Creating Characters and Grading Research Papers

This week has been hectic. The 11th grade research paper was due and I have been in the middle of grading them.  Such is my life. However, in the midst of this, I have been thinking about what makes excellent characterization as I construct my newest character driven novel series. In Orson Scott Card’s book Character

7 Things Every Fictional Character Needs

I’m currently crafting some character biographies for a new series I’m writing and thought I would share a few things about how I go about creating characters.  I’ve gleaned this from several sources, from my days in college writing classes and from just figuring things out over time. I use this format to write character

Tolkien’s 5 Tips for Creating Complex Heroes

Tolkien’s letters are rich with information about J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing process.  I wrote a post last week about Aragorn being Tolkien’s example of an epic hero, and someone posted: “But Frodo Baggins is the hero of the LOTR trilogy, right?”  I would argue that he is not, but only one of three or four characters who together

Juxtaposition: Creating a Foil for Your Heroes

Juxtaposition is defined as an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.  Juxtaposed characters are not seen very much in short fiction, but if you are writing a novel you will want to strategically design characters who are foils for your heroes to shine a light on the traits of those heroes. One of the best examples of the use of this