When writing fictional families and siblings, there’s a certain dynamic to the relationships. It’s teasing, mean, loving, protective… it’s about a million things all wrapped up at once. Those of you with siblings will know what I mean. Keep in mind that the tips below might not fit quite all the families that populate your stories, so use your judgement, but they’ll fit the vast majority. Continue reading “How to Write Fictional Families”
Category: Characters (Writing)
How to Write Grief, Stress, and Overwhelm
We’ve all experienced something like it. The loss of a friend or family member, a tough day at work, too much to do all in one day… There are many things in life that stress us out or make us feel overwhelmed. But how do you write characters feeling these things in your books?
Draw from your own experiences
Start with what you know. Think about how you react to Continue reading “How to Write Grief, Stress, and Overwhelm”
Character Development Resource Round-Up
Hey writers. I come today bearing a gift: A collection of resources to help out with character development. I’ve sorted it into categories so that you can easily find what you’re looking for (or just easily sort out what’s what), and I’ve collected here many of the posts I’ve found over the years and saved to my Pinterest boards (you can find my account here if you’d like to see some of the other articles I’ve saved on other aspects of writing, or if you’d like to see my storyboards/character boards/etc., and here are my Writing Tips: Characters and Characters: Creation boards if you’d like even more tips on character development). Continue reading “Character Development Resource Round-Up”
Character Motivation – Connecting the Past to the Present
Character backstories can sometimes be glossed over when you’re designing a character, because you get so tied up in the now, but really, the past and present of your character are far more closely linked than you might realize. You can’t just skip backstory, because it’s an integral part of who your character is now and how their character motivation came to be.
Past and present are interlinked in a number of ways when it comes to character, but there are three sections that I think are the most closely tied together: nature, fears, and relationships. Continue reading “Character Motivation – Connecting the Past to the Present”
Music In Writing
Yep, we’re back to music. Because music is awesome, and it can actually be a really cool storytelling tool. Yes, this post is different than my “Music and Writing” post. That post was about listening to music while you write, while this one is about actually putting music in your writing and using it as a tool. It was also supposed to go up yesterday, but I got distracted by music while I was writing it and didn’t get it finished when I meant to and then forgot about it. Oops. But it’s here now, and only a day late, so I consider that something of a win, at least. Continue reading “Music In Writing”