Love Me! Love My Character! Writing Tips.

It’s the last of our posts about making characters (or at least the last one of r a bit). Check out the tags to see the others.

Orson Scott Card (citation down below) has a list of ‘devices’ that he says makes readers love characters. I’m going to run them down here, because I’m running out of time in my week!

First off: Physical Attractiveness.

The hot factor.: If other characters are attracted to them, we will be too, he says.
Sometimes this can make your readers hate the character so be careful. She/he shouldn’t be annoyingly attractive. That’s dull.

You think I’m dull?
No, Harry, never you. You eat have oat milk in your fridge, bananas in your freezer, speak English, Cantonese, and Spanish and are an amazing dancer? How could that be dull?

Altruistic Awesomeness.

– We root for the victim. We also can eventually show how the victim is no longer a victim in our awesome story arch.
– We root for the savior. We want Petunia to rescue the dog/cat/alien/hamster/boy.
– We root for the sacrificer. It’s hard not to love someone who suffers to make the world better.

I totally have the altruistic awesomeness down pat.

The Doers

We root for the character who wants something, who goes after a dream. The bigger the want/dream the more we tend to root

The Bravehearts

We like the character who is brave, who takes risks to do what needs to be done (if those risks are morally cool).

Those Who Have ‘Tude

How a character feels about herself or others impacts how we feel about the character.

The Rest

We also tend to like characters who are clever, who volunteer, who are dependable.

And we also like characters with a little quirk – that imperfection or tic that makes them an individual.

Think about Ron in Harry Potter. He’s loyal as all heck. He takes risks to do what’s right (steals parents’ car, goes in off-limit places).

He is brave but he freaks about spiders.

He is smart in certain ways (outwits the magic chess board), but he is flawed too. He’s a bit jealous. He’s a bit insecure. He’s a bit lazy when it comes to studying.

Yet we love him. His flaws and quirks and reactions and choices make him adorable and one of the most loved characters in one of the most popular children’s books ever.

Yes, it is I, Ron Weasley

Card also gives a quick run-down on what we don’t like in characters:

Hurting another character on purpose, especially if the character likes causing pain
Killing someone for selfish reasons
Being self serving
Breaking promises
Super big words/formal speech in dialogue (We usually give this to the bad guys. I actually give it to a good guy, cause I’m a rule breaker like that)
Being totally psycho in a bad way
Attitude – whining too much, complaining too much, lack of humor, etc….

Resource

Card, Orson Scott. CHARACTERS AND VIEWPOINTS. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books

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I am the NYT and internationally-bestselling author of children's books, which include the NEED series, FLYING series, TIME STOPPERS series, DEAR BULLY and other books. I like hedgehogs and puppies and warm places. I have none of these things in my life. View all posts by carriejonesbooks

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Love Me! Love My Character! Writing Tips.

First off: Physical Attractiveness.

Altruistic Awesomeness.

The Doers

The Bravehearts

Those Who Have ‘Tude

The Rest

Card also gives a quick run-down on what we don’t like in characters:

Resource

LET’S HANG OUT!

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Like this:

Author: carriejonesbooks

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Jason Gallaher, author of WHOBERT WHOVER, OWL DETECTIVE

Writing Coach of Your Dreams

Nancy Stone

Stellar Writing Coach

Michelle Ames

Stellar Writing Coach

Julie Herman

Encouraging Feedback

Stefanie Chou

MAKES IT EASY

Lauren Haynes

EXPLORE YOUR STORY’S SOUL

Wendi Kepplinger

Cathy Carr

Trista Wilson

Patti Brown

Sara Crawford

By Far One of the Best

First off: Physical Attractiveness.

Altruistic Awesomeness.

The Doers

The Bravehearts

Those Who Have ‘Tude

The Rest

Card also gives a quick run-down on what we don’t like in characters:

Resource

LET’S HANG OUT!

HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED

And Carrie has new books out! Yay!

TO TELL US YOUR BRAVE STORY JUST EMAIL BELOW.

Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!

Like this:

Author: carriejonesbooks

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