I'm going to use Saturdays as a time to share things I've learned, usually the hard way. First things first, Character Development.
When you sit down to write a novel you usually have two things in mind. One, the character you want to write about-the one that is bouncing around in your head asking to be put on paper and two, the point in the story you are dying to get to. The problems is that you have this picture of a character in your head that your going to write this entire novel about, but the reader has no idea. The first few paragraphs are vital to how your character is thought of and if it's a character readers want to follow for 358 pages. So right now, this is what your character looks like to the reader.
As of right now, this is all the reader sees. We don't know if Pip is a acne ridden teenage boy pining away for the senior cheerleader, a rebel girl with blue hair and a tongue piercing, or a viking warrior princess with the power to throw lighting bolts. It's all up you. What we what to avoid is word vomit or sensory overload.
Pip has long red hair with a string of freckles crossing her nose. She has bright blue eyes and ears that stick out too much. She wears huge glasses and has braces that cover her teeth that are colored red and gold for Gyrffindor house. She loves the colors blue, red, green, purple, and silver. She enjoys the soothing sounds of Metallica and Led Zepplin, but her mother doesn't know that. Pip hates her school and all the people in it. She draws stick figures of them walking the plank on her favorite pirate ship. She isn't very pretty, but she is really smart......blah, blah, blah,
I know that I've started out at least on of my stories like this. You just want to get all that personality stuff out of the way so you can get straight to the meat of the story, but we can't do that. If any of you actually read the entire paragraph I give you props, I wouldn't have. Anyway, we have to be careful not to do this-at ANY time during the novel. While some of those lines can be dropped in later in the story, we can't do it all at once. It isn’t a very good read and I stopped paying attention at about her favorite colors.
Personality is something you need to give the impression of rather than spit it all out at the reader at one time. You wouldn’t walk up to someone and say:
“Hi, my names is Jessica Montgomery. I like the colors yellow and red and I’m obsessed with Lord of the Rings and the video game Dragon Age. Let’s be friends?”
Nine times out of ten that person is going to stare at you like your crazy and then turn tail and run. The same rule applies to writing about your character. I don’t want to be bombarded with Pip’s likes, dislikes, and secrets all at the beginning. It takes the fun out of reading. So, instead you’d want to lace it throughout your story.
Pip brushed her red hair behind her ears, getting it caught in the arm of her oversized glasses. She hated Mondays, mostly because that meant going back to school to get shoved into her locker instead of staying at home listening to Metallica.
Now you get a little bit better impression of Pip without being overwhelmed at all the info. It’s still not the best way to start a story, but it doesn’t make you feel like your drowning in all things concerning Pip.
That is my helpful advice for today! I hope it’s helped clarify a little something! Have a good weekend! :D
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