Character Development: Working In Complicated Issues.

[Iesha (In east shade house at...)]

yay me

[ᑕᗢᗝᒪḰᓮᖙᖇᗢჯ123 ☆*･゜ﾟ･*\(^O^)/*･゜ﾟ･*☆, Harry the potter XD XD TOTTER (:3)]

:P

[Phoebe, TheInvincibleRabbit]

Darn. :P

[Iesha (In east shade house at...)]

You could make her the girl that cares a lot for her friends and will do whatever to protect them at the expense of her self-allowing her to put up a good fight before she dies-showing her as a strong woman thus allowing her to cry toward the end of her trauma or crying all the way thro just not speaking.

[Julius, He Who Arises in Might (:D)]

I think that, indeed, you'll want to give her some history and a little time to be known by readers. If you want them to feel for her you'll need to at least get them familiar with her.

[Damyanti]

Go "on the body", to quote from ChucK P, one of my fave authors and teachers:

" In fiction writing, there’s an old saying: When you don’t know what happens next, describe the inside of the narrator’s mouth.

Or the soles of their feet, or the palms of their hands. Any physical sensation that can evoke a sympathetic physical sensation from the reader.

It’s one thing to engage the reader mentally, to enroll his or her mind and make them think, imagine, consider something. It’s another thing to engage a reader’s heart, to make him or her feel some emotion. But if you can engage the reader on a physical level as well, then you’ve created a reality that can eclipse their actual reality. The reader might be in a noisy airport, standing in a long line, on tired feet – but if you can engage their mind, heart and body in your story, you can replace that airport reality with something more entertaining or profound or whatever.

Note, this doesn’t happen with abstract words that describe pain or pleasure. You can’t just order a reader to feel a sensation. It happens when you create a tangible situation, detail by detail, and let the events happen in the reader’s mind.

Words like “searing pain” or “sharp, stabbing pain” or “throbbing headache” or “ecstatic orgasm” don’t evoke anything except some lame-ass paperback thriller book. Those are the cliches of a cheating writer. Little abstract short-cuts that don’t make anything happen in the reader’s gut.

No, you want the pain – or whatever physical sensation – to occur in the reader, not on the page. So un-pack the event, moment by moment, smell by smell. Make it happen, and let the sensation of pain occur only in the reader."

I guarantee you once the reader feels what your character feels, they will root for her no matter how whiny she is. Also, give her at least one strong redeeming characteristic (surely she can have just One?) and you'll have the reader eating out of your hands, and crying at your character's pain.

Hope this helps.

[Jonathan , The Wise]

D. wrote: "Go "on the body", to quote from ChucK P, one of my fave authors and teachers:

" In fiction writing, there’s an old saying: When you don’t know what happens next, describe the inside of the narrat..."

That's a great comment!