writing – Page 38 – Linda Nelson

I just read a post about how a normal character is boring.

What is normal anyways?

Is it the person who keeps to themselves and never has more than one or two friends? Some would consider that boring.

How about the blonde bombshell who doesn’t get what is going on about her except that so and so is not wearing the latest fashion?

Do all your characters live in a mansion or do some of them grow up in a trailer park?

I think there are many different versions of normal. What may seem normal to one person stands out to someone else. It is a difference in personalities and perceptions.

But if you think about it, each different type of personality can be considered normal to that type of personality.

I recently heard that Passive/Aggressive personalities happen to be the most common type. This is followed by the Manipulator, Manic Depressive, and Socio Paths, just to name a few.

If one of the above people read your book and it happened to have a character with their personality type they too might say that the character is boring.

This is where they say, one should write the story for themselves and not for the reader. You cannot possibly make every reader happy unless you wrote a book using all the personalities combined in one story. The character would have to have split personalities, so, unless you are about to write a novel like “Sybil” then don’t try it.

Keep it simple and write the story you would want to read. Chances are there are a whole slew of other readers out there just like you.

ROW80 Update:

I’m still going at it. I have not worked on Road Salt since the day before Christmas. Or, I should say, I have not opened the file since the day before Christmas. I have to say that because it has been on my mind for the past few days.

I guess it is plotting time once again.

At first I thought I was at the end of the book and then added more to it. Now I have given it more thought and I see another addition in the works for the ending of the book. Maybe it won’t end so much on a dark note after all.

My goal is to bring the ending full circle back to the beginning of the book to answer the question Carol asks Karla, “Please forgive me.” She will have her answer at the end of the book.

My characters need a bit more building too. Or at least one Character does. That is Max, Karla’s new boyfriend. Even though he is present in the story, he seems to have a very minor part until the end. I will have to see if I can develop him some more and find a way to create his character for the readers to relate to or feel sorry for him. But I have to remember I am the first reader of the story, and that I am writing for me first and for most. If I can relate or feel sorry for him then hopefully everyone else will stand a chance of doing the same.

The weekend is coming up fast. I will give it a big push starting on Saturday. I have no other plans for this Holiday weekend beside our annual Chinese Food Feast on New Year’s Eve Night.

One Last Thing:

How to reveal – describe a person character in a Short Story ? (vixstories.wordpress.com)
Why Character Archetypes Aren’t Just About Commercialism (hugs-and-chocolate.com)

What is your process you use when you edit your works?

Me, I tend to revise as much as I can on the first round.

But when I get to a chapter that stumps me I go right back to the beginning of the story and start once again. Each time I find something else at the beginning of the story that can be tweaked just a little bit more.

I keep doing this until I get passed that chapter that initially stumped me and continue on my way until I come across another problem chapter.

This seems to help me with making sure the story is consistent and solid. I just keep rereading that which I have already edited each time looking for more things to tweak.

Witch Book was edited in this fashion.

Originally this was not the way I edited. I had not process or procedure. I would just read and look for spelling and grammar errors.

But editing is much more than spelling and grammar. It is looking to make sure your book has enough glue in-between the pages to make sure it holds together.

Are the characters built up enough to make sure the reader can relate to them?

Do you have enough description or too much?

Does your plot make sense?

Is there enough conflict?

Did the reason why you wrote the story make it into the pages?

And last but not least, is it too much of a cliff hanger? Did you answer all the questions that needed to be answered before that last pages says “the end”?

ROW80 Update:

So far I have edited the first eight chapters of Road Salt. Each time I have tweaked the beginning just a little bit more. It has been kind of like sculpting.

But even though I am only on chapter nine I am half way done with the edit.

I have a four day weekend and will be stepping out for a couple of hours and I plan to be right back at it.

I still have my goal of having this edit done by Christmas and maybe have the eBook edition ready by the first of the year.

My intention is to use the KDP select option for this book for the first three months then it can go live everywhere else.

It seems like every time I publish another story I find something else to test, a different avenue, a different photo stock source, or what not.

This time it will be Kindle Select.