye, more than one critique, more than what a writer might give to it in one draft.  You might even need to put it away for a month or more and come back to it with your own new view.

Editors and Art Directors have learned over years of experience how to spot the best, or what could become the best.  Once an interest has been shown your work, your foot is in the door. The advice and direction an editor is willing to give is worth the time they take to give it.  The author or artist is well advised to listen, pay attention, learn from the experts and follow the advice.   If an editor has taken the time to review and ask for changes the author or artist needs to act upon the advice.

Some criticism is definitely hard to swallow and there is a tendency to reject the comments, remove the submission and move on to another and another publisher or editor.  It sounds all too familiar, but it is a sign of the professional when the communications between editor and artist are acted upon in a positive way.  Good things come from intelligent collaboration and respect for one another.

Be aware that if your manuscript continues to go unedited by you or a professional you may constantly receive the non committal comment: "Now, that's a book!"

Book Promotion: Create a Website or Blog

I know I mentioned my article for today would be Book Promotion: Visibility and Platform Basics, but I forgot it's 6 pages long and 2300 words - I'll be turning it into an ebook.  

Instead, I took the first section of that article and tweaked it just a bit for:

Book Promotion: Create a Website or Blog

The first rung on your marketing ladder is to create a quality product, in the case of an author, that would be a book. You need to create an engaging story, be part of a critique group, make sure the manuscript gets edited, and have a knock-out cover.

Creating the book might be considered Research and Development under the Marketing umbrella, and the foundation of a marketing strategy.

The second step or rung on the marketing ladder is the actual book promotion: creating a platform and brand for you and your book. This is accomplished through visibility. A platform is a means to let readers know what your area of expertise is.

You may be shaking your head and thinking you don’t have an area of expertise, well the very first step to establish yourself as an expert is to create a website or blog.

Here are four steps that will help you create an effective website or blog:

1. Your Domain Name

Choose your domain name carefully and think ahead. Marketing experts always advise using ‘your name’ for your domain name. You can always create sites that are specific to each of your books or a particular niche, but your name should be your main or central site.

On the other hand, if you write in a specific genre, you should include that in your domain name. If you’re a children’s writer, maybe: Children’s Books by Your Name, or Picture Books by Your Name. The more specific you make your domain name the more likely those searching for that genre will find you.

Simply put: If you sell shoes and your domain name is John Smith how will those searching for shoes ever find you?

And, be sure to use appropriate keywords in the subtitle of your site.

2. Choose a Website or Blog

There’s no way around this one – you must create a web presence. The first tool in your visibility toolbox is a website, and it should be created before your book is published. You can choose a website or a blog and you can get either type for free from sites such as Wordpress.com or Blogger.com.

If you find the thought of having to create a website daunting, go for Blogger.com; it is very user friendly and good for beginners. And with its updates, it has a number of features much like a website.

One of the drawbacks to Blogger though is you cannot upload ebooks or pdfs to link to in order to offer them for free or sell, so if this is something you’ll be doing, you will have to find a hosting site like WordPress.

3. Simple is a Better Strategy

Marketing expert Mike Volpe of Hubspot.com points out that it’s more important to spend time, and money if necessary, on content rather than a flashy website design; simple works. In fact, simpler usually leads to a higher conversion rate. The conversion rate is the ratio of visitors who buy your book, product, or service.

Volpe also stresses that you should have control over your site. This means you should be able to manage it. You don’t want to run to a web designer for every little change you want to make to your site, or to do something as simple as adding content.

To reinforce this ‘simple is better strategy,’ Google says that milliseconds count in regard to your page load time. If your page is slow to load, you’ll get a poorer score with Google.

Tip: Should you decide you do need help to create a site, don’t hire an expensive web designer. Look for someone who wants to establish themselves as a website creator, or someone who does it in his spare time, you will pay much less. And, try to make arrangements that will include the designer teach you how to manage your own site. This will make updates, changes, and posting much easier, and less expensive.

4. Make Your Site Optimized for the Search Engines

If you choose a WordPress site, go through the dashboard and sections carefully, and fill in how you want your site to work. There are also a number of plugins for WordPress that will help your site get noticed and indexed by the search engines. If you’re not sure how to do this, it would probably be worth the investment to hire someone to do basic search engine optimization (SEO) for your site.

It's not uncommon for writers to need help with websites and SEO, it's impossible to be proficient at everything. Thankfully, there are those who know the ins and outs of optimizing websites, if needed take advantage of them.

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Karen Cioffi is an author, ghostwriter, and freelance writer. For writing and marketing information visit (http://karencioffi.com) and sign up for her free newsletter, A Writer’s World. You’ll get 2 free e-books on writing and marketing in the process, and two more free e-books just for stopping by.
Check out the Walking Through Walls site:
http://walkingthroughwalls-kcioffi.blogspot.com

Midnight Hours book trailer

by Vivian Zabel 

We at 4RV Publishing are fortunate with members of the family who can create terrific book trailers. One of our older novel's trailer was created by the cover designer, Aidana WillowRaven.

I hope you enjoyed the trailer for my mystery/suspense, Midnight Hours. 

4RV Publishing Catalog 

Another artist term author's may not know ... What is a Pochade?

by Aidana WillowRaven

Many artists draw a sketch with pen, pencil, charcoal, or some other 'dry' medium (although ink is technically wet), when planning an illustration. Generally it's monochromatic (one color), and is intended to capture form, shape, and composition. This is commonly accepted knowledge, even by non-artists.

A term most non-artists, or even many working artists, may not know is pochade.

A pochade is a french word for a sort of sketch, traditionally with paint, rather than a 'dry' medium. It's usually small, often pocket sized, but can also be a full sized version, based on the final work's planned size. The main reason for an artist to use a pochade vs a sketch, is a pochade utilizes color, tone, and shades, though in more of a rough manner, than the final piece will be. Sort of like a storyboard, but in color.

Painters will often create a pochade when painting a landscape, or some other subject, that can't be controlled and brought into the studio. Say the artist wants to paint a sea scape, where the setting and lighting changes by the second? Today, most would use a camera as their pochade medium. But before camera's, what they'd have had to do was capture the essence of the scene, the mood, colors, hues, and tones, in a rapid way. Then take it home and allow the mind's eye to remember the rest for the actual work.

As an artist, I have experienced a magnificent sunset that I had hoped I had captured with my camera, only to find the colors to be dulled and lifeless, once developed. Even today, a pochade would have done me more good than a camera.

Known more commonly is a pochade box. It's an artist's tool that folds open into an easel, while carrying a modest amount of paint and supplies, intended for use in the field.

Here is a question to make you ponder, though ... 

If an artist, while planning a painting makes a small, colored pencil or marker version of the final piece, is it a sketch or a pochade? In my opinion, if the intent is to capture the various colors and tones, more so than shape or perspective, I'd say yes, even though it's a dry medium.

What's your opinion?

Aidana WillowRaven

Art Director & VP of Operations
4RV Publishing

What Does Your Protagonist Want?

by Laurie Boris

Maybe you've heard this canard tossed about in writing conferences or on writing blogs: your protagonist has to want something.

So, what the heck does that mean? Isn't it enough, you might think, to just tell the story?

Well, technically, that's the bare bones of the beast. But to really make your fiction pop, your protagonist needs a compelling goal that will keep readers turning pages to see how he or she is going to achieve such a seemingly impossible task.

Think about some of your favorite and most riveting novels. The ones that kept you up past your bedtime, while you read chapter after chapter, and left you yawning at your desk in the morning, hugging your double espresso. The protagonist probably wants something desperately, deeply, and so badly that he or she would be willing to sacrifice anything up to and including his or her life.

For example, in Kathryn Stockett's The Help, one of the protagonists, Miss Skeeter, desperately wants to tell the stories of the African-American women who work as maids in the racially-charged environment of 1960s Mississippi, where the consequences of telling these stories could mean getting the maids fired or imprisoned. She wants this so badly that she turns her back on societal expectations of a white woman in that time and place and finds herself ostracized by her former friends. But she still does it. And we keep reading because we want her to achieve that goal.

For the two young Afghani women at the center of Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns, their desire is to stay alive in their war-torn country under the thumb of various oppressive and violent regimes. As readers, we've developed sympathy for them and pull for them to succeed.

This overarching desire doesn't always require bigger-than-big, life-or-death heroic action. It could be quieter, but still as compelling. Macon Leary, the protagonist of Anne Tyler's The Accidental Tourist, just wants to get on with his life after losing his son in a random shooting.

What about your protagonist? Is it an old score he wants to settle? An unmet desire? Curiosity about the path not taken, when she meets an old friend who took it? (This is basically both protagonists' desires in the film, The Turning Point. Excellent rental, by the way.) Or is your hero in danger and looking to escape? If you're writing literary fiction or something with a more character-driven plot, see what drives your character. This should give you some hints about what's important, what's worth leaving the comfort of his or her daily existence for, and maybe, what's worth risking everything for.

Still have no idea what your protagonist wants? Sometimes, all you have to do is ask. Try this writing exercise that's really worked for me. Grab a notebook and get into a quiet place, where you won't be disturbed. Take a few deep breaths. Imagine that your protagonist is sitting right next to you. Fill in as much detail as you can in your mind, down to what he or she is wearing, and even the subtle gestures this character makes. Then do a little interview. Ask your protagonist what he or she wants. Be patient and pay attention. What you learn might surprise you.

What are some of your favorite protagonists from the novels you've read? What moves them? What do they want? What keeps you turning the page?

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Laurie Boris is the author of The Joke's on Me, due out from 4RV Publishing this summer. She also blogs about writing, books, and the language of popular culture at http://laurieboris.com.