character – WRITE TIME AND AGAIN

Character Moments

Posted on June 4, 2025 by L. M. Montes

Creating book characters can be a lot of fun, but there is a process. How you wield that process is really up to you as the author. Many authors create a character bible consisting of everything from physical attributes to personality analysis. Some do this before writing that first chapter. Don’t get me wrong, it’s always a good idea to know who your character is before you place them in your story. But you will not know everything about them when you start writing that first chapter.

There will be moments while you’re writing your story when ideas about your character will begin to germinate in your mind, thereby giving him/her more depth. That’s great! Go with that! Those are unplanned parts of the character’s personality. Now, that type of situation typically works out great. But there are times when that happens, and it can throw a monkey wrench into the situation. For example, years ago when I was in the middle of writing my first novel, I had one of my male characters do something out of character. And I’m talking WAY out of character. I sat there, stared at the screen, and said, “What do I do now? I like what I had him do?”

The easy way to fix this situation would have been to change his action and move on. The complex way to fix it was to go back to the beginning and change his whole character, moving forward to that point. So that is what I did. In the end I was happier with him, and the story was better off as a result.

Can you plan everything about your characters from the start? You can try, but be ready when that runaway moment comes that makes your story that much better.

Believable Characters

Image• Posted on April 11, 2024April 9, 2024 by L. M. Montes

Characterization

Traces

Posted on August 10, 2023August 10, 2023 by L. M. Montes

When you’ve depicted a character so well within a story that traces of them are left behind in the reader’s heart, mind, and soul.

Scenes

Flashbacks

Posted on August 9, 2023 by L. M. Montes

Have you ever read a story that had a flashback, and it left you wondering why the flashback was used? Simply put, if your flashback doesn’t drive your plot forward in any way; or if it doesn’t build your characters, don’t use it. Flashbacks should be used sparingly. They must serve a purpose or you risk the reader getting bored. What happens when readers get bored? They put the story/book down.

Writing

Story Strengthening

Posted on July 18, 2023 by L. M. Montes

If you are a writer, whether you write fiction or nonfiction, learn about what adds strength to your writing. There is a difference between what strengthens your writing, the do’s and don’ts (which are finite), and what works for you (writing methods that work for you and are comfortable for you). Strengthening your writing means drawing your reader into your story, essay, research, etc., and keeping them there. You don’t want your readers to be half with you. I’ll pick on fictional writing here. See the list below.

DO’s/DON’TS:

Create strong characters your readers can relate to (see numbers 11 and 12 below for more details).
Be direct. By this I mean use action verbs not adverbs (see my posts from April 12, 2023 Adverbs and Your Writing, and from April 19, 2023 The Opposite Side of Adverb Usage for more information on this subject).
Use the three act structure for fictional stories. Story Structure–Demystified by Larry Brooks will help you learn where to put in your story what you write. Trust me…you want to read this book.
Be relevant. This means to make sure that what you put into your scenes has something to do with your story. There is nothing more boring than reading a book and being bored because what you’re reading has nothing to do with the story. Readers can figure out real quick when there’s information in a scene that doesn’t need to be there.
Edit, edit, edit. Edit your book/story first, then give it to an editor to do the rest. Trust me, too many mistakes will cause the reader to put the book/story down, not finish it, and/or give you a bad review.
Ensure your story has conflict. Conflict ensures the turning of pages.
Setting. The one thing you don’t want your readers to do is ask, “Where are they”, or “What do the surroundings look like”. Be sure to include where the story is taking place and describe it. You want your readers to ‘see’ where the story is taking place.
Don’t be predictable. Add some twists and turns, you know…unexpected story surprises. Have fun with this.
Learn how to write dialogue. Yes, this can be messed up if not done correctly.
Use of clichés. Don’t use them.
Unrealistic characters. Creating credible characters who’s motives, actions, and backstories is important if you want your readers to relate to them.
Unlikable characters. Your protagonists must be likable, and if they aren’t completely likeable, then they should be relatable. Create some kind of commonality through emotions or use of humanity. Here again, it’s about connecting your characters to your readers, so your readers will care about what happens to them (characters),whether it is the protagonist or villain.

Of course there are more, but this is a good ‘meat and potatoes’ list. Learn as you go.

Emotions

Identifying with Characters

Posted on July 12, 2023 by L. M. Montes

When I’m reading a book, I like to be able to identify with the main character(s), empathize, get to know them, and miss them when the book is finished. This means the author must create them in such a way that they become ‘real’ to the reader. I know, that might sound silly to some, but it isn’t.

To start, the main character(s) is introduced at the beginning of the book (typically in chapter one). Then, throughout the book this same character will or should convey their feelings. Now this should be done in such a way that not only tells the reader how they’re feeling without literally telling them but also show how they’re feeling. This humanizes them and makes them real to us (the reader). (See linked article at the end of this post)

Throwing situations at your main character that draws out these emotions is the key. BUT make sure the emotion(s) fit the situation. You don’t want your male who is madly in love with his girl friend to lack in devastation if she breaks it off with him. This will cause us readers to roll our eyes. You don’t want that.

You want to hook your readers not repel them. Do everything you can to draw them in to your story world with your characters by their side. Make them your readers’ best friend.

For more on character emotions, please refer to my blog post Emotions from April 28, 2021.

Characterization, Writing

What Works

Posted on July 3, 2023 by L. M. Montes

If you’ve chosen to be a writer, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, you will see quite a few books and articles regarding the do’s and don’ts if you want to be successful. I’m here to tell you there is no hard and fast rule you must follow to be a definite success. What I will tell you is to read what others have tried in the past and try it. If it works for you, continue using it. If not, either tweak it to your liking or stop using it. We are all different writers with different writing styles. What works for one writer will not work for another.

Example: Characterization
Some writers like to make a detailed personality sketch of their characters. This is a great idea because you can use it to refer back to, while writing your story. Does every author/writer have to do this in order to create great characters that come alive and stand out? Certainly not. You might be the writer/author who would prefer to make a video about your character. How you do this is up to you, of course. Or, you might make it up as you go along. Hey, whatever works for you and creates memorable characters.

Don’t stress yourself out by trying to write how others write and whether or not you’re getting it just right. Use their strategies, but use them in YOUR OWN way.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Characterization

Character Arc

Posted on June 9, 2023June 8, 2023 by L. M. Montes

In reality we all go through our own personal growth. It’s called life. In a story our main characters go through their own personal growth. It’s called a character arc. With all of the mistakes we make, most of us learn from them and move on to the right path. Along the way we hit another snag, we learn (hopefully), and continue on. Because we learned our lessons from the past, if we’re hit with the same situation again, we’ll know how to handle it the right way. We grow from our experiences.

But here’s the thing. Our lessons in real time are learned over the course of a lifetime, which can be years. In a book the character arc for the main character progresses for the life of the story/book. Think of it of as a cycle of sorts or a path. The character starts out at point A then moves to point B by way of various experiences, conflicts, decisions, and mistakes. From point B they move forward using what they learned to get to point C. They go through more challenges and are faced with more fears. Then they reach point D. By the end of the book they’ve gone through some changes personally and overcame their fatal flaw. Growth. If your main character goes through each of the points in the character arc cycle without showing any kind of growth, there’s something wrong. There must be growth.

A character arc that has a fascinating and compelling character arc will have characters overcoming challenges and facing fears as the story unfolds. The outcome? Personal growth, much like how people in real life obtain personal growth.

Emotions

Character Reactions within a Story

Posted on May 8, 2023 by L. M. Montes

When throwing the unexpected at your characters, it’s important for those characters to react in a way that’s realistic to the situation. If you don’t, the reader is going to end up rolling their eyes or pause in their reading and scratch their head in wonder, which you don’t want. You want your readers to be into your story and to keep going with it. Worse, they could put the story down and never finish reading it.

If you aren’t sure if your characters’ reactions aren’t what they should be, have someone else, like a test/beta reader, read it first before publishing it to the world. Get their feedback. It’s important.

Examples:

Unrealistic: A couple of your characters, let’s say to John and Kevin, are out hunting Big Foot, a.k.a. Sasquatch. They are walking through the forest at night then hear the snap of twigs. They stop and look around. Sasquatch jumps out in front of them and they start laughing.

Realistic: The same characters scream, when Sasquatch jumps out at them, and they run. (Be more creative with their terror besides screaming and running. But you get the idea.)

Unrealistic: One of your characters teleports for the first time in their life and they react as though they’ve been doing it all their life. (Trust me, that’s not a realistic reaction.)

Realistic: The same character teleports for the first time in their life and feels feint afterwards. (Here again, get creative with this.)

Overall, you want your readers to enjoy and take in the story you took so much time and care to write. You want them to experience it and feel it. So don’t ruin that experience for them by causing them to roll their eyes or put the book down.