[Guest post]: The Lost Train by Seth Crossman

How to Combat Weak Characters In Your Writing

By Seth Crossman

Writing a good book is a lot like making a good stew. You need a lot of different ingredients that all play together to create a tasty final product. A good book has key ingredients: an interesting plot, good dialogue and realistic characters. But a lot of writers struggle with creating realistic characters that readers can identify with and fall in love with.

Let’s tackle some of the hardest things about character development so that you can write characters that jump off the page.

Characters need to have lives outside the content of the book. Some writers will start writing without really knowing who their characters are. They just hope to insert their character into a plot and give them a good physical description and then have them interact with the other characters as the plot moves along. Those characters feel contrived. They feel like plot devices rather than immersive characters that readers connect with. Instead, spend some time writing the character’s backstory. How did they grow up? What struggles did they have in the past and how does that shape their decision making process now? For example, if a character lost their dad when they were four, fast forward ten years and they might really gravitate toward strong male characters. Give your characters likes and dislikes. Give them experience at jobs and traumatic events. This will give your characters depth and simplify your writing process during the course of the book because you already know how they would respond or what they would say in a certain situation.

Characters need to know how to talk. When I was studying writing in college, I remember having to read a book that was all dialogue, with only about 10% narrative text. The professor was trying to show us how good dialogue develops character and moves plot along. Your characters have to have good, snappy dialogue. A mistake some writers make is talking too much. You don’t have to have lengthy dialogue, you just have to think out loud a little bit and interact with the other characters. Spend some time in coffee shop listening to people talk to each other. Sit in a police station and listen to how detectives talk. Remember that backstory above? Their language should reflect those experiences.

Over the length of a novel it is hard to keep your characters consistent and grow them at the same time. You are not only trying to let the reader see how the character acts and responds so that they understand the character, but you also are putting the character into a big crisis or conflict that will change them! One way to do this successfully is to plot out those character changes in advance. Is there a point in the story where they are challenged? That often leads to an identity check. And when they do that, they begin to change because they see the need to or are forced to. Put that into the writing at that stage. Then continue to move them through the plot with more gradual changes so the ultimate character change at the end of the book is realistic. Realistic means it will be more powerful, especially the more a reader identifies with the character.

Some people struggle writing great characters because it is hard to put it all together. But that’s not you if you remember and employ these three tips! Happy writing!

 

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Action/Adventure Thriller

Date Published: 2/20/20

Publisher: Golden Acorn Press

 

    A former MP, Will Stattin, is called to Europe to investigate the theft of several paintings. He learns that the paintings are part of a series of nine pieces of art, all with a clue that ultimately leads to a train that disappeared from Konigsberg, Germany in late 1944 full of gold, art and priceless artifacts. He quickly learns that he is not the only one after the paintings. Now it is a race across Europe to find the paintings and the lost train with the help of the beautiful and savvy museum agent, Giovanna Rossi, before the hunt turns even more deadly than it already has.

 

About the author

[image error]Seth Crossman is a minister, speaker and writer who lives in Upstate New York.

His own adventures have taken him across the globe and stirred his desire to write fast paced, provocative thrillers that keep readers turning the page.

He has three boys that he wants to inspire with a sense of adventure and courage to overcome whatever obstacles get in their way.

 

Contact Links

Website: sethcrossman.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sethcrossman

Twitter: twitter.com/sethcrossman

Blog: sethcrossman.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/sethcrossman/ 

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