The Secret Sauce to Character Development – Guest Post by Ron D. Voigts

Or how not to make your character look like a turkey.

I’ve read plenty of books on character development. Filling out six page profiles. Answering questionnaires. Writing biographies. My advice is screw it. You came into this wanting to be writer, not an HR manager.

Here are my six easy steps.

1. Start writing. If it’s a novel, do around 10K words. For a short story, most likely the whole thing. This is not fixed, but you want to be at a point where you know what you want in your characters.

2. Find a key characteristic or two that sets the character apart from the rest. Make sure you have some well-defined, unique traits. Big Mike is mean. Old Lady Grayson pinches pennies.

3. Name them. Think about it carefully because the name must match the person. Is he Michael or Mike or Big Mike or Mikey? Each one conjures up a different image.

4. How do they look? No one cares about hair color or the shade of their eyes. But Old Lady Grayson’s hump is getting bigger, or half of Big Mike’s left ear was shot off. Guaranteed no one will forget them.

5. What do your characters sound like? They all talk differently. They will have tag lines. You have to hear them. “Hey! You wanna settle it out back in the alley?” Bet you know it’s not Old Lady Grayson speaking.

6. If you can link them up with someone you know or someone from real life, great! Just be careful of too much coincidence and maybe toss in a disclaimer at the beginning that any resemblance to people living or dead is poorly coincidence.

That’s it. Too simple? The most memorable characters are the ones that stand off the page. And don’t fret about being too one dimensional. Big Mike may just have a tender moment, and Old Lady Grayson will find some way of giving back.

So what’s your secret to writing a slam-bang character?

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 Recently, Ron D. Voigts pulled is two Tween Mysteries from his agent with an eye on self-publishing.  His debut novel PENELOPE AND THE BIRTHDAY CURSE is available in ebook and paperback at Barnes and Noble and places he never heard of before.  His next book PENELOPE AND THE GHOST’S TREASURE is targeted for release in September. He does most of his writing in the dead of night and on weekends. When not writing, he enjoys doing puzzles, reading books and working on his culinary skills. 

Be sure to check out his blog at http://rondvoigts.blogspot.com/ where he has posted part 2  – Helpful Hints to Serving Characters Up to Your Guests

Looking for Characters to Interview

A lot of blogs do author interviews, but I thought it would be fun to do character interviews! I’ve been working on this since March (sadly), but since then Ruth Ann Nordin has done something similar on her own blog (Great minds think alike, don’t they?) and I know I’ve really enjoyed reading them!

I’m kicking it off with an interview of one of my own characters today, but I used the same questions to make his interview as I am posting for other authors to answer.  I’ll break them up some and add some variety so each doesn’t seem like a carbon copy.

I am accepting interviews from all genres, as I have a pretty diverse reader base on my blog. Interested authors should send an email with the answers to the questions below to Joleene at JoleeneNaylor dot com – do NOT post them as a comment to this post. Be sure to answer the questions as though your character is answering them, and if some of the questions don’t apply, then just skip those.

If your character is from a book that’s for sale, be sure to include a link(s) to where readers can buy it!

There’s no deadline on this. I plan to do one a week so long as I have one to post and I will let you know before your interview goes live.

Have fun and look forward to your answers!

1- tell me a little about yourself (what do you look like, where do you live, what book are you in)

2- How do you evolve during the course of the story/series?

3 – Do you have an enemy or nemesis? If so, who are they and how did they become an enemy?

4- What is the biggest challenge you face in the story?

5 – What is the one event that you feel has helped to shape your personality?

6-Are you involved in a romance? If so with who and what is it about them that you find appealing?

7 – What is the one thing you want the most in the whole world?

8 – If you could say one thing to your readers, what would it be?

9- If you could say one thing to your author, what would it be?

10-What 2 or 3 questions do you wish I’d asked, and what are your answers to them?

Please send your answers (and any other relevant info) to Joleene at JoleeneNaylor dot com.