Character Names: 5 Tips That Help Writers Pick Great Character Names

Character Names: 5 Tips That Help Writers Pick Great Character Names

Names — character names or the names of people in real life — are a big deal. Parents-to-be pore over baby name books for months looking for that “perfect” name. Even naming a pet can take time. You want the name to be perfect, to mean something, to be unique but not too “weird.”

Naming a character, especially in a longer piece of writing, can be just as agonizing and is definitely just as important.

3 Creative Tricks to Find Your Character’s Voice

3 Creative Tricks to Find Your Character’s Voice

Great characters feel real. They talk, act, and respond to stress in ways we recognize, with their own personal character voice. We can relate to them because they seem human.

To write a character that leaps off the page, we need to know her deeply. We need to understand her thoughts and feelings. If our audience is going to empathize with her, we have to first.

One Quick Tip for Effective First-Person Writing

One Quick Tip for Effective First-Person Writing

First-person perspective is kind of like cheese: some people love it, some people hate it, and when it’s poorly done, it grates.

Sorry for the pun.

I personally love first-person, and it is my joy to share one simple, quick writing tip that can help your first-person perspective writing shine: cut the filter words.

Emotional Writing: One Surprising Method for Creating Emotion in Your Readers

Emotional Writing: One Surprising Method for Creating Emotion in Your Readers

As a writer, you’ve probably learned that story is not about what happens. Rather, it’s about how the events affect the protagonist. The plot points may appeal to the reader’s intellect, but you want to go deeper than that, reaching and stirring the coals of a reader’s emotions. That kind of emotional writing is when you make a real connection, establishing something meaningful between writer and reader.

But how is this done? How do you reach beyond the plot points and offer your reader something more? There are a number of ways to accomplish this, but I’m going to focus on one technique that might surprise you.

Two Steps to Fix Flat Characters Using Voice and Personality

Two Steps to Fix Flat Characters Using Voice and Personality

You have created a character. You’ve named them and given them a colorful past, as well as lots of fun personality traits. Your character steps into your story . . . and suddenly you find that they’ve fallen flat. How can you fix them?

They’re boring. Those personality traits you meticulously picked out for them just aren’t showing up. Your character goes through the motions of the story and you wonder why this interesting, unique character you’ve worked so hard on is missing that luster you imagined.

Not to worry: there’s a simple, two-step fix to give your characters voice and personality.