The Character Kaleidoscope

Going beyond “character = desire”

Each week until the end of National Novel Writing Month in November, I’m going to write about a different creativity topic related to how to succeed in NaNoWriMo. If you’re not doing NaNoWriMo, don’t worry: all of the topics should relate to any creative project.

Here are the first pieces in the series:

• Hark, did I hear a story idea?
• The Decision: Competing Story Ideas
• The Number One Top Secret Best Way to Writing Success (a Time Strategy)
• Planning your novel? Or pantsing?

The joy of writing for me is in large part the joy of exploring (and even inhabiting) another character.

The degree of our passion for the characters in our stories, whether we love them or hate them, fuels the vigor of our writing and the depth of our commitment.

The best characters are full of mysteries, nuances, peculiarities, and contradictions. You never know where they’ll lead you, which is why they’re so compelling. Like the best people, they make life a surprise.

I just interviewed Angie Cruz for my Write-minded podcast, and she told an interesting story about her novel Dominicana, which took her 14 years to write. The novel had met with…