Ten Things About Characters
1. SF/F writers and RPGers will enjoy using Steven Edward Schend's fun Character Name Generator. For interesting character descriptions, try Seventh Sanctum's General Person Generator.
2. The best character building book I've ever read, Holly Lisle's Create a Character Clinic (now available in print as well as e-book format.)
3. Make your own hero or heroine, complete with costume, mask and nifty weapons over at UGO.com's online demo for The Hero Machine.
4. The Lazy Scholar's article How to Creat a Character Profile also includes a character worksheet.
5. Get into what makes great characters of many types over at Jungian Novel Writing.
6. Caro Clarke gives us the lowdown on Loving Your Characters Too Much.
7. UC Berkeley's Monomyth site takes you step by step through the classic hero's journey (the heroines apparently stayed home to make dinner, do laundry and watch the kids.)
8. Need a character-creating freeware program? Try PCGen (remember to scan all freeware downloads for bugs before dumping them in your hard drive.)
9. Kate Gerard has some interesting complaints in her article Please Get Your Characters Out of My Way!.
10. Greg Knollenberg from Writers Write, Inc., has put together a nice article chock full of links to Web Resources for Developing Characters.
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Thanks for the wonderful links, especially the article by Kate Gerard...that was exactly the sort of advice I needed!
ReplyDeleteI am not a writer (except for my own personal pitiful attempts at poetry) but I do recognize the kindness of a successful author trying to help beginners develop.
ReplyDeleteIs this because you were once guided by a "mentor" type?
I have read all Stardoc's through REBEL ICE (just finished this weedkend).
If you inspire others to be as good...Thank You.
Pat, give yourself a break on the poetry and keep writing it.
ReplyDeleteSheila, a wonderful 10 List. I have to agree about Holly's "Create A Character Clinic." Jungian Novel Writing is fascinating for a Type Geek like me, and Kate Gerard's article was incredibly helpful -- I think I do it right, but now I have a great example for comparison to make sure I do.
These are great resources. Where do you find this stuff!
ReplyDeleteD