Narjes Alghanemy
asked
Rachel Caine:
How do you make your characters different from each other? I feel as if all my characters just sort of blend in together.
Rachel Caine
There are a lot of ways to do it, and I imagine everybody has their mental tricks, but for me, I visualize that person as completely as I can ... most especially how they speak. Listen closely to people and you'll see that their patterns of speech and rhythms are quite different, especially if they're from different places or backgrounds.
The trick is, I think, not to do it so much it feels cardboard. I resist spelling out dialects, for instance, because even if my character is intensely Southern, I don't want to write it out exactly as it sounds. That looks and feels like a caricature to me.
Even if your characters are all from the same small town, there are always little differences ... one talks slowly, one is a fast talker, one doesn't talk much at all, one's more religious than the others ... just find where they differ. I think that helps (it does me, anyway).
Good luck and keep writing!
The trick is, I think, not to do it so much it feels cardboard. I resist spelling out dialects, for instance, because even if my character is intensely Southern, I don't want to write it out exactly as it sounds. That looks and feels like a caricature to me.
Even if your characters are all from the same small town, there are always little differences ... one talks slowly, one is a fast talker, one doesn't talk much at all, one's more religious than the others ... just find where they differ. I think that helps (it does me, anyway).
Good luck and keep writing!
More Answered Questions
Melissa Davis
asked
Rachel Caine:
Hi, Rachel! Just wanted to say that I loved Holly and Andrew in Forked Tongues (read in the Kicking It anthology). I've tracked down the 1st two parts of their story in Strange Brew and Hex Appeal. I would love to know more about them! Are there more stories that I'm missing? Any hope for book(s) about them? (One blog I read said that they exist in short stories only.) Thank you!
Hannah M.
asked
Rachel Caine:
I was wondering if you had any characters, items, places, dialogues, etc. that you have taken out of your stories that I could use for a story idea that I had? The idea is about an island where every story piece that was given up on, thrown out or abandoned ends up. I've been asking authors if they have anything I could use because I want to put some truth in the idea. It's fine if you don't have anything. Thanks! :)
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