Creating Characters For a Short Story
♫ May 17th, 2010 8:15 am
In a short story, which in practice is normally 1,000 to 3,000 words, you simply haven’t got room to fully describe a character to your reader. On the other hand your characters should be real to you personally so that you can make them behave in an authentic way.
1. What do they look like?
Some authors would say start by describing who they are rather than what they look like, but to me, a character’s physical appearance always comes first so that’s where I’ll begin.
Take pen and paper and jot down the following physical characteristics: Hair and eye colour, hair style, complexion, age, build, slim or plump. You can do this in 50 words or less. And remember, once you have the basic description, you can always tweak it later. Get a clear picture of your character in your mind’s eye.
2. Background
Where were they born and where did they grow up? Jot down their country of origin, county or state, town, city or village. What were their parents names? What schooling did they have? What jobs have they had, and what job do they have now? Are they married or single? Any children? See all this in your mind’s eye so that their background begins to come to life for you. All this stuff will affect how they think and react to different situations. Jot it down briefly to begin with.
3. Likes and dislikes
What food do they like, are they a drinker? Are they into sport, pets, hobbies? What music do they listen to and what movies do they like? What is their favourite food and what can’t they stand? Do they have pet hates or phobias? Get this all down on paper, but keep it short.
4. Character
Now we come to what they are like as a person. What is their temperament? Easy going? Short tempered? Anxious, easily vexed? Are they strong willed or easily led by others? Are they forgiving or do they not suffer fools gladly? Are they loving and outgoing or timid and introspective? Jot it all down and try to build inside your head just what kind of person they are on the inside.
Now bear in mind that not all this information may come out in your story. The reader may never know that your character’s hobby is needle point, or that they grew up in poverty in a Welsh mining village, but you, the writer, will know and this will help you give your character the proper responses, accent and reactions as they brush up against the other characters in your story.
By this time you should know what their name and age is. You may have known that from the start, but if so do you want to change either one now you know your character better?
As a writer you should try to make your characters living, breathing, believable people. And ideally, you want your reader to develop an emotional connection with them. How do you want your readers to respond to them? Do you want the reader to love them, dislike them, be amused by them? Getting the details of the character down on paper as we did above will help you to craft the characters your readers will respond to.
What Should Be Included In Your Query Letter
♫ January 30th, 2010 7:35 amA good query letter catches the agent’s attention and is the first step in how to get a novel published. What should be included in your query letter?
The first paragraph should be a brief synopsis of your novel. No more than 100 words, perhaps 150 words. This synopsis is written in the present tense. You want to hook the agent’s curiosity to read more. It’s a challenge to condense a 100,000 novel down to 150 words, but important you do. Think of the synopsis as a back cover blurb. It gives just enough information to create excitement about the novel. If you need some examples go to the bookstore and look at the back cover blurbs of books in the same genre as yours.
The second paragraph describes the market for your novel and includes the genre. Are you aiming for romance readers, cozy mystery readers or is your book a young adult novel? You can compare your book to other similar books, saying something like “readers of Sandra Brown will enjoy TITLE OF YOUR BOOK. Mention the word count and that the novel is completed.
The third paragraph includes your background as a writer and a brief bio. If you have writing credits make sure you mention them. Many agents don’t consider a vanity/subsidy book or self-published book as a writing credit. If you include the title they will look it up on amazon.com to see who the publisher is.
The third paragraph is where you can describe any special experience you have that could become a publicity hook or gives you an insight other writers might not have. For example if you are a pastry chef and your heroine is also a pastry chef that would be relevant.
End the letter by thanking the agent for their time and consideration and asking if they would like to see the first few chapters or a completed manuscript. The purpose of the query letter is to motivate the agent to ask for the manuscript.
The query letter should be no more than one page single spaced. You could also include a 2 or 3 page synopsis of your novel, but don’t include the first chapter or the entire manuscript.