Natasha Ewendt's Blog - Posts Tagged "c-robert-cales"
Author Showcase Guest Post – ScaryBob: Make writers fall in love – and hate – with your characters
This is the latest in a series of Author Showcase guest posts by authors around the world, sharing their tips and creativity.
Today’s post is by Florida author C. Robert Cales, a.k.a. ScaryBob, one of The Authors Show’s 50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading.
Creating characters readers will love – and hate
Natasha has invited me to say a few words about the writing craft. On the chance that some of the audience is comprised by fledgling writers I want to talk about character development. Good writing is all about emotion and you can’t get there without characters. The most dynamic, mind blowing plot is doomed to be lifeless dribble if it doesn’t affect characters and if your characters don’t have depth you’ve missed the boat. You can’t evoke an emotional response in your readers with cardboard cutouts moving around in your story. Good writing is the act of keeping plot and character development in balance. All plot with no real characters is flat and lifeless. Characters with tremendous depth facing nothing is boring.
Develop your mind bending plot, but remember, it can do nothing to readers without characters with history and all the trappings of life. Create an emotional bond for the readers, let them fall in love with the people in the story. Give them characters they hate and want to see die a horrible death. Once the readers love or hate your cast members they are yours to do with as you wish. Whether you bring sunlight or darkness to their hearts they will continue turning pages and love you for it.
Case in point, the antagonist in my novel The Bookseller, Carlos Ramirez: drug lord, child molester, murderer and that's just the tip of the iceberg; nonhuman spirit, billions in treasure, hundreds of past lives and memories of everything. The world has known him by other names, Attila the Hun, Vlad the Impaler, Blackbeard the Pirate and Jack the Ripper to name a few. He skips from life to life through time and has left bloody footprints across the pages of history.
In this life Carlos is the head of a violent South American drug cartel. His best men have perfected a process for infusing liquid cocaine into the pages of books and withdrawing it at the destination point. He's selected a bookstore in the perfect location for acquisition to support the operation.
The Bookseller is a bookstore across from Boston Common, owned and operated by a lovable rare book dealer.
Anne Rice is a master at bringing characters alive even when they are the undead variety. Through character development she has made readers fall in love with a monster like the Vampire Lestat de Lioncourt. The ten or eleven books of the Vampire Chronicles build an incredible world of the undead blood drinkers that is a tribute to her mastery in developing characters. After reading the last of the Chronicles I was plagued for weeks by something I like to call Lestat withdrawal.
If anyone is curious about my talent and wants to taste my brew I would direct them to the Preface of The Bookseller, which can be found in the Amazon Kindle bookstore and on iTunes. Both retailers permit reading some of the work for free.
ScaryBob is the author of novels Devil Glass, The Bookseller and upcoming title Reincarnology. Find out more at http://www.scarybobproductions.webs.com
Natasha Ewendt is the author of This Freshest Hell, a vampire novel released in 2013 by Lacuna Publishing. Also a journalist at the Port Lincoln Times and the director of Port Lincoln Copywriting Services, Natasha is reluctantly addicted to coffee and The Walking Dead.
Today’s post is by Florida author C. Robert Cales, a.k.a. ScaryBob, one of The Authors Show’s 50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading.
Creating characters readers will love – and hate
Natasha has invited me to say a few words about the writing craft. On the chance that some of the audience is comprised by fledgling writers I want to talk about character development. Good writing is all about emotion and you can’t get there without characters. The most dynamic, mind blowing plot is doomed to be lifeless dribble if it doesn’t affect characters and if your characters don’t have depth you’ve missed the boat. You can’t evoke an emotional response in your readers with cardboard cutouts moving around in your story. Good writing is the act of keeping plot and character development in balance. All plot with no real characters is flat and lifeless. Characters with tremendous depth facing nothing is boring.Develop your mind bending plot, but remember, it can do nothing to readers without characters with history and all the trappings of life. Create an emotional bond for the readers, let them fall in love with the people in the story. Give them characters they hate and want to see die a horrible death. Once the readers love or hate your cast members they are yours to do with as you wish. Whether you bring sunlight or darkness to their hearts they will continue turning pages and love you for it.
Case in point, the antagonist in my novel The Bookseller, Carlos Ramirez: drug lord, child molester, murderer and that's just the tip of the iceberg; nonhuman spirit, billions in treasure, hundreds of past lives and memories of everything. The world has known him by other names, Attila the Hun, Vlad the Impaler, Blackbeard the Pirate and Jack the Ripper to name a few. He skips from life to life through time and has left bloody footprints across the pages of history.
In this life Carlos is the head of a violent South American drug cartel. His best men have perfected a process for infusing liquid cocaine into the pages of books and withdrawing it at the destination point. He's selected a bookstore in the perfect location for acquisition to support the operation.
The Bookseller is a bookstore across from Boston Common, owned and operated by a lovable rare book dealer.
Anne Rice is a master at bringing characters alive even when they are the undead variety. Through character development she has made readers fall in love with a monster like the Vampire Lestat de Lioncourt. The ten or eleven books of the Vampire Chronicles build an incredible world of the undead blood drinkers that is a tribute to her mastery in developing characters. After reading the last of the Chronicles I was plagued for weeks by something I like to call Lestat withdrawal.
If anyone is curious about my talent and wants to taste my brew I would direct them to the Preface of The Bookseller, which can be found in the Amazon Kindle bookstore and on iTunes. Both retailers permit reading some of the work for free.
ScaryBob is the author of novels Devil Glass, The Bookseller and upcoming title Reincarnology. Find out more at http://www.scarybobproductions.webs.com
Natasha Ewendt is the author of This Freshest Hell, a vampire novel released in 2013 by Lacuna Publishing. Also a journalist at the Port Lincoln Times and the director of Port Lincoln Copywriting Services, Natasha is reluctantly addicted to coffee and The Walking Dead.
