Tag: Character Development

scrabble tiles on an orange background - most are face down, but four spell out the word plan
Posted in Before You Begin, Craft, The Nitty Gritty of Children's Writing, Tools

Preplanning and Beginning to Write Your Novel

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Preplanning your novel. Some people outline, other writers just write. I’m the latter—a pantser with a plan. So, before we go any further, an explanation of the methods:

“To Pants or To Plot: Which One Is Best for Your Story?” by Nisha Tuli. This article has lots of references to other reading as well.

If you’re an outliner, I thought this article was helpful: “Outline Tools to Structure Your Children’s Book Plot.”

As a pantser, I still need to know some things before I can start actually writing. Whether I start with a character or plot, I need to know a little bit about who and what. I also like to have thoughts on where I think the story is going.

These posts from my archives might be of use before you write your novel.

Character related:

Making Friends: Character Development

Naming Characters – from Mary’s Notebook

Naming Your Character

The Right Number of Characters

Show Your Character’s Character

Viewpoint in Children’s Fiction – point of view – which can definitely change as you revise

Plot related:

Novel-sized Problem

Raise the stakes, honey!

Know what you’re writing:

So, You Want to Write a Book…

Theme and Premise

Writing a Novel? Where Does It Fit?

Especially for pantsers:

If you’re at the beginning stages of writing a novel, and don’t have an outline, how do you keep track of people, scenes, days of the week, etc.?

Here are some posts sharing thoughts on those topics:

Do You Have Style? aka Master Character Chart

The Story Ladder or Novel Timeline

I’d love to hear from others on how they plan and begin a novel. Feel free to share in comments.

Posted in Craft, The Nitty Gritty of Children's Writing

Do as I Say

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Picture courtesy of Mary R. Vogt on morguefile.comfrothocamel.jpg
Have you ever found yourself telling a kid, “Don’t talk with food in your mouth,” and then realized you were doing the same? I once caught myself out when I reread an article I’d written on character development. Among the suggestions were questions to ask yourself about the character. I realized I couldn’t answer any of them for the main character on my current work-in-progress. Ouch! I wish I could say I was only on page one of my novel.
I know some writers write totally organically and learn their character as they go, but I know I need more. So why do I keep trying to do without the preparation? I wish I knew. I may have to make a sign to go above my computer, “Do you know who your character is?”
Or maybe it’s that I always have to get to a certain stage in a story before I care enough about all those details of my character to find them out. Of course, that definitely can cause major rewriting.
I’ve heard writers explain how they write very detailed bios of their characters, major and minor, before writing any of the story. Others fill out complex charts. For me that would be telling the character who they are more than discovering who they are.
On one work-in-progress I discovered my main character’s initials didn’t stand for what I thought they did. I’d given JD his name a long time ago, when his story idea was only a glimmer of an idea. I decided the J stood for Joshua. When pre-planning a scene in my head, another character asked JD what his initials stood for. He answered, “Jonah David.” Whoa! Time out! Where did that come from? But it felt . . . right.
So where does that leave me? Not totally in control.
But I think I need to work on a balance for this dichotomy. Some pre-planning, some organic, followed by more planning, followed by more organic. And, flexibility.
So don’t do as I say, or as I do. Instead figure out the best way for you to work out this issue of character development in your own work. Though if you have any tips, I’d love to hear them.