Skip to main content

Falling In Love With Your Characters

Happy Wednesday All,

How often when we're writing and editing do we get to a point where we need a break because we've stopped caring about our characters?

We get to a point sometimes where we'd just as soon see them all fall into a pit and stay there.

Not good!

If we don't care about characters and stories then how can we expect readers to care?

What happened to me was, I worked on a manuscript and got annoyed, and started thinking my hero and heroine could fall off a cliff.

Yikes and painful!

I ended up taking a bit of a break from said manuscript and when I came back to the editing and working on it, I found out that I was falling back in love with the characters and the story.

Ahh, how lovely!

It's like what Nathan Bransford wrote in his blog post called The Nine Circles of Writing Hell we think our story is nifty and wonderful until something happens, then we get distracted by another story idea or whatever comes up.

Sometimes we need a little break. Then when we come back, we can look for some reason to love our stories and characters again.

Because, really, don't we want our readers to care about our characters and why should they if we don't?

I wish you all happy writing and much falling in love with your stories and characters :-)

Have A Winsome Wednesday!

Comments

Regina Quentin said…
Hey Bethany, glad to see you're doing well! I took a super long break from all I was working on and have come back refreshed. It has given me a little bit or perspective and now I'm working mainly on my nonfiction. Only thing is, story ideas pop in my head and try to distract me. I've made up my mind to finish the project I'm currently working on (about free online marketing tools) before I pursue any other ideas.
Bethany said…
Regina,

Hey! It's great to see you back in cyberspace!

You keep those ideas flowing--and any new one that pops up, just write it down and put it aside--you don't want to lose a good idea!

Thanks for coming by.

Happy writing :-)

Popular posts from this blog

It's Worth A Fortune

Happy Tuesday Everyone, Does anyone remember the song If I Had A Million Dollars by Barenaked Ladies ? I can't remember when or how I was first introduced to this song, but it's a fun song. So, how about if you had a million dollars? What would you do with it? Of course there's the responsible things to do with a million dollars--pay off debts, and such like that. Then there's the question of whether or not you give to charities, and how much. But, suppose you answered all those questions and you still had quite a lot left; what would you do with it? Maybe I'd go to Disney World. I've wanted to go, and I've never been able to. Or, perhaps I'd go to Germany and England, and Belgium (three of the countries my ancestors are from). Travel around seeing family and friends I don't see often. There's all kinds of possibilities. So, what about you? What would you do with a million dollars? Have A Tremendous Tuesday!

Spotlight On Author: Loretta Wheeler

Happy Tuesday Everyone, There's a gem of an author I've had the privilege of coming across...I'm talking about my friend, Loretta Wheeler. She's a sweetheart and very talented author. I enjoyed her YA Paranormal novella, The Pan Man immensely. And, she also writes Romance. So without further ado, come into my parlor and meet Loretta Wheeler: Me:  In your YA novelette, The Pan Man , you mention Pan's looking for his long lost soul mate. What made you choose Pan out of all the Greek/Roman gods and goddesses? Loretta:  I chose the Greek god Pan, because of the connection with the music. I found later on in the story, (my stories take over and write themselves usually) it applied even more than I realized because of the band's name. I won't mention the name of the band in here, because it's part of the surprise ending. Me:  You're mostly known for your Romance stories. How would you describe your writing style? Hot, suspenseful, sensual, sw...

Myths About Writers

Afternoon Folks, I thought we'd do a post to dispel some of the myths people seem to have about writers. I'll put the ones that first come to mind then y'all can chime in. Myth: Writing is a great way to make a lot of money. I'm not sure exactly how this one matriculated. Probably in the wake of some of the big best sellers (i.e. Stephen King, Anne Rice, Stephenie Meyer, JK Rowling, and the like) but most of the time writers put in more money for their writing than they do get out of it. Generally a writer doesn't make a ton of money unless somehow his/her book is a blockbuster hit and blasts through what the author owes in the advance (which is paid back to publishers through royalties). Most writers I've met and talked to are not millionaires. I'm not saying it can't happen, I'm saying it's not one of those things that's automatic. Myth: Writing Is Easy Anybody Can Do It. Okay, granted this isn't entirely a myth, but it's not ent...