Katherine Frances's Blog, page 401
February 14, 2015
On Writing: Giving Characters Flaws
Giving your characters flaws can be difficult. It’s surprisingly easy to make a character with no flaws (or poor flaws) merely by accident, and it’s equally as easy to go overboard in the other direction. Oftentimes, the problem isn’t the character themselves, but the way they are portrayed. A character that looks well-balanced and human on paper can mess it up once they’re on…well, slightly more paper.
Don’t divide traits into good or bad. Few personality traits are ever exclusively good or bad. A lot of what makes something a flaw or a boon depends on context. Pick a few of your character’s defining traits and think of how it would play out in different situations. Someone with boisterous charm might be beloved at the local bar and hated at the boardroom. A generous figure could be the saving grace of a charity fundraiser, but an utter disaster if they’re ever made treasurer. A proud character could simultaneously slay his professional competition with winning confidence and be distressingly estranged from their family because of an old hurt. A large part of making a flaw believable is showing every side of it, even the sides that aren’t flaws at all.
"A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it to be God."
- Sidney Sheldon
February 11, 2015
writeworld:Writer’s BlockA picture says a thousand words. Write...
A picture says a thousand words. Write them.
Mission: Write a story, a description, a poem, a metaphor, a commentary, or a critique about this picture. Write something about this picture.
Be sure to tag writeworld in your block!
♚ masterlist of bad habits ♚
Below the cut you will a masterlist of 40+ bad habits for your character to have. Some of these bad habits are bad etiquette while some of them are bad speaking habits. Some of them are incredibly bad for your health and others are just unprofessional. Please like or reblog this post if it has helped you in any way!
(What is dream journal?)
Dream Journal Entry #2 - 1/21/15
Leotie’s Eye
Leotie waded through the...
Dream Journal Entry #2 - 1/21/15
Leotie’s Eye
Leotie waded through the waist high swamp water, it’s muddied surface swirling around herhips as she pushed aside the moss floating on the surface. She had dark tan
skin that was as warm as the sun, with hard set brown eyes. Her nose and lips
were soft and curving, her black hair falling long and strait down to her
waist. She turned sharply at the sound of a man, large and cumbersome moving
through the water with a splash behind her. His broad hand clasps around her
wrist, beady eyes fixing on her.
Glaring at him,
she said, “Well, the deals been made. You’ll have me to use for your Kanohelvhi.”
She yanked her arm away and continued down the swamp, away from the man who glowered
at her but didn’t follow. She passed between two boulders, covered in damp
moss, moving as if she were a clump of twigs herself, silently carried down the
barely moving water. She climbed from the swamps up onto a stony path that lead
to an embankment of the same grey-blue stone. Leotie’s hard eyes were fixed and
determined, but they watered, tears forming at their edges, making the dark
pools of her irises reflective. She took in a deep breath, reminding herself of
why she’d agreed to do this. I have to
save him, she thinks, closing her trembling eyes as a tear streams down
her cheek.
"It is through writing that we speak the unspoken. It’s interesting, because some of the things that..."
- NoViolet Bulawayo
(via mttbll)
"Children’s and YA books are about being brave and kind, about learning wisdom and love, about that..."
- Betsy Cornwell, interview in Uncommon YA (via betsycornwell)
