Memorable Characters

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Interesting Fictional Characters

Memorable fictional characters must
be interesting and believable.
Writers must know major characters
to tell attention grabbing stories.
It's impossible to engage readers
if your creative flow isn't excited,
or you don't know major characters.

The discussion here is major characters
only. They, for the most part, move
the story forward, because their
choices matter.

A major character's trait, quality,
that's repeated creates memorable
characters.

Let's profile a memorable character.

A hacker, for example, stole his/her
way into bank employment. The character
accessed computers to gain entry into
college, free pizza he/she tried to buy
college friends with and show-off.

The act of hacking is repeated, even
while working at the bank. The hacker
will be caught as he/she transfers
small accounts of money into an account.

The character's profile includes all
information about characters.

Profiles has the hacker's name, for
example: Toby Blake. What are his/her
mannerisms, flaws and attributes?

The hacker goes too far. The character
wants people to think he/she is smarter
than everyone else.

What does his/her eyes, face, look like?
Perhaps, his/her face is skinny, narrow
eyes. He/she has a hunch-back.

How does the character talk? Socialize?
Dress? What's his/her reaction to staring?
He/she wobbles, limps or walks fast?

The character that hacks talks fast.
He/she wants to appear smart, and
dislikes being stared at.

What are his/her strengths, weaknesses
and ambitions?

The character's major weaknesses are
hacking and thinking he/she is smarter
than others. His/her strength is knowing
how to steal into computers.

How does he/she treat people? The character,
hacker, is always trying to dig information
out of people, in hopes that it'll lead to
interesting hacking. In reality, the
character knows no one will like him/her
without the hacking ability.

Look-over your character profiles. Do you
need to add more to the profile? Take away
information? Is the character interesting
to you? Or, is your creative flow ignited?

If you feel a character's profile wouldn't
help make him/her memorable, stop. Save
that character's profile for another tale.
Start a new profile with a different character.

Finally, memorable characters must be
attention grabbing, believable and a
profile helps reach that goal.

Source: http://voices.yahoo.com/memorable-characters-10991316.html

Role Of Conflict In Fiction

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Conflict Moves Fiction

Conflict helps most stories hold the
reader's attention.

Conflict isn't new. You can greet
conflict on a daily basis.

Conflict is waking up late, not knowing
why the alarm didn't ring-out. You banged
your toe on the door in an effort to rush.
You begin to free ill, because your stomach
is empty. The train usually taken left ten
minutes ago.

The question is: Will anyone want to read
about your day? Most likely, the only people
that might want to hear/read about your
off day are friends or family members.

The role of conflict in fiction is to make
a scene attention grabbing when two opposing
forces come together, and the conflict must
be more interesting than what happens in life.

Stir-in as much conflict, chaos, as possible
for successful fiction.

Let's add more conflict to the reason an
alarm didn't ring-out.

A character, Kendra, met Bill indirectly.
He stared at her while they listened at a
Wal-Mart cashier talk about the four men
she slept with.

Kendra shook her head. Bill tried to get
Kendra's attention. Kendra looked straight
ahead, never looked behind her.

Kendra began to see Bill outside her house,
market. He just stared.

She began to notice clothes in her closet
re-arranged, dishes left in the sink washed.
She told people at work. Someone suggested
that she call the police.

"And tell them what?" She responded

Kendra returned home, checked the alarm and
noticed that it had been turned-off.

At this point, Kendra isn't sleeping well.
The slightest noise wakes her.

She hears someone walking around the apartment.
The apartment door closes.

Kendra jumps to her feet, picks up her high
heel shoe and looks around the apartment.

"Was it my imagination?" She asked out-loud.

She over-sleeps and is late leaving. Someone
is trying to get into her apartment. She pulls
the door open to find Bill.

Bill pretends to be looking for someone else.

Kendra takes the day off, remembers seeing Bill
at various places.

Kendra sees Bill at the Less-Everything store,
but he pretends to look at an item.

Kendra runs in and out of different stores,
but Bill shows-up. She has lost fear to anger.

Bill drags over to her, wants a date. She
tells him "no." He departs quickly.

Kendra discovers moved furniture. She takes
several days off from work.

On day three, he walks through her apartment
door. Bill finds Kendra in the kitchen. She
raws her hand from behind and slaps her high
eel shoe into his face. He falls backward.

Kendra dials 911.

Bill pulls the shoe out of his cheek, gets
in Kendra's face. She screams, drops the
cell phone.

Bill drags Kendra to him by the hair, but she
struggles and falls to the floor. She tries
to crawl away. He kicks her. She moans.

Kendra slides along the floor to her high
heel shoe Bill removed from his face. He
steps on her body. Kendra lands face-down
on the shoe.

Bill begins to stand Kendra up. She stabs
him through the eye using a high heel shoe.

Conflict in successful fiction, too, ends
in resolution.

Resolution in the above example: Bill entered
Kendra's apartment and she was forced to
defend herself. The conflict between Bill
and Kendra (opposing forces) necessitated
a resolution.

In closing, the role of conflict in successful
fiction demands that it grabs attention when
opposing forces come together in scenes, and
from that conflict a resolution emerges.

http://voices.yahoo.com/role-conflict-fiction-10916017.html