Author: dannedmind

I’ve seen a lot of advice that says to come up with your characters first and then the story.

I practice the opposite.

I tend to come up with a concept or even just a scene to incite the adventure. But whatever that initial concept is, that’s what I develop first. there’s usually a clear path to any concept.

Thieves Plan Heist–>Heist Goes Wrong–>Thieves turn against each other

Once I know what I plan to write about, I invent the characters. Starting with the types I’d need. Then I go back through my plot and envision how these characters will react. This changes the story, but not the idea behind it.

Now that I know some of the scenarios, like what they might be stealing, and who from. I’ll think what would make this plot more interesting, and it’s always the characters.

So what if it’s a mother and daughter team and the daughter has always thought her mother was so cool because they live the wildlife without rules. And the mother is someone filled with great rules and quotes about life, who wouldn’t believe she has it all figured out?

A mother and daughter team of thieves planned a heist–>it goes wrong because the daughter hates her potential stepfather–>The daughter turns against them because they cross a line, killing a guard.

Pretty soon, the characters have taken over the story, and that’s when I have the most fun writing.

Maybe it doesn’t even get to the killing of the guard. Once I know the characters and drop them into a situation, once I know those characters, they’ll veer left or right. They’ll demand I change my carefully plotted outline.

And that’s where I have a lot of fun, when the characters come to life.

I actually find it incredibly hard to start with the characters first, because then I’m trying to come up with things to throw at them to keep them interested and interesting.

It’s probably why I have such a hard time writing sequels. The characters are already there . . .

I used to write in first person, almost exclusively. It was very hard when I attempted my first novel to switch to third person perspective so that I could juggle all the different characters and scenes.

But then I got my first notes back from friends and family. I was too omniscient, jumping from one character’s head to the next depending on the line (not chapter).

Luckily, I was steered in the correct path, and a few drafts later, I realized the benefits of THIRD PERSON LIMITED.

By choosing one character to write about in the third person, the reader can get into their head, look out from their eyes, yet also be standing away from them to see what happens.

The writing becomes similar to a suspense film, where the camera might not show you what is lurking off screen or just left of the frame. Your character can be surprised. Someone can stand behind them, and they can tell you how that felt. They can present the characters around them as they see them.

Now, jumping from who your third person limited perspective belongs to from chapter to chapter won’t be too distracting to a reader, and is nice because the change in point-of-view can shed details on this or that character whose head we were just in. How does this person really feel about the other?

Either way, if you haven’t tried THIRD PERSON LIMITED, give it a shot. I think it balances third person omniscient and first person perfectly.

There are two ways to complete this sentence and you’ve heard both before, I’m sure of it. Somewhere someone sometime gave you the advice to write what you . . .

A) KNOW

B) WANT

They are rather similar even if you don’t think so right away.

Writing what you ‘know’ isn’t writing about a wannabe author trapped in his room all day wishing he could be rich so that all he had to do was wake up and write.

What you ‘know’ isn’t the story. It’s what you bring to the story. Your knowledge of emotions. Your recollections of the details of a scene or facts you researched. That’s what you ‘know.’ All those things you’ve observed other people doing, all those aspects of a summer’s day. Those are the things you know.

And this goes hand-in-hand with writing what you ‘want.’

Writing what you want isn’t just pulling that story out of your imagination. It’s knowing how to pull it out of your imagination. It’s wanting to know how to write it. It’s knowing the details that’ll make your fantasy world feel real to your readers.

You should research, especially if you are writing about a topic that’s not plucked from your imagination. And if it sounds daunting to learn a new subject, then it’s probably not what you want to be writing anyways.

If you want to right it, learning what you need to know will come easily.