One of the hardest things to write is good characters, all of them. How many times have you read a book and only one or two or three characters have any life to them? The rest are just...there?
Do you have trouble filling out your characters?
Have you tried the Power of Three for your characters?
Try these ideas on ALL your characters:
Three wishes
Three fears
Three flaws
Three heroic qualities
Here are ones I did for my MC, Angelica:
Three wishes:
To be a normal girl
For her dad to not have to work so much
Get her sister out of an abusive relationship
Three fears:
She really is a serial killer
She will lose her family
She is a monster
Three flaws:
Set herself up to be unlovable so no one else dies
Distrustful
Chooses to be a wallflower
Three heroic qualities:
Loyal
Brave
Smart
Now your turn. Choose one category and share with us in comments! Or if that is too hard, tell us your favorite character.
Progress on the cover for Forts 3 continues to putter forward. It feels pretty good to be woking on these characters again. I took too much time away.
Art has always been therapy for me and this has been a rough year.
Steven
Two updates to the work blog in less than a week? Start building your fallout shelters because the end of the world is no doubt on the horizon. The sketches above are some rough character/concept stuff from a project written by a friend of mine. I think they came out looking pretty good.
I'm currently writing the third and final book in the Forts series, and finally feeling excited about it. For a while there I was struggling with how to start, and seriously lacking motivation for some weird reason.
You know...because motivation is never a problem for me.
(That last sentence was as sarcastic a sentence as I've ever written.)
Steven
Well, you can fess up any day about it but what’s the worry?! Everyone has done it! The top chunks of a hamburger fall off while you’re trying not to trip over, or a biscuit slips through your hands. We say that after three seconds on the ground food will really start to spoil. But is it really the case?
Most of us has heard of and aboded by this “three second rule”, but is it true that when you pick food up from the floor before three seconds no harmful bacteria can get a grip on your food yet? Well, “What’s Good For You” on Channel Nine has put this to the test…
Three cookies and three banana slices are put on three plates, one of each on each plate. This is to determine whether the texture of a food helps the bacteria stick on. Another cookie and banana is left alone because it is the control.
One plate of food is dropped on the ground, and is left there for three minutes. Two and a half minutes later the second plate is dropped, and with three seconds left the last plate is dropped.
The specimens were then wrapped up and sent to a lab. Over there the bacterial were smeared on agar plates and left to grow for a prolonged period of time.
The results:
Three minutes:
The cookie had 10 to 100 colonies of bacteria. So did the banana.
Thirty seconds:
They both had the same as the three minute sample.
Three seconds:
Cookie: 5-10
Banana: 5-10
**************************************************************************
The experiment proves that there is no such thing as the three second rule. Take in mind that bacteria are infinitesimally small and one colony contains over 1 million bacteria which is enough to make you terribly sick! This also demonstrated that bacteria even found a foothold on these dry biscuits! So next time if your food drops on the floor, don’t take chances with your health. Bin it.
Have spent the last couple of days catching up on 'real life' stuff -- it tends to intrude every once in a while, unfortunately. Was exhausted yesterday afternoon and my mind was far too fuzzy to tackle any serious drawing (or the work that's piling up again!) but my fingers were feeling fidgety so they decided to doodle this while I blankly watched the small screen ... I didn't completely disapprove of it so thought I'd post it ... a sweet, simple doodle :)
Pink Rosebud products at Zazzle
3 Pink Rosebud products at Cafe Press
(c) 2008 Jan Dolby
Here is my final painting for an upcoming show...it's an acrylic painting on canvas 24" x 48"..touched up a teenie bit in Photoshop...thanks eveyone for your advice on my last submission of the three girls...it really helped me finish off this one...any thoughts?
The No More Night Mares
A Dream of Freedom
By Dawn Van Zant
Illustrated by Kim McElroy
Wild Heart Ranch Books
ISBN: 0-9761768-1-5
Copyright 2004
Children’s Picture Book
Paperback
With this book, Wild Heart Ranch Books brings children another lovely, melancholic story about horses and their quest for freedom.
In this story the author draws a connection between the Pegasus Constellation and the time long ago when “the land was filled with wild horses thundering across vast plains.”
It is the story of a noble, wild stallion named Eclipse, and his struggle to protect his herd from hunters. It is also a story of friendship. It is with the help of an enemy stallion named Golden Earth that Eclipse is able to save his herd from a wild chase. Besides Golden Earth, the earth and the moon also help in their own magical way, as these are the “Spirits of Freedom.” The author uses myth, fantasy and even a bit of magical realism to add depth to the story.
Unlike I Sea Horses, a title with a similar theme by the same publisher which is aimed at younger children, The No More Night Mares has fewer illustrations and longer, more complex text. The illustrations, though, are photo-like and rich with detail, making the beauty and strength of these animals come alive across the pages.
This is a nice book for parents to read to children who love horses, or for those who wish for their children to understand the meaning of freedom and the harm that man has unwillingly done against these intelligent, magnificent creatures.
I Sea Horses
From Sky To Sea
Written by Dawn Van Zant
Illustrated by Callan Van Zant
Wild Heart Ranch Books
ISBN: 0-9761768-0-7
Copyright 2004
Paperback
Children’s picture book
Reviewed by Mayra Calvani
How did sea horses come to exist? Could it be that horses on the land, threatened by men and searching for freedom, escaped to the sea?
I Sea Horses takes a magical glimpse into the origin of sea horses. With beautiful, evocative, dream-like illustrations, this is an imaginative, heart-warming story that will delight young and old alike.
Led by the young stallion Pegasus, and with the helped of a magical star, the herd go to the depths of the sea to find peace, freedom and happiness. In the beginning, however, Pegasus encounters much resistance from the herd, for how is a horse, a creature without gills, to survive under the sea?
But Pegasus “told them his dream of things coming to be/When the land would change and they could no longer run free/He did not know when or even know why/But he felt he must turn to the sea or the sky.”
The story is written in lovely lyrical verses, but the language is pretty straight forward, making it easy for the younger child to understand. The language also has a serene, calming quality while stimulating the child’s imagination at the same time.
At the end of the book there is a section about Project Sea Horse and how people can help the survival of these exotic, fascinating, delicate creatures. Children can interact with this project’s website and even purchase the plush-toy, sea horse characters featured in the story.
A picture book that will enchant lovers of horses and sea horses, I Sea Horses comes highly recommended from this reviewer.
Okay, I'll try this. My MC is a dog. His 3 wishes are to communicate with his human, to help his human get over a crisis, and to get more Doggie Delights dog treats.
My character's three wishes are: 1-to be in a best-selling novel; 2-to be quoted by millions; 3-to be in a movie.
Oh wait...
How different both of your MCs are! Julie, is your MCs name JULIE? :)