Interesting Characters

I've been thinking a lot lately about building believable characters. It's really interesting. It goes into a lot of detail about how you should know your characters as well as you know yourself.

I thought it would be a fun exercise to name some weird facts about ourselves that others might not know. Just to make the point of exactly how well we know ourselves.

In the comments--put in at least one thing that isn't commonly known about you. Here are a few of mine.

~ I was fifteen when I got my first kiss--and then I got 12 in one night. A wacky friend lined up every guy at my birthday party and he pinned my arms and walked me down the line. I was too shocked to respond at the time-- but he got an earful the next day.

~ I was pulled over 8 times before I ever got a ticket--this all happened before I turned 17. Did I mention that I'm kind of a speed demon?

~ I never had to study in school, everything came easy to me--but I often planned study parties with my friends, because I knew they needed to study and I wanted to feel normal.

~ I once received an invitation to a high school dance via a toilet seat that was left on the floor of my room.

~ I was very shy when I was younger and by the time I went to high school I felt pinned in by that stereotype. So, I convinced my mom to let me change schools so I could get a fresh start. When I graduated I was known as one of the most outgoing girls in school.

~ My sister is one of those people whose lives should be made into a book or movie--but I'm pretty sure she'd kill me if I did.

~ My mom is a ridiculously strong woman--but also one of the funniest people I've ever met. When I was a teenager she used to tell all my friends stories about how she had a magical gorilla toe that made all the men want her.... no, I'm not kidding.

Enough about me, what about you? What are your strange facts? Do you think you could fill out a similar sheet about your protagonist?

Is That Really Me? (Editing Tip)

I've been keeping busy with revisions for awhile and one of the things my agent suggested for me was so cool that I have to share it. She said to take a character from the last scene of your book (this should work with any character) and plop them into the first scene in your book and see how they would handle things differently now. This is a great way to see if your character has changed and grown and not remained stagnant. You can just imagine it, or go all hog-wild and actually re-write the scene with the character as he finished the book. It's incredible to see the differences and realize all the things you did right.

Check it out! :) Oh and also, have a great weekend!

Strange Characters

I started reading a book about building believable characters. It's really interesting. It goes into a lot of detail about how you should know your characters as well as you know yourself.

I thought it would be a fun exercise to name some weird facts about ourselves that others might not know. Just to make the point of exactly how well we know ourselves.

In the comments--put in at least one thing that isn't commonly known about you. Here are a few of mine.

~ I was fifteen when I got my first kiss--and then I got 12 in one night. A wacky friend lined up every guy at my birthday party and he pinned my arms and walked me down the line. I was too shocked to respond at the time-- but he got an earful the next day.

~ I was pulled over 8 times before I ever got a ticket--this all happened before I turned 17. Did I mention that I'm kind of a speed demon?

~ I never had to study in school, everything came easy to me--but I often planned study parties with my friends, because I knew they needed to study and I wanted to feel normal.

~ I once received an invitation to a high school dance via a toilet seat that was left on the floor of my room.

~ I was very shy when I was younger and by the time I went to high school I felt pinned in by that stereotype. So, I convinced my mom to let me change schools so I could get a fresh start. When I graduated I was known as one of the most outgoing girls in school.

~ I have one of the craziest car accident stories ever. (ask Kasie West)

~ My sister is one of those people whose lives should be made into a book or movie--but I'm pretty sure she'd kill me if I did.

~ My mom is a ridiculously strong woman--but also one of the funniest people I've ever met. When I was a teenager she used to tell all my friends stories about how she had a magical gorilla toe that made all the men want her.... no, I'm not kidding.

Enough about me, what about you? What are your strange facts? Do you think you could fill out a similar sheet about your protagonist?

What's in a name?

How do you come up with your character names? Is it something you just innately know or do you struggle with it? Mine seems to be half and half. Some are just a given - Lexi and Cam. Others take much time, consideration, and several find-and-replace-tool uses in Microsoft Word - Gwen, Aislynn and Aidan.

Some of my characters are from another planet, so I made up strange but still semi-pronouncable names for them - Torgan, Aya, Sarai, Kellin.

So I wanted to play a little game today. Where/How do you get your names and what do they mean? Parents.com has a cool little search tool where you can look up name meanings.

Here are a few of mine that I found intriguing. Keep in mind, I looked none of these up before using them.

Lexi - means Defender/Protector (how awesome is that for a heroine? eek!)

Cam - means Crooked Nose--I'm sure I can find some way to make that fit. ;)

Gwen - means Blessed--the most optimistic character, perfect.

Lincoln - means Lake Colony...yeah, I don't know how this fits...but I just love the name, so I don't care :P

Just for kicks, I'm going to check some of the weird alien names. :P

Torgan, Aya, Kellin & Metus - nothing

Sarai - means Princess in Hebrew... fascinating!


For those Insomnia fans out there...

Parker - means Keeper of the Park, LOL

Mia - means Admirable

Andy - means Manly, hahaha--honestly, my Andy would get a kick out of that.

Anyway, this was way too much fun for me... tell me about your character names and their meanings! :)

Distraction

If you haven't noticed my word count on my WIP has remained at the same spot for the last week, well then I envy you. I am constantly aware that I haven't had any time to write and the characters yelling in my head are pretty darn unhappy about it.

The worst part is that I have some brand new guy in there that apparently wants his story told as soon as the rest of them and he is incredibly impatient. Where did he even come from anyway? Someone needs to educate him of the newbie rules--but it can't be me, I'm obviously too busy.

Getting ready for a cruise and dealing with some minor family issues are occupying all of my time. Hopefully these people I share my head with will be more understanding when I am finally on the plane and have about 5 hours of uninterrrupted writing time. Until then they need to hush... I'm getting a headache. ;)