Okay so yesterday I mentioned that you should intro the hero and heroine as close to beginning of story as possible. In my story, my hero and heroine have known one another for years..but my readers haven't ever met them unless they've read the previous two books. So it's important FOR YOUR ROMANCE READERS that you let them meet the hero and heroine of the story asap, even if the hero and heroine haven't met one another.
At this point in my plotstorm, I'm thinking of ways to make my main characters likable. I want to really endear them to readers. If readers don't care about your characters, they won't care about their story. So I think this is CRUCIAL. How I do this is try to think of what endears me to a character or a real person, since I often fashion my characters after a conglomerate of people I've come in contact with in my life. A plethora of personalities if you will. I also watch movies for research. I figure out the precise moment a character slips into my heart and ask myself why. Or if I hear a story about a real-live person that makes me go, "Awww! That's so awesome or heroic, or whatever." I often use precepts for deepening characterization.Some things that endear me to heros for example are:
Men who are gentle with babies and get down in the floor and play with children.
Men who are compassionate to animals
Men who are generous to the needy
Men who reach out to and respect the elderly
Men who stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves
Men who open doors for women and who have good, old-fashioned Boy Scout manners
Those are just a few.
Heroines I'm endeared to are often:
Honest
Transparent
Rely on God's strength rather than their own, yet they have a sort of inner strength and perseverance and fortitude.
Empathetic but not wimpy
Respect men
Just to name a few.
I stumbled upon Chip McGregor's blog today, and am posting the link because he has a GREAT blog. One of his posts deals with creating great characters. This man has been in the publishing industry for years and years and I hope you will bookmark his site in your favorites if you are serious about pursuing publication.
More tomorrow on PLOTSTORMING.
Here's Chip's link:
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
1 comment:
I'm so with you on that. Harlequin sent me a free "Presents" novel, and I was so not liking the Hero. Then I discovered that he spent a lot of time helping the less fortunate, and, suddenly, despite his opinion that all women are as trashy as his mother, he had an admirable character trait. Now I want to find out how the heroine persuades him that there ARE still nice girls in the world!
I think another thing is that we need to like our own characters, or our readers won't, either! Your suggestions are all great! (As usual!)
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