"Hooking the Reader through World Building" with Sam Graber (part 3)

     Sam Graber is a homeschool graduate and avid reader and writer. He is a college student, and enjoys both playing and arranging music. Sam recently begun a novel titled Korina of Two Worlds, which he hopes to make his first published novel. You can find his author page on Facebook.

     Hey guys. Brian and Alex are both busy this week so I get to step in to give you a few tips on Hooking the Reader through World Building. Today I want to focus specifically on designing an interesting and realistic world, including a little bit about making maps.

 #1: Creating a landscape

     No matter what kind of story you're writing, it's going to be set in some kind of landscape. In a sense, this is similar to Alex's point that the world should reflect the story. In contemporary stories you'll have towns or cities. Often you can find real towns on the map to suit your purposes. Other times, you're creating your own world, so the landscape is up to you. In this case, you'll probably want to take some time to think about what your landscape is going to be like. This is especially important if you're making a map.

     Creating an interesting landscape isn't necessarily essential to a good story, but it can add interest. If you are creating a map, you probably want to make your landscape diverse, or else your map's going to look plain and not very realistic. However, sometimes it can be useful to make a 'plain' map with terrain that wouldn't appear in our world. That way you can draw attention to the world to add interest to the story. Brandon Sanderson does this in the Mistborn books, creating a desolate world where volcanic ashmounts cause ash to rain from the sky. The important thing is, if you're going to make an 'unrealistic' landscape, you'll want to draw attention to it in the story. Otherwise, readers will see your map and assume you were just too lazy to add terrain to it.

     #2: Making your populous realistic
   
     Another thing you'll need to think about for your story is what the populous is like. In particular, I'm going to focus on making your population sizes realistic. This is geared towards people who are building their own world, but it's also important to think about if you're writing in the real world. Are there too many people in the town?

     When creating a world, especially a less advanced world, you have to keep in mind that the cities aren't necessarily going to be the size of New York. The largest cities in the middle ages had populations of a few hundred thousand at the most. London had less than 50,000. Compare this with a present day population of over 8 million for both London and New York! One of the biggest reasons for this difference in population sizes is that farming techniques in the middle ages weren't capable of supporting that many people. If you're creating a medieval world, your population should be somewhere between 30 and 120 people per square mile. The largest city in your kingdom should be something on the order of 15 times the square root of the total population of the kingdom. That's about 15,000 for a kingdom of 1 million, and 47,500 for a kingdom of 10 million. For a more defined formula, as well as other helpful world building details, check out this article on medieval demographics: http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/blueroom/demog.htm.

     #3: Making your battles/wars realistic to the world

     Some of you may not have any major wars in your story, so this may not be relevant to you. For those who do, I want to give you a few tips specifically on making your army sizes realistic. If you have a kingdom with a population of 1 million and a capital of 15,000 people, they're not going to be fighting in a battle with an army of 500,000 men. If they did, the kingdom would experience a severe famine that year and they would probably lose more men to hunger than in battle! In reality, only a very small percent of a kingdom's population is actually going to find its way to the battlefield. Remember, half of the population is women. Unless your world is different, not many of them are going to join the army.

     Lets look at a few of the details. For an average kingdom, about 88% of your population isn't even going to make it to the draft pool for your army. This number is made up of women, men who are too old, boys who are too young, men who are exempt because of their profession, and outlaws who would refuse to serve in the army. Beyond that, only about 10% of your remaining pool (of the 12%) are likely to actually end up in the battle. Some will be unable to fight because of disease. Others will be called away to serve as the kingdom's navy, town watch, border guards, customs agents, bodyguards, garrisons, and camp guards. These men will be a part of the kingdom's military, but they won't actually end up on the battlefield. This leaves us with an estimate of about 1.2% of the kingdom's population on the battlefield. The kingdom with a population of 1 million would only be able to field 12,000 men. Depending on the circumstance, some kingdoms might be able to field more than 1.2% of it's population, but the army size is never going to go beyond 7% without risking a famine in the kingdom. Here's a site with a few more details about army sizes: http://www.writing-world.com/sf/hordes.shtml.


     Well, that concludes our third episode of "Hooking the Reader through World Building". I hope you enjoyed it and got a lot out of it, especially if you're planning to build a world of your own.

"Hooking the Reader through World-Building" with Brian McBride (Part 2)

Brian McBride is a Christian blogger, writer, and published author of a high fantasy novel geared toward the young-adult crowd. He is a musician, artist, and amateur photographer. He has recently started his third "official" novel, which is book three in The Starcrafters' Sagaand is editing book two. He writes fantasy, horror, dystopian, and science fiction of all sorts. You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, his blog, and Goodreads.

    Sorry about the delay in today’s post! But welcome to the second post in this sub-series of Hooking the Reader! I hope you all enjoyed Scotty’s post last week!

    This post won’t be very long, but I’ll try to get my point across.

    #1 – Know your world.

    You need to know your world. Especially if you write in a fictional world, where the MC’s goal is to set off on a journey or a quest. You need to know where s/he is going/coming from. This will create a sense of realism that is needed in stories set in fictional worlds. How can you do this?

    Well, I like to draw rough maps to get an idea of where everything is located, which direction my characters would travel, what they might come across on their journey. Be organized.

    Also, know what the landscape is like. If your character ends up in a desert, know what the vegetation will be like, know your character’s physical limitations. If s/he ends up on a beach, know where your beach is. All fantasy worlds should have some realistic base. For instance, most fictional worlds maintain the North, South, East, and West directional markers. I keep these in Paradox as well. Why? Because your readers will know what you are talking about and they won’t spend half their time trying to remember what you said the direction for North was.

    #2 – Know your culture.

    What reader wants to read a book where the culture is a jumbled mess? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

    If you have multiple races (Elves, Dwarves, Wizards for fantasy; Aliens for sci-fi) know what their different cultures are like. Based off of lore and thousands of other stories, Elves are likely to live in forests or near water. Now, you could create your own Elvish culture, but this would create more work on your part. Not that more work is a bad thing. ;) Make sure that you organize your culture accordingly and in an intriguing way.

    #3 – Know your religions.

    If you follow the Go Teen Writers blog, then you probably know that they did a recent post on made-up religions. I’ll try not to plagiarize. ;)

    As with most other worlds, realistically, a world should have a set of diverse religions with their own beliefs, even their own cultures. Know what your different cultures and races believe. Do they believe in nothing? Do they believe in magic? Do they follow a God or some sort of religious leader? Be realistic.

    Well, that’s all I have to rant about today. Hopefully this post isn’t as non-sensical as I think it might be. XP

"Hooking the Reader through World Building," with S. Alex Martin

S. Alex Martin is an author of young adult soft science-fiction, a blogger of writing tips and tricks, and a rising college senior in Pittsburgh. He's written and self-published three hard sci-fi books since 2004, and is finishing the fourth draft of "Embassy," the novel he hopes will become his debut in traditional publishing. You can follow him on his website, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.


Welcome to my first post in our newest series, "Hooking the Reader through World Building." Today I'm going to talk about some key elements to your stories' worlds and environments. So stick around and take a few notes!

#1. THE WORLD SHOULD REFLECT THE STORY.

This is the most essential part of world building. You aren't going to set a fantasy novel on a spaceship with laser cannons. You're going to have mountains and vistas and magic and dragons and ugly creatures and dark forests and castles and straw towns. Imagine if "Lord of the Rings" happened in the "Star Wars" universe.

Another aspect to consider is what can the setting do for the story? Think of your main character's goals. Is he trying to run away from something? Is there another world that is better than the one he lives in? How will he get there? Who will he meet along the way? What obstacles will he face?

Incorporate all of these elements into the setting. Marshes, mountains, rivers, graves, deserts, outer space, lack of air in a spaceship, traffic on the interstate...heck, even a flight delay. Make it work for your world.

#2. USE CONCRETE DESCRIPTIONS.

If you want your reader to visualize your world, don't start throwing abstract imagery around and assume your colorful words will paint a picture.

No. Just don't. Please. The key to effective imagery is this: simplicity. Use the words that get the job done -- and nothing more. Don't start bombarding your story with similes and metaphors. I beg you. Sure, it's okay to use one or two. They won't hurt anyone. But if you compare every river to a winding snake, or every building to an elegant monument....it's going to get old FAST. Just say it as it is, and stop.

Then sprinkle on some grander visuals -- but limit them.

As I like to say: "Don't paint. Build." It's fine to paint the main character's personal views to help emphasize what they think, but nature and cities are nature and cities. Make it easy for your reader to see the world by keeping your descriptions SIMPLE. Or, as the heading says, concrete.

#3. KEEP DISTANCES AND TERRAIN REALISTIC.

Who here can trek 1,000 miles in four days on foot? Anybody? No? Well that's a good sign. Now, have you ever read a book where characters walk impossible distances in no time at all? Or, say, cross a city in a few short minutes?

As authors, we need to be wary about relativity. Space and time play a HUGE part in world building. Unless your characters have teleports, or use magic to cross the country, prepare to dig in and figure out a way to fill in the journey.

Leave us with the sense that the characters did more than skip across the city, arm in arm a big smiles pasted on their faces. No, show us some of the jay-walking, brake lights, stop signals, crowded sidewalks, and beeping horns. The tug of the current in the river, the chill of the icy water on our skin, the weight of our waterlogged clothes, the short breaths we make as we try to stay afloat.

This stuff happens in real life, so why would it be so easy in the story?

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That concludes this week's post! Hope you're able to use these tips to develop your story worlds better and pull your readers into the next level of the story. If you liked what you saw, please share this post and leave a comment below!

Until next time,
S. Alex Martin

“Backstory”: Hooking the Reader through Character Building with Brian McBride

    Wasn’t Scotty’s post last week terrific? Anyway, this post is going to be really short and to the point. :)

1.      Characters Have History.

Just like in reality, characters have a background, a history. The year they were born, major events that have happened to them over time. Good days, bad days. Creating a backstory isn’t necessary, per se, but if you want to give your story that 3 dimensional effect every story should have, you should at least know what your character’s history is, even if you don’t include it in your story.

A)    Keep a notebook handy with information related to your character’s history. For example, birthday, major events (the day s/he found out s/he had cancer, the day his/her father/mother/brother/sister died, etc…), and so on.

B)    Memorize this information. You should know every little detail about your characters. This will help your writing to remain consistent. For example, if you say your MC was born in July at the beginning of the book, but then you forget and say he was born in December. In this type of event, it’s good to know your character by heart.

2.      Characters Have Relationships.

Every character has a relationship with someone. Even if the relationship is a bad one. Characters have parents, siblings, boy/girlfriends, enemies, etc… This is an important aspect to reveal in a story. Your story’s antagonist should have some sort of relationship with the MC. Not necessarily a blood relationship or a friendship. Your antagonist could only be mildly associated with your MC and would still qualify as a relationship.

    Unless your character is meant to be a figurative “hermit” build relationships between him/her and other supporting characters.

    So, there you have it! Just some tips on how to give the backstory needed to your character. :) Be sure to leave a comment with questions, or anything really. I love hearing from you!

Character Essentials: "Hooking the Reader through Character Building, Part 4" with S. Alex Martin

S. Alex Martin is an author of young adult soft science-fiction, a blogger of writing tips and tricks, and a rising college senior in Pittsburgh. He's written and self-published three hard sci-fi books since 2004, and is finishing the fourth draft of "Embassy," the novel he hopes will become his debut in traditional publishing. You can follow him on his website, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.



Hey everyone, welcome to my last post in this series. Hope you enjoyed Brian's post last week!

Today's post is a bit shorter because I'm going back to college tomorrow, so I've been packing and shopping--all while finishing the fourth draft of my novel, Embassy. Yeah. I've been rushing around all week.

Anyway, I want to look at two specific ways to show how to develop characters: involvement their world, and how they deal with events.

#1. INVOLVEMENT IN THEIR WORLD.

Characters need roles. When the story opens, readers want to know who the characters are. What do they do? What events have shaped them? If you show your characters place in society, the reader will better understand what journey the character is going on and why they are going on it.

This is why it's so crucial to understand character back stories. Some people like to list hobbies and education and favorite foods and colors, etc, before they begin writing the story. Other people (like me) let the characters shape themselves as they write.

Here are examples of a character's  involvement  in different novels:

Robert Langdon is a professor of religious symbology at Harvard University, and is called upon to investigate religious-related happenings in the Vatican and other cities. ("Angels and Demons," by Dan Brown)

Hazel Lancaster is a cancer child who must cope with death, and falls in love with a boy who lost his leg to cancer. ("The Fault in Our Stars," by John Green)

Beatrice Prior is a sixteen year old girl who lives in a world divided into five factions, and the day has come for her to make a choice: stay with her family, or join a new faction. ("Divergent," by Veronica Roth)

You can see how these characters are involved in a world that directly relates to the story. Use that to shape your characters, and then present events that will progress the characters' changes.

#2. DEALING WITH EVENTS.

Characters need to react to their worlds. This means  there need to be events that force the characters to make decisions--and sometimes they won't make the right ones. When necessary, complicate their lives. Make bad things happen. Make good things happen. But let your characters show their true selves in the choices they make, and maybe show how they change through the story.

We'll see three major ways characters act in their worlds: some will be active and seek out challenges. Others will be passive and let things progress as they are. Still, others will be reactive and make choices only as events happen.

Let's take the examples I used above and show how the characters react to the events in their stories. Keep in mind some stories have a mix of the three ways characters act:

ACTIVE: Robert Langdon must track down and stop an Illuminati plot to attack the Catholic Church after the death of the Pope. He must ACT and figure out where the Illuminati will strike, how they'll strike, and do so before the antimatter bomb destroys the Vatican and kills millions of people. (Angels and Demons)

PASSIVE: Hazel Lancaster can't really do much for her condition. She goes to support group, thinks about death a lot, and pretty much lives knowing she will die one day. When she meets Augustus Waters, they both have their jokes and travel together using his "Wish." But their reality always looms over them. (The Fault in Our Stars)

REACTIVE: Beatrice Prior joins a new faction and must react to her world and circumstances. Fights, fear tests, and a dark plot are ever-present. All of this is thrown at her and she must adapt to the situations. (Divergent)

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Well, that's my last post in this series! Brian will be back next week with the final installment of "Hooking the Reader through Character Building."

Have questions? Need clarification? Comment below and I'll reply!

Until next time,
S. Alex Martin

A Character’s Character: “Hooking the Reader Through Character Building, Part Three” with Brian McBride

Brian McBride is a Christian blogger, writer, and published author of a high fantasy novel geared toward the young-adult crowd. He is a musician, artist, and amateur photographer. He has recently started his third "official" novel, which is book three in The Starcrafters' Sagaand is editing book two. He writes fantasy, horror, dystopian, and science fiction of all sorts. You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, his blog, and Goodreads.

    Today is the THIRD post in this month’s series on character building. And wasn’t Scotty’s post last Friday fantastic?

    How many of you know that character is a huge element in humanity? Your character is who you are. It’s your dreams, hopes, the way you think, talk, act. So in order to merge your fictional story with reality, your character has to have character, right? Character also helps with that 3D element I’ve mentioned quite frequently.

1.      Dialogue Reveals Character.

    The speech patterns of your MC will reveal who your MC is. If your MC doesn’t like another character, his speech should show it. Maybe s/he tosses out biting remarks, or gossips about the other character behind their back.

    Why is speech so important? In the real world, our speech is what conveys to the people around us who we are in our hearts. It reveals our attitudes and our emotions. It conveys our thoughts and our ideas. Without speech, where would humanity be?

2.      Action Reveals Character.

    Aside from dialogue, what your character does is the most important tool in revealing your character’s character.

    Have you ever seen a child through a tantrum in a shopping center? Such an occurrence would likely tell you that the child is a) used to have his own way, b) probably isn’t punished often, and/or, c) has not been taught restraint. The way a character acts reveals his/her true nature. Thus the importance of giving clear, revealing action to your character.

    Perhaps your character doesn’t like to talk to people; maybe s/he is an introvert/extrovert; s/he is obsessed with food, girls/boys; s/he could be a health nut. There are so many different ways to reveal your character’s character.

3.      Thoughts Reveal Character.

    No one in the real world can know another 

person’s thoughts. However, that’s the great thing 

about books; you know the MC’s thought 

patterns because you literally read their thoughts. 

This comes in handy when you want ro reveal 

your MC’s character on a level more personal to 

the character.

    You could have the character think “I always 

hated going on missions trips.” What does this tell 

you about the character’s character? It likely lets 

you know that the character isn’t the most selfless 

and isn’t very willing to serve.

    First person narrative is also very helpful for 

revealing the MC’s thought patterns.

    “I don’t want to cry, but the tears come anyway” – The character is aware of his/her emotions.

    For one who has mastered the art of writing, revealing a character’s character through thought comes fairly easily.

4.      Emotions Reveal Character.

    There are so many emotions one can have. And every one of them can reveal who you are, who your character is. If your character is sad about a family member leaving after visiting for a while, then likely the MC’s character would be that of a close bond with those s/he loves and a sense of the importance of familial relationship.

    It’s always important to use words that convey degrees of emotion: sad, happy, joyous, enrage, angry, upset, frustrated, etc… And if you really want to get “professional” about conveying emotion, don’t directly tell what emotion the character is feeling.

    “The small tear rolled down her cheek. She took a deep breath, trying to refrain from the trembling that threatened to take her body over by force.” And if the phrase you used doesn’t clearly determine between fear and grief, don’t worry. The scene around these two lines should reveal the situation and thus determine which emotion the character is feeling.

    Well, that’s all I have to say today. Leave a comment below!

Character Essentials: "Hooking the Reader through Character Building, Part Two" with S. Alex Martin

S. Alex Martin is an author of young adult soft science-fiction, a blogger of writing tips and tricks, and a rising college senior in Pittsburgh. He's written and self-published three hard sci-fi books since 2004, and is finishing the fourth draft of "Embassy," the novel he hopes will become his debut in traditional publishing. You can follow him on his website, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.



Hello everyone! This is my first post as a YAWA admin and my first post in the series Brian and I are co-hosting: Hooking the Reader through Character Building.

You'll find that one of the hardest parts in the writing process is character development. The story only happens if the characters matter and fit into their unique roles. If you can toss around the characters and still have the same story, stop. Because you have a BIG problem.

Characters should feel like people. The real, living and breathing people who make life interesting (because clearly there are other kinds). Today I'm going to show you how to develop characters without whom the story can't go on.


#1. GIVE EVERY CHARACTER A GOAL.

And I mean EVERY character. If someone comes into the story and doesn't leave for a while, they need something to do. Don't just put them in because it's convenient, or because you think you need to hype up the pace. Those are just bad excuses that leave similarly-bad tastes in your readers' mouths.

Your main character needs a goal. State that as early in the story as possible. What journey are we--the reader--about to embark on? Will this journey take us to places we've never dreamed of? Will we meet people who amaze or scare us? Or are we gonna trudge around in our boots, stuck in the mud half the time, listening to an old beggar who just annoys us?

Hopefully we get the former, 'cause I don't have the time--or the money, for that matter--to hang out with some old guy in a robe. Unless he's Obi-Wan Kenobi. Then we'll see.

Also think of your minor characters. Yes, they'll have roles. But don't make them cookie-cutter images of every cliche out there. Make them unique individuals who have lives, live those lives, and are AFFECTED by those lives. Sure, the best friend seems happy around the main character, but at his house he gets into heated argues with his parents, which leads to his rebellious behavior and ultimate arrest. Something like that.

If you can create a complicated character whose life doesn't revolve around the main character, you're doing you book--and your credibility--justice.


#2. DEVELOP CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS.

*sigh* No, I don't mean a love triangle. Throw it in there if you want--don't let me stop you--but please, please try to have something other than a whiny girl who can't decide between two guys. There's a reason why people are tired of seeing love triangles. Oftentimes those conflicts are the whole plot of the story and leave little room for anything realistic (in the story's world, that is) to happen.

Anyway, developing character relationships. When readers meet a new character, the first thing they ask is: "Why are you important?" Make characters matter. Don't throw them in there for a convenient conversation. That just cheats the reader of their time and dignity.

Characters should influence the main character. Guide them, teach them, make them angry, make them giddy, make them rethink a value. Something. Even if it's just being a friend when the main character is lonely. Develop relationships like you would in real life. Build emotional resonance--whether positive or negative--and stay consistent and realistic.


#3. LET CHARACTERS GROW.

A reader wants to see the characters react to their world and change. You probably wouldn't read a story about a guy who just, you know, *shrug of the shoulders*, was just there. They want to read about characters that CHANGE. The girl who loses her best friend in an accident she caused and has to learn to live with those thoughts. The guy who finds an abandoned dog and ends up creating a shelter. In many science-fiction worlds, the story will be about someone who discovers they are part of a larger plot and must learn how to fight off the baddies.

However the story goes, let events and other characters shape your main character. Let other characters react and change, too. Characters should almost always be different at the end of the story than they were in the beginning. The only exception I've ever seen is Flowers for Algernon. Even in that story, Charlie changes during his surgery, but succumbs to the mental relapse that returns him to his original state.

You are not the same person you were a year ago. I sure am not. I've had my own experiences that changed me. If your characters change throughout the story, your readers will bond in a good way.


#4. USE WORDS THAT CONVEY DEGREES OF EMOTION.

When your characters interact, how well do they get along? Are they nervous? Angry? Shy? Giddy with laughter? At each others' throats? Kissing?

Readers follow the main character, and as I stated above, the first thing we ask when we meet other characters is, "Why are you important?" The second question readers will ask is, "Do I like you or do I hate you?" This shouldn't be too hard of a question to answer. Conveying it, however, is a totally different story.

For example, we can go out and say, "Jill hated Bobby and wanted to slap him."

Alright. Cool. Jill doesn't like Bobby. So? Slap him in the face, I don't care.

Here is something important, and I will not repeat this: MAKE THE READER CARE. I cannot stress that enough. If your reader doesn't care about the characters or the action, you're going to have a hard time as a writer. Instead, take the sentence above and consider saying this:

"Jill remembered all the times Bobby had pulled her hair and spilled her milk on the lunch table. And how she caught him cheating on his girlfriend with Amy. It all boiled up inside her, but she couldn't do anything except glare at him. If only she could smack some sense into that boy's head..."

Do you feel it now? We have reasons to dislike Bobby and reasons to admire Jill. It's a much more powerful paragraph with all sorts of depth and emotion packed inside. The point is to provide emotional attachment to the characters. Do that, and your readers will thank you for giving them a fulfilling experience!

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Well that's my first take on this subject I'll have another post coming in two weeks! Brian's gonna take the reins next Friday.

What are your thoughts? Comments or questions? Post below and we'll shoot you an answer!

Character Essentials: "Hooking the Reader through Character Building, Part One" with Brian McBride

Brian McBride is a Christian blogger, writer, and published author of a high fantasy novel geared toward the young-adult crowd. He is a musician, artist, and amateur photographer. He has recently started his third "official" novel, which is book three in The Starcrafters' Saga and is editing book two. He writes fantasy, horror, dystopian, and science fiction of all sorts. You can find him on Facebook, his blog, Twitter, and Goodreads.

    Welcome one and all to the first post in my second series, which our new admin/blogger S. Alex Martin (Scalex) will be writing with me (his post is next Friday… Look out!), Hooking the Reader Through Character Building. Today, I just want to run over some of the basic essentials of character building. So bear with me.

    One thing that every writer should know in order to write a terrific story is this: make your character believable! I’ll expound on this with the following points.

1.      Give Flaws To Your Character/s.

    For writers who have been active in the craft for a long time, this is kind of a duh! point, but it cannot be said enough. Unless your character is supposed to be “comically perfect”, you must, must, must endow your characters with flaws. You can’t slack off and think “Oh, no one will notice.”

    Even if all you do is scar your character’s face, at least you’re doing something to add depth to your story. And over time, if you work hard, you will refine your characters’ flaws.

    Here are some basic flaws, just to get you started:

A.    Physical; giving your character physical flaws is a surefire way to add depth to your story. Maybe your character isn’t a very good athlete, maybe s/he isn’t the “hottest” in school, or has stringy hair. Give your character a pimple for crying out loud!

B.     Emotional; giving your character emotional flaws is an excellent way to take your readers beyond the “skin” of your story. Maybe your FMC (Female Main Character) is a drama queen, or maybe she is depressed, emotional. Do something – anything – to give your character the emotional flaws needed to create a better story.

C.     Mental; giving your character mental flaws isn’t as urgent as the previous two, however in some cases it can add to your story. Perhaps your character is schizophrenic, suffers from depression, Alzheimer’s disease, amnesia, or dyslexia. You can see how this point does not apply to all situations, but consider if your character needs a mental flaw in order to create a better story.

2.      Give Emotional Depth to Your Character/s.

    Point 1B makes mention of this, but I’ll expound, for your sakes of course. Don’t think you can get by with “he sobbed” and “she screamed, infuriated”, it takes more than a few words to give your character the emotional depth needed to bring your story to life. Here are some sub-points to guide you:

A.    FEAR. Make sure your character is afraid of something. There is no person alive on this planet that fears nothing. Everyone has fears. Maybe your character is afraid of the dark, or of being alone. Maybe s/he is afraid of losing the people s/he loves. Think long and hard about what your character is afraid of. In the long run, you won’t regret it.

B.     LOVE. I’m a sap for stories that have at least a smidge of romance in them. That’s not to say that stories that don’t have romance aren’t good. Besides, love doesn’t have to just be romance. Realistically, there should always be someone that your MC loves; be it family, friend, boy/girlfriend. Examine whether or not your character has a close bond with someone else.

C.     HATE. Likely, the antagonist is the person your MC most hates, but think also upon material things your character might hate. Spiders, television, Doctor Who (cue the gasps. How dare I speak such blasphemy!). Writers must think about every aspect of their MCs if they desire to create truly 3D characters.

D.    HOPE. If you write dystopian, then the emotion of hope should be a major role in your MC’s life. Even if you don’t write dystopian, there can always be something that a character hopes for. After all, you want to portray your MCs as realistic human figures. Right? Maybe your character hopes to be a musician one day, or an artist, or a political figure (God help them if that’s the case). Hopefully, you’re so in tune with your characters’ personalities that you know exactly what they hope for.

3.      Think About Your Character’s Background.

    This is my third and final point for this post, but it is one I believe to be essential in giving your characters and your story the 3D effect needed to bring it to life in the reader’s mind. You need to consider the background information of your character. Where did s/he go to school? how old is s/he? Family roots? Race/ethnicity? Where does s/he live?

    If you haven’t already, consider including some background information while you are in your characters’ developmental stages. Trust me, 99.9999 percent if the time, you can’t go wrong.

Well, that’s all I have to rant about today, but believe me, I’ll have more for you next time! As I said, next week (Friday) Scotty will be writing Part 2 of “Hooking the Reader through Character Building” so hang in there! You can be sure that he’ll have some awesome rant prepared for you.

Creating An Epic Finale {Of Epic Proportions}: "Hooking the Reader, Part Three" with Brian McBride

Brian McBride is a Christian blogger, writer, and published author of a high fantasy novel geared toward the young-adult crowd. He is a musician, artist, and amateur photographer. He has recently started his third "official" novel, which is book three in The Starcrafters' Sagaand is editing book two. He writes fantasy, horror, dystopian, and science fiction of all sorts. You can find him on Facebook, his blog, Twitter, and Goodreads!

    What is one thing that we can all agree makes reading a book worthwhile? That’s right, the book’s ending. What kind of book ends with the main character (MC) eating a bowl of cereal? I’ll tell you what kind, one that isn’t very interesting. Although, that kind of ending could be interesting if it is written properly.

    I want to show you some ways that you can create an epic final (of epic proportions).

1.      Utilize Cliffhangers.

    A great cliffhanger makes a great story and it also makes you want to come back for more. If you loved the story, but there was a purposeful cliffhanger, then you’ll likely anticipate the sequel. Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes and Insurgent by Veronica Roth used the “cliffhanger method” perfectly.

    In Falling Kingdoms, you think everything is fine, that the story is wrapping up, then BAM! The MC is kidnapped. What kind of author does that?! A great author!

    In Inurgent, Veronica Roth made you think the story was over, but then she did a major plot twist that sets the reader up for book three, Allegiant. (Can’t wait for that one, by the way!)

    This brings me to my second point.

      2.      Utilize Plot Twists.

    As I said a few paragraphs ago, Veronica Roth introduced a major plot twist at the end of Insurgent which has caused me to be unable to wait until book three comes out.

    So why don’t YOU put a plot twist at or near your book’s finale? If you write the plot twist into the story correctly, what could go wrong?

      3.      Follow the “BAM Principle”.

    The “BAM Principle” is what I call it, and not just because BAM are the initials for my first, middle, and last name. ;) The “BAM Principle” applies best to any action/adventure genre (fantasy, sci-fi, contemporary, etc…) Basically it’s the principle that your story must end with a BAM! Or a BANG! if you will.

    Though this applies best to stories with some sort of action/adventure theme, it can also apply to contemporary inspirational, drama, etc…

    If you are a writer of a contemporary story and you want to end your story with the “BAM Principle”, here are a few tips:

     1 – Make your characters so likeable and relatable that the reader wants to come back for more.

   2 – If your character is undergoing emotional/physical/mental/spiritual turmoil throughout the storyline, resolve the ending in such a way that the reader is entranced and they don’t want the story to end.

    3 – Just when the reader thinks the plot has been resolved, insert another short climax, one that can be resolved in a page… or five.

    And now, here are some tips for using the “BAM Principle” in your action/adventure story:

     1 – Make your characters so likeable and relatable that the reader wants to come back for more.

 2 – If your character is undergoing emotional/physical/mental/spiritual turmoil throughout the storyline, resolve the ending in such a way that the reader is entranced and they don’t want the story to end.

   3 – Just when the reader thinks the plot has been resolved, insert another short climax, one that can be resolved in a page… or five.

      4 – If you write fantasy, don’t forget that ever-so-cliché battle scene. Because even if it is ever-so-cliché, it is still one of the most-anticipated scenes of epicness in a fantasy story.

      5 – Reveal a secret at the end of the story that makes way for a sequel.

    6 – DON’T answer all questions. Leave a few loose ends, but do it in an intriguing way, not an annoying way.

    Well, there you have it, ladies and gents! A few pointers on creating an epic finale of epic proportions.

    If you have any questions, feel free to comment below!