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We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 CBU Alumni Creative Writing Contest. You can read the winning poem and the winning piece of fiction in the Spring 2024 Dazed Starling: Unbound.

Amberly Garcia

• “That’s not how a real person talks.”
• “It feels stilted and wordy.”
• “Maybe it’s a bit out of character for her to say that to him.”

If you’ve received any of these comments while workshopping your dialogue or these thoughts have popped into your head while reading the first draft of your WIP, congratulations! You can now see the problems in your dialogue. But how do you fix it?

Writing dialogue is one of the trickiest elements in fiction writing. However, it is also one of the most fun things to do in fiction writing. Following some of the dos and don’ts of dialogue writing can improve your writing skills and help you learn some great self-editing techniques.

Don’t Use Dialogue to Info-Dump

I’m not just talking to my fantasy and sci-fi writers. I see you hiding in the back, realistic fiction writers. The truth is, it’s hard to resist the urge to have a character explain the logistics of a magic system, or why the terrain of a planet is hospitable for human life, or their whole love story in a few pithy sentences. But is that the best way for the reader to experience this information?

The main goal of a fiction writer is to transport readers into the scene. There are other ways to show this information rather than using a character as your hand puppet to tell your readers the background info or rules of the world.

To remedy the need to info-dump in the dialogue, focus on trusting your readers. They don’t need all the facts to immerse themselves in the story. Readers are smart. They like to fill in the blanks and flex their imaginations. Give them the opportunity to do so. 

Also, as you might’ve heard before, and I’m sure you’ll hear again, show rather than tell. Readers want an experience, not a recap of the plot or the character’s emotional responses. Strive for writing scenes and avoid summary. Place readers in the character’s position and show them how riding a dragon or walking on the moon feels. It’s harder, but it’s more fun for you and the reader.

 Finally, if you’ve deemed the information necessary and feel like cutting it from the manuscript would confuse the readers, then take it out of dialogue format and sprinkle it in short sentences or paragraphs of exposition, always opting to show rather than tell.

Use Contractions and Fragments

Mimic reality. Most people don’t speak formally with friends or family, so your characters shouldn’t either. Let them use contractions and talk in unfinished sentences. This can help reduce the wordiness and make them sound more realistic.

However, be careful. Don’t get too carried away with the fragments. Dialogue may mimic reality, but your writing should be polished, purposeful, and free from grammatical errors, unlike everyday life. Balance is the key here, as well as an ear to your character’s voice, which I’ll look at in the last section.            

Read It Out Loud

This tip goes for everything you write but is especially true for dialogue. By reading dialogue aloud, you can more easily detect the statements’ wordiness, stilted bits, or unrealisticness. Trust me. Try this tip out and see how much it changes your perspective on how your dialogue sounds and helps you figure out what adjustments to make.

Know Your Characters

Discovering your character’s voice is a process. Understanding who your characters are, their quirks, motivations, and goals take a couple of drafts. There is no shortcut to creating dynamic characters other than to keep writing.

Flesh them out, make them consistent in their responses, and give them unique contributions to the plot. If they do something out of character, make it believable. If they’re spontaneous, don’t make all their statements super thought out or eloquent unless something is making them consciously change their speech pattern.

Ultimately, as the writer, you get to shape your characters; dialogue is a great way to do this. Keep refining your characters as you rewrite their dialogue and give them dimension.

Isabelle Ray

Welcome to the world of fantasy realms, writers! This is a place open to lands covered in gumdrops and skittles as well as lands littered with skulls and lava. Imagination is your only limit when creating your unique fantasy world. Unfortunately, even if the worldbuilding for your world stands on a firm foundation, the existence of substandard characters can easily ruin the entire story. While the guidelines for developing characters in various genres are the same, fantasy characters have some differences we will discuss.

1. Define Their Role

            A reader will not believe in a character if they are not believable. One of the easiest ways to ensure a character is realistic in a fantasy world is defining the role that the character plays in this world. Is the main character from the planet Earth and accidentally tripped into an alternate universe? Is the main character an outsider from their orcish tribe and searching to find their place in society? Instead of beginning to write the story with half a character in mind, the author should plan out the character’s background and how it interacts with the story at hand.

2. Create the Image

Once the role has been decided, it is now time to create their image. You choose for them to be the hero, so what does a lonely orc hero look like? While a fantasy world allows an author to develop their own races and rules for magic, everything needs to make sense in this world. Outline for your readers what your character’s race and culture looks like, through smaller things such as clothing, food, and language. In the movie Bright (2017), the main characters, a human and an orc, interact as fellow police officers. Due to the presence of an all too familiar form of racism, they do not get along. It isn’t until they start to see each other’s cultures that they realize they are not that different. Allow your reader to visualize the fantastical creature you are creating and connect with them on a deeper level.

3. Limit Their Capabilities

Now you’re starting to flesh out your character! Although the reader may not be a vampire fairy, they can relate with your character due to some shared cultural customs. Often times, characters in fantasy realms have special abilities and powers. These can be powerful tools to progress the story along and enable a character to rectify wrongs. However, too often are characters overpowered. One of the biggest complaints I hear about Captain Marvel is that she has too much power. It is difficult for readers to visualize themselves as her when she has seemingly no flaws. When you consider what abilities to grant your character, ensure that you input some weaknesses, both silly and serious ones.

4. Remember the Details

Finally, as you begin to finish outlining your character for your fantasy novel, I encourage you to not forget the importance of small details. If your main character is from Earth and accidentally passes through a portal into a fantasy land, it may seem strange that the character has a name that fits perfectly in this world. Instead, give them a normal name that will emphasize the strangeness when other characters don’t know how to pronounce their name.

Another detail is if foreign languages are present. Many beginner writers forget to discuss and interact with these languages. I think a good example is V. E. Scwhab’s four Londons in her trilogy A Darker Shade of Magic. Each London communicates with a different language, and the two main characters Lila and Kell are only able to communicate because of Kell’s knowledge of these languages. However, when Lila interacts with people from other Londons, she finds herself having to decipher these foreign languages. While it may be easier for her to understand others due to magic or some other excuse, her struggle is believable and relatable to those who have traveled outside of their country.

Conclusion

Creating characters within fantasy worlds is a super exciting task, because there are not nearly as many limitations as human characters on Earth. Just because a character is fantastical does not mean they cannot be realistic. Although these four tips are only the tip of the iceberg, they will hopefully guide you to developing stronger characters for your fantasy stories. Good luck, writers, and don’t look back!

Jenelle Hekman

Good writing has ups and downs throughout the telling of the story. The plot, whether romance, adventure, horror, or mystery, is propelled forward through action beats with quiet portions in between. Writing good filler without boring yourself or your readers can be challenging, and without proper drive, it can cause natural writer’s block. Writing a good plot is essential, and so is writing good filler.

Action moves a plot forward.

Likewise, filler should move your plot forward. Filler allows readers to get a glimpse of your characters’ personalities when they aren’t pushing forward in the plot. Plot points are your roadmap for your prose. These are where action should occur as your protagonist and side characters move forward in their objective against the antagonist. This keeps your reader hooked and engaged in the storytelling. But the pauses in between action beats are where filler occurs.

Filler is where the reader can learn about your characters.

Writing something where the characters aren’t actively fighting the antagonist may be challenging. Still, these scenes are where a reader can piece together the personalities of the characters you present. Most of your readers won’t have solved a crime as a private detective or battled dragons and sorcerers. Filler scenes are where your reader can feel connected to your characters, and you can naturally incorporate your worldbuilding, but be cautious of worldbuilding. Filler can look like conversations or descriptions of movements, but the goal is for your readers to have a complete picture by the time they finish the novel.

Plot will go up and down throughout the course of your novel, and as the author, it’s your job to know where action and filler will fall. If there’s too much action, your readers won’t get to know your characters or world. Too much filler makes your readers wonder what the novel’s point and direction are. A good novel has a balance of both.

P. Ryan Reyes

Finding Inspiration

One of the most important aspects of writing a story is to have characters with strong identities. Many writers view this purely through the lens of what they do best, through dialogue. Some writers form their character’s identities through their actions and how they progress (or hinder) the story. However, the suggestion that will be presented is one that writers generally spend the least time on. This aspect is visuals or, more specifically, the appearance of their characters. The advantage of spending a great amount of time laboring over the appearance of your characters is that their descriptions can lead to inspiration throughout the writing process. However, as with any endeavor in writing, designing a character must be done intentionally and should not undermine the story you are trying to tell.

When designing your character, use free assets as a base for which to explore their appearance. Do not be afraid to start your design process with references or inspiration from multiple sources. It also isn’t a sin to have parts of your character be homages to other works; say you’re making a dark fantasy novel, and your main character has silver hair and gold eyes. That is not you ripping off Geralt; you’re paying respect to a classic. However, you need to make it your own at some point, and to help with that, free resources like HeroForge, which are generally used for Tabletop RPGs, can help with roughing out a three-dimensional design for your characters.

Creates Familiarity

As you build out the visuals of your character, like the example given, the intricacies as to why the character exists or conducts themselves should start to come to you. Let’s say that this example character is named Lewis Gardener. Given how I designed Lewis, there is now this bond between myself (the designer) and the character. Adding aspects to the design, like Lewis’ cigar, can help you as a writer flesh out the humanity in your characters or, in a way, the lack thereof in specific instances. The more time you spend in resources like HeroForge on a character, the more you become familiar with the tiny details. These tiny details should be like spices in your recipe, where they add much-needed flavor when not overused.  

Primary Source of Detail

While having a completed character design is important, don’t restrain yourself if you feel the itch to write. Your character’s design is only a tool to help enrich the text. For example, Lewis has a prosthetic right arm; if I’m writing a fight scene where another character is attacking with a knife, it would be in character for Lewis to use the solid metal plates to deflect the knife in a form of defense. It adds a layer of depth to your writing if your characters use what you’ve given them in creative ways to resolve conflicts, which makes your characters feel alive and makes you a better writer. Looking back to the idea of intentionality, if you give a character something cool in their design, allow them to have a moment with it. It is gratifying to both the readers and you as the writer to have an established feature of your character set up earlier in the story pay off in some way down the line. For example, say that our pal Lewis finds himself in a bind and needs to pick a lock to escape some danger. In this scenario, it would be explained earlier in the story that Lewis is good at covert operations and was always prepared for the mission to go south; here, it would make sense to utilize an aspect of Lewis’ design to solve the problem, where it can be said that he kept his lockpicking kit in his leftmost vest pouch. Do not let all of your design choices go to waste. Find honest and believable ways to integrate them into your story, as they help ground your character.

Helps Track Storytelling

One of the great aspects of having a visual representation of your character is that as you write your story, your character visually changes. In most instances, your character will not end the story as they began it. In a fantasy story, the main character can start as a bubbly and naïve teen who has never seen their blood, yet end up as this fully armored warrior who has lost the light in their eyes with a decade’s worth of improperly healed scars. Visuals, in this sense, can help convey storytelling. Something as simple as your main character acquiring a different kind of sword can visually showcase a part of their hero’s journey.

Helps Create Distinction

Spending time visualizing your characters also helps you distinguish between certain characters. Take, for instance, a series like Halo, where the general types of military units are strictly uniform with helmets and body armor. How would you separate or create a distinction between the soldiers in a squad, especially if you can’t see their faces? Besides giving them unique personalities and character quirks, you can describe how each soldier has different equipment or has taken the liberty to make unregulated alterations to their armor. Taking the time to create distinction will help your readers keep track of what is happening and not get lost in the vague details.

Helps Generate Dialogue

It is said in life that pointing out something about how someone looks is very rude, and in a social context, that is very true. However, your characters need not be held to the same standard. Instead, have your characters notice what makes the other unique. Suppose you describe in a sci-fi setting a character with a giant Cyclops eye implanted in the middle of their forehead, and your character that has never stepped out of his rural town says nothing about it. In that case, you’ve missed a key character moment. However, be wary of pointing out every detail. Remember that your character does, in fact, live in the worlds you create, and if said previous Cyclops eye is common everywhere, then have characters react that way. This helps flesh out the world, too, as it could explain that bizarre or taboo things in our world are commonplace in this other setting just by having a dialogue exchange that perceives it as the “norm.”

What Will You Do?

The time for creating is now! Be encouraged to write the story you want, even if it’s only for you. Visualize the story that most interests you and your tastes, and when you have that in mind, visualize the star of that story. Even if you don’t consider yourself an artist or even original by nature, plenty of resources are available to bring what is in your brain into something you can see. Endeavor to be challenged today. Godspeed to you all!

Alec Teffeteller

Preface

Don’t let the enticing abyss of an endless story swallow you whole.

Plotting a novel is incredibly challenging. In my experience, many writers struggle to finish a work because they lose track of their story’s direction. Don’t get me wrong, getting lost in a novel and exploring with characters can be fun—perhaps necessary—but not finding a way out of the depths of a directionless story is discouraging. Presented here are what I hope will serve as some basic stepping stones that aspiring novelists can use when feeling lost and indecisive about the direction of their story.

It All Starts With Character

Who is the main character? What is their current situation? What are their wants and flaws? These are essential questions to answer when introducing a story to readers and helping them understand who the character is that they are about to follow through an engaging plot. The starting point of a novel serves as a reader’s first look at the life of the main character(s), an opening image that should demonstrate that, whoever the character is, the life they’re currently living can’t last. Something has to change. Otherwise, what would be the need for the story? In her incredibly insightful book on craft, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book On Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need, Jessica Brody calls this need for change the “stasis is death” stage (36). Brody elaborates, “It’s the moment that comes somewhere in the Setup beat that shows the reader that change is imperative; otherwise, things are going south. Fast” (36). Notice Brody’s immediacy; a writer should create a necessity for their story and convince the reader of the dire need for a particular story to be told with a specific character.

Force Them Out the Door

Don’t let your character passively stumble into their journey.

There is a passive element that occurs early in the story called the catalyst, usually just after the reader gets a sense of the main character’s need for change, something significant that makes staying where they are impossible. Neutrality is not an option. The catalyst makes it clear that the character must do something, but that something can’t happen to them as the catalyst did; there needs to be an active decision made by the character that initiates their journey. Brody calls this section of the novel the “debate” and the “break into two” (38-40). The debate is a brief section after the catalyst where the character wonders something along the lines of “What do I do? Should I go? Should I stay? How will I survive? What happens next?” and the answer to this question needs to be an active decision that sets them on their journey (38). The break into two is where “The challenge is accepted! The adventure is upon us! The new way of life has begun! The Debate is over, our hero knows what they have to do,” or at least, they think they do, “and now it’s time to do it” (40). Notice that this decision is all about the character’s choice, a reaction to the catalyst.

Deliver On Your Promise

Readers often buy a book for a precise reason. They read the engaging jacket or the synopsis on Goodreads, and the presented premise made them purchase the first edition hardcover without hesitation. For me, this would be anything consisting of YA romance and fantasy. I’m constantly searching for new journeys in worlds I don’t recognize. But what gets me to buy the book? When a reader buys a novel, they do so by accepting the promise from the author that the premise that caught their attention will be delivered in the pages.

Once the main character has made their big decision and is on the road—literally or metaphorically—toward change, the writer has a responsibility to deliver on the premise that was promised (Brody 46). For instance, if I picked up a book that promised a magical island where rulers of various powers go every century to fight to break the curses that have plagued them for five hundred years, then, once the main character decides to go on their journey, there better be a magical island and some powerful rulers fighting to break their curses. (By the way, that was the premise of Lightlark by Alex Aster. I highly recommend it).

To deny those pivotal elements of the premise is deceptive, and the writer must spend a substantial number of pages in the section of the book that Brody calls the “Fun and Games” lest they deceive their reader and tarnish their credibility. By the time the “Fun and Games” begin, the reader has seen who the main character is and why they must go on their journey, and it’s time to see the character in action. The author must deliver on the premise that attracted the reader to the novel in the first place.

Build Toward the Pivotal Midpoint

The midpoint is essential because it decides the story’s trajectory. Depending on how the main character is fairing in the “Fun and Games” of the novel will determine whether the midpoint will be a false victory or a false defeat (Brody 48-51). Let’s say the character has been doing well—aside from a few hiccups because what is a story without obstacles?—the midpoint would peak in a false victory. Perhaps the character gets what they wanted initially but realizes it isn’t what they need. The midpoint should raise the stakes and change the trajectory of the novel’s second half into one involving struggle. The trajectory before the midpoint should be the opposite afterward. Just remember, whichever trajectory the character is on before and after the midpoint, there needs to be some minor failures and triumphs that give the story some variety. If a character is winning all the time or losing all the time, there is a risk of the momentum becoming stagnant, uninteresting, and unrelatable. Readers want emotional highs and lows to ride alongside the character they’ve come to love (or love to hate).

The Dark Before the Dawn

After the false victory and the following downward trajectory, the main character should have a moment, just before entering the story’s finale, where they are at their lowest. Brody calls this the “All is Lost” moment (59). Similar to the initial catalyst, it’s an event that happens to the character that makes all seem lost; they can’t seem to win, and nothing is going right. They’ve realized that what they wanted wasn’t what they needed. But the story can’t end here. Not after all that we’ve been through. The main character must make another decision similar to the one that started them on this journey. The character must dig deep and make one last effort to reach their new goal. This time, that goal is the right one, what they need rather than what they want because they are wiser now than they were at the start. They have learned from their journey and transformed before the reader’s eyes.

The Finale

They’ve made it. The main character has reached the peak of their transformative journey, and it all ends here. Even if there is a plan for a sequel, everything needs to be left on the field of the finale. Don’t hold anything back. Don’t pull any punches. The pace should build, and the character’s resolve should be firm. Whether the character wins or loses at the novel’s end, they better learn something worthwhile. If the main character doesn’t learn anything by the end, readers will wonder what the point of it all was. Following the conclusion of what should be a sensational climax of an undeniably transformative journey, there must be a snapshot given to the readers of what the character they’ve been following looks like now that their journey is over, and, for the writer’s sake, the character better be unrecognizable compared to the flawed one introduced at the beginning.

A Final Note

Plotting a novel is hard work! Don’t let anyone tell you differently. Yes, it’s a creative process and can be extremely enjoyable, but if you plan on finishing a publishable piece, hours of dedication, determination, and consistency are required. Writers sometimes shy away from plot structure, fearing it will make their story seem derivative and unoriginal. But a successful author I follow on Instagram, Lauren Kay, says that structure is like a drinking glass: no matter how tasty a drink is, no matter how delicious of story you want to tell, it needs a cup to be poured into, a structure to hold it all together. Don’t be discouraged from going down the rabbit holes of your story and exploring with your characters—some of the best writing happens when you allow yourself the freedom to get lost and make mistakes. Still, when you want to get unlost, use your plot structure beats as lifelines to get you back on track.

Whatever happens, never give up. Ever. The world is a better place with your stories in it.

Happy Writing!

Works Cited

Brody, Jessica. Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book On Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need. Kindle E-Book First edition. Berkeley, California, Ten Speed Press, 2018.

Mikaela Schmierer

STEP 1: “Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means.” (2 Corinthians 8:11)

A finished manuscript or rough draft must be completed to begin the editing process. This will help to cut out unnecessary and excessive editing during the writing process to detract from the overall story. Although you may want to edit or completely rewrite a scene, hold off on that feeling and finish the scene or chapter as close to your intended plot arc as possible. If the need to edit or rewrite persists, I recommend using a second document as a placeholder and comparing the two written versions. A fully-fledged manuscript before beginning editing will also help maintain consistency in voice, style, diction, and a thorough plot.

STEP 2:  “Proofreading… is a basic and mechanical process.”

The editing process should feel rudimentary, simple even as you begin to sort through your work. To start editing, read through the manuscript entirely, either printed or online, based on which is better for you. When you read through, you want to have a couple of things at your disposal and ready for the read-through, such as a highlighter, a pencil or underlining tool, and something to take notes on, like sticky notes. You should focus on three main things as you read through your rough draft. Grammar and punctuation will be principal elements you look for and will notice immediately. Voice and style, however, might be tricky to keep tabs on. To help keep your story clear and concise as you edit and revise, I suggest keeping a system with notes and ideas either online or on an easily discernible notepad– you do not want to lose this! Another aspect you want to keep an eye out for is tense and perspective. If you switch between them in the work, you want to ensure it is continuous and consistent– such as flashbacks or prologues. Otherwise, pick the tense that makes the most sense for your writing style and the story itself.

STEP 3:  “Perfect is the enemy of good.” –Voltaire

After considering the essential editing elements, your first draft’s new layout and document will be pretty messy. But do not fear! The first draft, the second draft, and even the fifth draft will not be perfect. A good reminder in the earlier stages of self-editing is to have grace with yourself and to trust the process. The proverb “consistency is key” is a highly regarded phrase for a reason. Messiness isn’t always bad; it can lead to patterns and ideas being more exposed from your work than you initially noticed.

STEP 4:  “A schedule defends from chaos and whim.” –Annie Dillard

Getting to your first draft and setting aside time to edit can seem daunting, but let’s reshape the approach to the revision process as just that. Processes are meant to take time, and if they’re finished during the first attempt, you risk overlooking details that can be vital to the work. Having a schedule or game plan, as basic or detailed as you like, can be a great tool. One way to approach a schedule can look like setting aside thirty minutes a day to crack open your manuscript, reading through a couple of pages at a time, and making some marks or notes. Another way could be going through a chapter or section per day. At least having a schedule will help relieve some stress and anxiety surrounding wrestling with the editing process, offering options such as revising characters and settings to redoing entire scenes. This is all according to your timetable and how much time you want to set aside. That way, you have control over the entirety of your work.

STEP 5:  “Comparison is the thief of joy.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Once self-editing has begun, it is important to remember that your work is yours, the writing will be distinctly individual, and other’s works will vary in audience and recognition because their works are starkly theirs. Try your best to maintain confidence in yourself and your ability to write. While going through the editing process, keep your mind set on the story you want to tell and not how it compares to other works. Worry and nitpicking won’t help in the end regarding the final product, so keep your head high and aim for the stars.

Works Cited

The Bible. YouVersion. NIV, 1 Corinthians. https://www.bible.com/

Dreyer, Benjamin. Dreyer’s English : An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style. Random House Publishing Group, 2019, pp. 9.

Dillard, Annie. The Writing Life. HarperCollins Publishers, 2009, pp. 32.

Madison Head

When people write, it is nothing more than putting pen on paper—or fingers on keyboards nowadays. It is an action that is solitary in nature and can be done entirely alone. If left alone, a writer can create an echo chamber of their own thoughts and opinions and get stuck in their work without any way out. Because of this, it is extremely important to find a community to share your work with. A writerly community can be helpful in a variety of ways.

Finding a Group

The first step is to find the community. In high school and college, you can find those with a similar interest in the immediate vicinity. You can find a club or a group of people who love writing and plug yourself in. Outside of that, it can be more complicated. The key is to look for ways to get connected. Find your local library and see if they have meetings or readings. Reading in any venue would be an excellent way to find other writers in your area. You can hear others’ works, read your own, and connect to those who come. Look into community centers or websites and Facebook groups focused on your area’s community and look for groups and meetings happening. There are opportunities all around you if you are willing to look. You might also be able to find Zoom calls of people worldwide coming together and sharing their work. Once you find the community, you can see the incredible things that happen in it.

Creating Stories

The original idea of a story is often created by the individual, but it can be even stronger if shared with others from the start. Bouncing ideas off of other writers can lead to new ideas you may never have thought of on your own. Two heads are better than one, and many are better than two. Besides, it is more fun to create a story with others. Of course, the original idea needs to be your own, but sitting down, ironing out the plot, and naming the characters is better when others are helping you. My friends have named my favorite characters, and I love those characters even more because of it. Then, you start writing.

Workshopping

Once you have something written, you can edit it even if it’s not finished. That is where workshopping comes in. You can read and edit your piece a million times, but as soon as you show it to someone else, they will find the mistake you accidentally overlooked. It is the nature of writing and being so familiar with your own work and words that you cannot catch every mistake. The first time any of my stories have been workshopped, someone always points out that I use a word too often. Every time it is a different word, but it always happens. It is also harder to see what is not working well together within the story. Sometimes, things are out of order, or the dialogue sounds unnatural, but it seems to work because you have read it so many times. The editing process needs other readers and writers; editing as a group will make every member a better and more conscious writer. When you look at other pieces, you become a better editor too.

The most magical part of a workshop is when you all take the time to really help each other, and you make the work better. When everyone comes together in sincerity and kindness and helps find the weak link in the chain, it improves the piece and the writers involved in the process. It also brings them closer together. Iron sharpens iron, and those forged through the fire bond together.

You are Not Alone

Above all else, this is the most important part of creating a writing community. While it is good to create well throughout stories and become better writers and editors, being surrounded by a community is important. We are not made to be alone in life; God created us to be with others. It is fun to get together with friends and write and talk. My favorite memories are from workshops when we realized how to improve one of our stories or from the moments after we finish when we talk about anything and everything that comes to our mind. 

A writing community makes writing more fun. I would look forward to seeing others’ stories and seeing them evolve. I get excited to write a new scene or story and share it with them, knowing which parts they will each love. It makes the hard times when you cannot think of another idea and think you might give up together better. All it takes is one of them to remind you of the good of all you have written up until now and the potential for everything you could write later, and you fall back in love with writing. 

Everything is better with community, and writing is no different. It should not be done in an isolated echo chamber. Find a community. Search for writers’ workshops, online and in person. Find the people to whom you will send your novel before you publish it. Find a community that will help you become a better writer. Don’t go it alone!

Abigail Lopez

Give them a glass of water.

I will never forget the best advice I have ever read from a Pinterest blog that to write memorable characters, you, as the author, must first give them a purpose. Yes, that sounds familiar to our school’s motto, but seriously don’t let the slogan “live your purpose” apply only to humans in the flesh and blood. From your imagination to your pen, your fictional characters also require help to develop. Only you can further grow your skills to flesh out your cast of characters and make them worthy of being distinguished. If you have kept reading thus far, stay around to hear my top six tips on how to write memorable characters.

Find the Flaws

Step number one is to find a face and give the character flaws. Start with the gender, age, height, born, and looks. Then add the name and where the character is from to accompany the basics of a Get-To-Know-Me questionnaire. Here, I like to use Pinterest as a source to visualize further and better understand who my characters are in my plot. Then add the flaw component, and make them realistic to human nature. Flaws help readers connect to characters because we find ourselves in moments of literature. Who doesn’t like discovering characters struggling to balance social and school life? Lastly, while conjuring your character, ensure there is something unique about them physically or personally. All the great writers do that, from J.R.R. Tolkien making Frodo Baggins the ring bearer to J.K. Rowling giving Harry Potter a lightning bolt scar. If you struggle to establish characters, there are also models and online resources to help in this first step.

Character through Conflict

The second tip is to put the characters into place through their conflict, setting, and plot development. When thinking of conflict, consider how obstacles challenge the character to grow, change, and overcome. Even think about how to keep the character away from what they want to achieve. Now, where does all of this occur? Do you want a tropical setting or an office building? What matches your character’s aesthetic or the genre best? Once the setting is established, you can calculate how you want your character to grow as the plot develops from point A to point Band then beyond.

Creating Interest

Great! Now the foundation is established on how to make memorable and relatable characters. The third trick is to add wording and a bit of a backstory. Dialogue must be formatted according to common standards and must match your characters. You would not want every character to call out one another’s name unless the setting is on fire or a character like Sally dropped her notebook while running late to a class. The text must convey how humans speak and maintain distinct voices and manners of speaking. Additionally, when writing, don’t forget to use description, symbolism, foreshadowing, and subtle details to make your work even better.

Say It Well

Character interactions through dialogue also bring forth the essential aspect of background. No character, like a human, appears from thin air, and likewise, you need to think about your character’s past. A backstory doesn’t have to be traumatic or full of all the nitty-gritty details. Having just a few memories, and explaining why a character lives in their situation and setting, is sufficient to begin a story. The rest will unravel as the plot does, and if unplanned events occur, it is called magic, and most writers keep it.

Avoid Clichés

The fourth tip is to be aware of stereotypes and aim to avoid them when making characters. Firstly, research, especially if your character is from a different culture, and know your material before someone else calls you out on it. If you have a character from a different country, consider a traditional name, and understand the dynamics to the best of your research. If that does not suit you, then listen to the cliché of “write what you know” since that would minimize research. However, if you want to take on the first option, aim to seek out people from the culture you are trying to understand better and write about.

Keep It Consistent

The second to last tip is to keep track of your characters to establish a timeline and better know your characters yourself. Consider keeping a bulletin list or a document that keeps all the information and visuals of your characters together. If you make a list, you won’t mistakenly write a character with hazel eyes and then turn them blue halfway through the story. When keeping track, it can also minimize plot holes and help you repeat yourself less. No reader likes being told the same information over and over again.

Motivate & Move

Finally, after all that reading, you definitely showcased purpose and the drive to follow through on your motivation. Your cast of characters also needs to exhibit this same drive. Do you recall the glass of water scene? Well, when in doubt, all characters exist for a purpose. As a writer, you put each character in a setting for specific and different reasons. You can only write effectively and engagingly if characters have interest and self-efficacy. Characters cannot simply exist and do no actions. An example of purpose can be when a parent awakens their young child early so the family can head to the airport ahead of schedule. Another instance involves a mother waking up her young child so they can say farewell while the father leaves for deployment. Both scenes are different but are universal in how purpose drives actions to occur deliberately, and a writer can avoid the flat, two-dimensional void of a plot. When in doubt of a purpose for a character, at least have them grab a drink while they exist on the page. As a character, they might not be slaying dragons, but at least they are moving from point A to point B, while as a writer, you can try to picture the rest of your characters’ world.