writing about characters – Meg Dowell Writes

i don’t know about you. But sometimes, I am not very kind.

To other people I am always careful to be polite and empathetic and make it known that I care, because I do. I am who I am and that is the kind of person I have always truly been. It isn’t always the case when I’m alone with myself, though. When I’m alone, I notice that I am very quick to judge myself. I do not usually hesitate before saying, sometimes even out loud, “I can’t believe you did that. You’re better than that.”

Aside from the fact that we need to be kind to ourselves in general – for mental health reasons; because we deserve to be happy and cared for – there is one major problem that arises when we are not as nice as we could be to ourselves. Can you guess what it is?

Keep in mind what characters are. They are fictional representations of real people, are they not? Often, we see ourselves in those characters. Even the smallest, seemingly insignificant traits we barely even notice we possess end up in a character’s profile. She is stubborn, or she has green eyes; she is barely five feet tall, or she hates math, or she loves pineapple for some reason.

So when we do not take care of ourselves, at least as well as we could, we are also in a way neglecting our characters. And if you read my ebook, which came out on Amazon today, you will learn that nurturing your characters is one of the most important things you will ever need to do for the sake of your fiction.

When we don’t take care of ourselves, our stories suffer. We don’t feel well. We can’t write, at least not the same way we can when we are at our best. We have a hard time connecting with the story we are trying to write. We feel detached from it. We feel that way because, the meaner we are to ourselves, the more detached from ourselves we become.

To be clear, I’m exaggerating the metaphor here: I am fine, I promise. I am a workaholic and don’t like to sleep: those things unfortunately aren’t all that uncommon nowadays. As months go on I get a little bit better at reminding myself to let myself take time off and rest. I have noticed that when I do this, I am not only able to write more, but I am also able to write better. When I’m tired or cranky or overwhelmed, I do not write well. I continue to publish posts on those days, to remind myself that if I am nice to myself today, I will be able to write a much better blog post tomorrow. And so on.

Your characters want to have a healthy relationship with you. Before that can happen, you need to have a healthier relationship with yourself. This is something I have been working on for years. We’re all working on it, little by little, here and there. But I promise you: your stories, your ideas, they are worth it. You are a writer. Embrace that part of yourself you are proud of, at least to some degree. Let that carry you. And remember: if you do not write today, it is okay. You can still try again tomorrow.

You are amazing, don’t you ever forget that.

Meg is the creator of Novelty Revisions, dedicated to helping writers put their ideas into words. She is a freelance writer and an eight-time NaNoWriMo winner with work published in Teen Ink, Success Story, Lifehack and USA TODAY College. Follow Meg on Twitter.

Image courtesy of Getty Images.

This year, I made myself a promise. Many promises, actually. I created a list of specific goals I wanted to accomplish before the end of the year, as I normally do. But this year was different. This list was different. On it, I declared I was going to write an ebook. A nonfiction book about something related to writing … I just wasn’t sure what.

And then, one day early in January, I figured it out.

I have always had a theory that characters are more than made-up pieces of an equally fictional story. To me, characters are much more like people. I know I’m not the only one who talks to them, argues with them and eventually gives into their pleas to have a story end THIS way instead of the way I had originally planned.

But characters are not quite like ordinary people. We’re the only ones who can see and interact with our own characters as we’re creating stories, for example. We use our imaginations to construct people who do not exist in the real world.

So in a way, when we create characters, we are also creating imaginary friends.

Imaginary friends who are REALLY, REALLY hard to please. Or are they?

So I took this concept and created something I think is pretty awesome out of it. And in just a few weeks, you are going to be able to see the finished product for yourself.

Imaginary Friends in Extraordinary Places: How to Cooperate with Characters Who Know Your Stories Better Than You Do is a short and fun book about creativity, imagination and how to handle that really confusing moment when you want your story to go one way, but your characters have something completely different in mind.

Every time we create a new character, we gain a new friend for life. Our relationship with that friend can make or break a story. In just a little over 20 pages (I said short, I meant really short), I’ll help you start to think more deeply about who your characters really are, how they think and what they want from you.

You can pre-order your copy of the ebook for $1.99 here.

Characters are one of my favorite subjects to write about when it comes to fiction and creative writing, and I can’t wait to discuss the topics addressed in the book more in-depth with you on this blog.

But it’s not quite time yet. So until then, click away from this tab and get back to writing.

Image courtesy of Meg Dowell.

Tag: writing about characters

Be Kinder to Yourself – Your Characters Will Thank You

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT – You Have Hundreds of Imaginary Friends and You Didn’t Even Know It

You can pre-order your copy of the ebook for $1.99 here.