Musings from a Writer’s Brain—Reality or Make-believe? by Amy R Anguish

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Amy R Anguish, characterization tips, Musings from a Writer's Brain, No Place like Home, Sweet romance, writing tips

Reality or Make-believe?

My t-shirt reads, “Careful or I’ll put you in my novel.” It usually gets a laugh. I have a mug that says something similar. Maybe if I wrote suspense, it would be intimidating even. But I write romance.

Still, every now and then, I have to be careful to make sure my characters aren’t too much like someone I know in real life. After all, if I base one on someone I love and they feel I did it wrong, that could lead to awkward family dinners in the future. Right?

Needless to say, when I set out to write my latest novel, based on what “could have been” my life if I’d made different choices, I knew my character also needed to be a preacher’s daughter. I wanted her history to be a lot like mine. But what to do about her dad.

My dad is my biggest fan. He’s the one I can talk to for over an hour and never run out of things to say. Growing up, if I needed to vent or talk through something, his office was where I went. I’m a daddy’s girl through-and-through, probably why I don’t mind that my daughter is one, too. I get it.

But to make my preacher dad character in my book just like my dad wasn’t going to completely work. Because my character Adrian is estranged from God … and her dad. And her dad isn’t sure how to talk to her without making things worse.

My dad still has a full head of silvery-white hair. It’s gorgeous, honestly. And a beard and mustache—he’s had the mustache as long as I can remember. In my book, the dad is balding and clean-shaven. There’s a few things to differentiate the dads.

But then, some similarities snuck in even without my meaning them to. His office with a rather untidy desk full of papers and books, shelves loaded down with research volumes. His tendency to walk over to the small church building just down the block on a Saturday evening so he can adjust the temperature to be comfortable on Sunday morning. The way he rises super early on Sunday so he can study over his lesson again and make sure he remembers everything he wants to say. Those are all my dad.

Maybe it’s harder than I thought to keep my characters from having at least a few characteristics of people I love in real life. I’m sure the heroes all have a bit of my husband in them. Because how can I write someone to fall in love with without basing it on someone I love? And I know the heroines all have some of me. It would be impossible to not give them at least a little of my sense of humor or favorites things (like snickerdoodles and old movies).

Perhaps I worry too much about how much reality creeps into my books. Maybe instead, I should simply write what is put on my heart and let my readers guess about what is based on real life and what is simply made up.

Do you ever wonder how much an author includes from her own life in her stories?

Check out Amy’s newest release No Place Like Home

No Place Like Home

by Amy R Anguish

Can love secure Adrian’s wandering heart?

Roots are overrated, at least to someone like Adrian Stewart, preacher’s kid, who has never lived anywhere longer than six years. That’s why her job with MidUSLogIn is so perfect for her—lots of travel and staying nowhere long enough to have it feel like home. But when work takes her to Memphis, TN, closer to her family for the first time in years, and in the same small office as Grayson Roberts, she starts to question her job, her lack of home, and even her memories of her rocky past with the church.

Gray is intrigued by Adrian from the moment he sees her, and he’s determined to get to the bottom of why this girl who loves old movies and hums when she works won’t go to church with him. As they grow closer, he wants more, too, but how can he convince her to stay in Memphis when she doesn’t believe in home—or God? Can he use his own broken past to break through hers?

You can find No Place Like Home at Amazon

About the Author:

Amy R Anguish grew up a preacher’s kid, and in spite of having lived in seven different states that are all south of the Mason Dixon line, she is not a football fan. Currently, she resides in Tennessee with her husband, daughter, and son, and usually a bossy cat or two. Amy has an English degree from Freed-Hardeman University that she intends to use to glorify God, and she wants her stories to show that while Christians face real struggles, it can still work out for good.

Follow her at http://abitofanguish.weebly.com or http://www.facebook.com/amyanguishauthor

 Or https://twitter.com/amy_r_anguish

Learn more about her books at https://www.pinterest.com/msguish/my-books/ And check out the YouTube channel she does with two other authors, Once Upon a Page (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEiu-jq-KE-VMIjbtmGLbJA

Four Cs of Characterization

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4 Cs of Characterization, characterization tips, connecting readers to characters

There’s no doubt about it—characterization is important in any story. Every writer wants to create the character that no one can forget. When you think Star Trek or the Harry Potter series of books who comes to mind? For some it’s Captain Kirk, for others Spock, or maybe you think Data or Captain Picard or Deanna Troy. I personally like the hologram doctor. Maybe Harry Potter is your favorite character, or Dumbledore, or Professor Snipe. One thing I’ll guarantee is that your favorite character comes to mind whenever someone mentions these stories.

So how do you create memorable characters? Here are four tips I hope you’ll find helpful.

1. Can the cardboard characters. Stereotypical characters went out of vogue with silent movies. Your readers no longer want to see mustache twirling villains, helpless heroines and Dudley Dolittle save-the-day heroes. Good characters come complete with faults, foibles, secrets and redeeming qualities that contribute to who they are.
2. Create conflict. No one wants to read a book where nothing happens. A character who goes through the book with no opposition or faces no problems creates not only a boring story, but a boring character. Conflict, external and internal, makes your characters grow. Throw everything you’ve got at the characters, and when you think it’s bad enough add something else. The old adage—what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger—is true for your hero, heroine, and villain. Of course, it might be what tips the protagonist or antagonist over the edge, but hey, use it to your advantage.
3. Connect your readers to your characters. When readers connect to characters they are empathizing with them because they know, on some level, what the character is going through. Every woman wants to find her own Prince Charming. Every man, even if he won’t admit it, is looking for the right woman. Finding something in your character that resonates with the reader will make your character come alive on the page.
4. Create consistency in your characters. It’s a rare person who doesn’t act consistently. We are creatures of habit by nature and find it extremely uncomfortable to be put in situations outside our comfort zone. If you put your character’s behavior or thoughts all over the board, you risk losing your reader’s interest because they won’t believe in your character. However, consistency of character doesn’t mean your characters will always act the same. We are often different people in different situations or circumstance.  The teenager that everyone else thinks is perfectly mannered can be curt, rude, and inconsiderate in his own home. (Anyone who ever lived with a teenager can attest to this.) A woman who would never touch a gun, might change her mind if someone she loves is being threatened. Fear, desperation, love, hate, and secrets we hold close can be powerful motivators when it comes to how we act and react. In fact, it’s often the forcing of a person to act inconsistently that causes them to grow. Just be sure you cleverly foreshadow whatever abnormal behavior you plan for your characters so the readers can say, “Aha! That’s why he did (or said)  that.” If you don’t, the reader will feel you cheated them.

Who is the character you remember most from your reading, or movies, and why did they make an impression on you?

10 Tips to Make Your Characters Shine

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10 tips to make your characters shine, Catherine Castle, characterization tips, romance author, writing tips

1. Give them a quirk. This doesn’t have to be something big, just consistent and something that will set them apart from the other characters.
2. Give them a flaw. No one is perfect. I know I’m not. It’s the flaws, big and little, that make us human.
3. Give them a secret. As an actor, my drama coach always said to create a secret for our character to give them depth. No one needed to know what the secret was, but it would show in our performance.
4. Give them a phobia. Everyone has fears. The most memorable characters will show those fears at some point, yet be able to conquer them.
5. Make them true to themselves. Readers will be jarred out of the story if your character does something that’s out of character, without good reason. It’s the equivalent of a perfect child suddenly doing drugs.
6. Give them something to care about. No one likes people who don’t care. If your characters, even the villains, are totally heartless they become stereotypical. Even bad guys care about something or love someone.
7. Give them appropriate tags to show, not tell, the reader about them. I can’t say enough about show don’t tell. Appropriate tags that let the reader see the character rather than telling the reader what you want them to know makes characters, and stories, sparkle.
8. Make them reveal emotions. Your characters emotions are the readers’ window to the heroes’, heroines’, and villains’ souls. Let the readers see, and figure out for themselves, what the characters are all about.
9. Give them something they must do or achieve to gain happiness. This speaks to goal, motivation and conflict. If a character doesn’t have to stretch and grow, then you don’t have a full character.
10. Provide only enough background to make you reader believe in him. Burying the reader under mounds of background that doesn’t matter to your story is like putting honey on top of jelly. It’s superfluous and unnecessary. Less is more. Just be sure you include the important stuff that speaks to the character’s motivation. Leave the rest on your character sheets where it belongs.

© Catherine Castle