What do you consider the most
effective components in your writing? You know, those elements that grab your
reader and won’t let him or her go until they’ve devoured one more chapter?
Hearing that someone can’t put down your book is thrilling for an author—writing
so fresh and compelling the reader won’t want to stop. They’ll want to pick up
a book and sneak in a paragraph or two whenever and wherever they can.
I understand the question posed
can have variable answers, and I think it also goes hand-in-hand with our
personal writing strengths. For instance, my strongest points are deep internal
POV and natural dialogue. One of the biggest compliments I ever received from a
reader is this: “I feel as though I know your characters so well that if they
walked down the street, I’d recognize them and would want to talk with them.” You
see, they’ve become real in that
reader’s mind and more than a “person” on the page. They've made the jump from the page in a book into the heart and
mind of the reader. This is exactly the type of response you want to evoke. Why? Because it means she cares
and if she cares, then she’ll most likely want to read everything I write about
them and she’ll tell her friends.
This month, I’d like to focus on
developing and writing deep POV. Mind you, it’s not for everyone, but it works
for me and I like to employ it in my books. Through this particular method, you
are giving your reader access to your character’s deepest inner thoughts. This
includes their motivations, their wants, what hurts them or causes them pain,
the elements of their past that have shaped their present, their desires, their
needs and their reactions to others. In this way, the reader gains a unique
entrance into their thought process and—even if they don’t understand or even
particularly like the character—they’ll feel as if they know them.
Let’s face it, not every reader
is going to like every character you create. But again, if you can evoke a
response, then you’ve accomplished effective writing. All your characters can’t
be sweet, fun, godly and perfect. Of course, no one but our precious Savior is
perfect. In fiction, writing about perfect people is boring—for both the author
and the reader. And then there's the fact that nothing could be more sad than reading a review or comment that says something
like this: “The characters felt like cardboard cutouts. I simply didn’t care about
them, so I lost interest.” Thankfully, no one has ever said this about my
characters, and it’s my intent they never will.
How do you go about writing such
deep POV? Number one, you as the author need to know the character from the inside out. In other words,
flesh them out. Expose their frailties and vulnerabilities as well as know
their strengths and goals. You need to understand and appreciate them in order
to write them so your reader will, too. Love
them in their imperfections—even your villains. Actors often say they love
playing the bad guy because they’re “more fun” than playing a good one.
Similarly, I think sometimes authors enjoy writing the scenes with their bad
guys more often than not. Why? Because they stir the emotions and the passion
and keep the interest level high. I know confrontational scenes are among my
favorite to write. Readers also identify with those scenes because who hasn’t
gone through life without conflict?
Creating and shaping characters
is perhaps one of my favorite aspects of writing because it draws upon my deepest
sense of creativity. As an author, you are the one in control because you create them. You alone know their
childhood background (what events shaped them?), history (the where, when, what
and how of their growing up years), family (are mom and dad in the picture? grandparents?
what siblings, cousins and people shaped their lives in terms of death and life?),
and everything else that is that
character. Embrace the challenge of getting to know your characters and take
their journey with them.
Making character charts can also help,
if you’re so inclined. Simply start a page for each character in your book, or
one chart for all your characters. You can create columns or not; set it up however
it works best for you. On this chart, list all those things previously
mentioned about your character. Spend some time on it and refer back to it as
often as needed. Sometimes you have to start the actual writing first and then your
characters will evolve. You’ll come to understand them better as they respond
to others throughout the course of your unfolding story. Don’t be afraid to
change or alter something in their background to suit your purposes. You’ll
know what works or doesn’t work as you continue on in your writing. Write,
write, edit, and then do it all over again to refine and hone in on the finer
points of your characters and their unique stories.
If you choose not to write deep
POV, you still need to know your characters from the inside out to create
fully-developed characters your reader will care about. After all, isn’t that
one of our primary goals?
What are your strengths as a
writer and how can you use them to your best advantage? I’d love to hear from
you, so please feel free to share with us. Blessings, friends. Matthew 5:16
