how to write a character profile article

But to keep your characters interesting you must also think about what your character can become. So how do you get her personality and voice to come through in your writing? Whether your protagonist ultimately turns toward or away from the light will be up to you, but we’ll look at ways to send her on a journey in which she’s transformed. The best fiction is about a character who changes in some significant way. This article on character writing, by Jeff Gerke, first appeared in Plot vs. “I can stay as I am and suffer these real and potential consequences, or I can make this change—at this cost—and enjoy these real and potential benefits.”. People don’t like to change. It’s that hanging-in-the-balance moment that is the point to which your entire story is heading. The selfish brute learns to put others first. Perhaps most intriguing of all is a “bad” character who flirts for a while with the idea of being good, but then decides that his true self is on the dark side of the street. It’s imperative you understand these five phases are steps on a voyage between two points: the “knot” and the moment of truth. Winners are awarded cash and prizes. So you, as a good fiction deity, rain on her parade. It’s her flaw, her besetting sin, the unhealthy lifestyle she’s gotten herself into. Writer’s Digest’s only competition exclusively for poetry, the Annual Poetry Awards, is now accepting entries. Make no mistake: Your book is about what your main character decides at her moment of truth. The career ladder climber learns to cut back on his hours to enjoy his family. You could go so far as to say that this moment is the one and only purpose of the story. She needs to be able to perceive what her alternatives are. You decide you’re going to force her to deal with it. Right up until the moment when it hurts too much. The owner of Rick’s Café Américain decides he will stick his neck out for somebody after all. Character. People dislike change, but they dislike unacceptable pain and consequences even more. Visit WritersDigest.com each day of November to get a prompt and write a poem. Everything else is just the vehicle to drive her to that pen- ultimate moment. You have to dislodge her from her comfortable dysfunction like a pebble you have to remove from a block of mud. That is your character’s inner journey in a nutshell. This week, we look at the Sicilian octave, which is similar to last week's Italian octave. Then, use December and the beginning of January to revise and collect your poems into a chapbook manuscript. You as novelist act as Fate or God over this character. Before our very eyes, Roger in Lord of the Flies, Allie Fox in The Mosquito Coast and Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars saga all devolve into villains. The independent pilot of the Millennium Falcon learns to care about a cause. So let’s focus here on a main character who changes. Prepare for the 13th annual November PAD Chapbook Challenge! But these characters can be difficult to write well—and they’re more the exception than the norm.
Of course, not every story has to be about a character who changes. If you build your novel as I recommend, 75 percent of your book will consist of your main character’s inner journey. The core temperament, the birth order, the way others respond to her, her major life events—all of those are essential background, but they are background all the same, for the main event, which is her inner journey as it will be explored in your novel. But through the course of the tale you will show her clearly how her solu- tion is harming her and you will show her the bright, happy land she could enter if she went the new way. The aftermath of that choice leads to the Final State and the end of the story. The Nuts and Bolts of a Profile Article The person or subject of this type of article typically fits into a special niche of the magazine or has a new program or product to promote. The simple graph you see is the thing that is going to ensure that your novel has both incredible characters and satisfying plot. Gollum/Sméagol in The Lord of the Rings is a famous example.

The woman marrying for money decides to marry for love. So you begin sending difficulties into her life. Indeed, though they may lead to depressing, poor-selling books if given the lead role, these tragic characters are fascinating to watch. You bring in positive examples of what her life could be like if she were to try an alternative way. Certainly we don’t expect much change from Indiana Jones. How to write a character study What is a Character Analysis By definition, a character analysis is the process of evaluating the specific traits of a literary character. Author Annie Sullivan delivers expert advice on how writers should handle making myth new and intriguing for readers. You care about her too much to leave her in this handicapped state, so you’re going to make her see it and make a decision about it once and for all. Here's how to craft a memorable character who evolves.

It’s terrible and we want them to stop. In short, the knot is the thing that is messing up your character’s life. Writer's Digest editor and Halloween enthusiast Robert Lee Brewer shares 10 great horror books to get readers in the mood for October. Click here to order your copy. The heart of this system is your main character’s inner journey. It’s uplifting to see someone make good choices and improve as a person. What the character chooses in that moment is the all-important thing, the infinite pause when heaven and earth hold their breath to see what this person elects to do in her instant of perfect free choice. And there are wonderful stories about people whose character is so complete at the beginning of the tale that everyone else must change around them.
This one may seem self-explanatory as well, but there is a little more to it than … You know exactly what’s wrong with this person, you see how it’s harming her, and you know how to bring it to her attention. Consider:OH BOY, YOU’RE HAVING A GIRL: A DAD’S GUIDE TO RAISING DAUGHTERS. ENTER NOW! The Inner Journey. I like the former term as it suggests an odyssey, which it certainly will be for this poor creature you’re about to place on stage and commence to torturing. We know the painful but liberating feeling of ceasing to be one way and beginning to be another, especially if the new way results in more success in relationships or other areas of life we value. In fiction, as in life, people resist change. Bestselling novelist Mikki Daughtry shares why dreams (whether related to writing or love) are worth fighting for, what the writing process for Five Feet Apart was like, how that differed from her latest novel All This Time, and more! A "profile feature" is a newspaper article that explores the background and character of a particular person (or group). People don’t change until it hurts too much to stay the same. We love to see characters transformed.

But you won’t let her. When she gets to this moment of truth, it will be as if she’s standing at a crossroads. Most of the time, main characters in fiction are changing for the better. She wants to keep things the way they are—stay in an abu- sive relationship, give up on her dreams, not stand up for herself, hang on to her bitterness, etc.—because, despite the pain of the status quo, it beats the potential pain of change. Depending on the genre in which you write, you will create additional sections on the Character Profile Worksheet. Mainly because we are being transformed. But part of us doesn’t want them to stop. You mean I really am, for sure, 100 percent, going to die if I do this one more time? In fiction terms, a character’s transformation is called his inner journey or character arc. Poetic Form Fridays are made to share various poetic forms. The journey itself is a measure of where the character is along the progression between these two points: Everything else is preparation for this quest, progress along this quest, and aftermath of this quest.

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