Writing Questions ~ The Write it Right Series Pt. One

Hooray! The writing series! Y'all, I'm so excited it's ridiculous. Seriously I am. Just look...

That's how excited I am. I could seriously do that. Now, let's get started with the most important part of a story - the characters!

   There are numerous character-helps out there. My friend Morgan interview her characters, and Gail Carson Levine's book, Writing Magic (see more here) has a wonderful questionnaire. Different methods work different for different characters from different authors. But in my (small) experience, you must know some things about your character.

1. What does he/she fear? I don't just mean, are they afraid of spiders? What do they fear emotionally, mentally, or physically? What is it that haunts them?
2. What do they want most? This is your character's motive, their driving force. Arguably the most important information, you must know it. What they want also often connects to what they fear.
3. Why? Your most valuable question, why is the key to knowing your character. Why is that their fear? Why do they want that?
4. How does all this effect him/her? If they want to fly, what will they for the ability? How far will they go? How does that desire change them?

This is just a start. There's way more to learn about your characters. Just see what I mean.

If you know these things, you're well on your way to understanding your character. But that's just my opinion. If yours is different, tell me. I want to know.

RhoXie