Creating Character: Bringing Your Story to Life

112 Pages·2013·0.63 MB·English

by  William Bernhardt

Creating Character

Bringing Your Story to Life
Creating Character: Bringing Your Story to Life
First Edition
Copyright © 2013 William Bernhardt Writing Programs
Published by the Red Sneaker Press
An imprint of Babylon Books
All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or
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piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only
authorized editions.
Creating Character
Bringing Your Story to Life

William Bernhardt

The Red Sneaker Writer Series
Other Books by William Bernhardt

Red Sneaker Writer Series

Story Structure: The Key to Successful Fiction
Creating Character: Bringing Your Story to Life
Perfect Plotting: Charting the Hero’s Journey
The Fundamentals of Fiction (DVD)

The Ben Kincaid Series

Primary Justice
Blind Justice
Deadly Justice
Perfect Justice
Cruel Justice
Naked Justice
Extreme Justice
Dark Justice
Silent Justice
Murder One
Criminal Intent
Hate Crime
Death Row
Capitol Murder
Capitol Threat
Capitol Conspiracy
Capitol Offense
Capitol Betrayal

Other Novels

The Code of Buddyhood
Paladins of the Abyss
Dark Eye
The Midnight Before Christmas
Final Round
Double Jeopardy
Strip Search
Nemesis: The Final Case of Eliot Ness
The Idea Man
Shine

For Young Readers

Equal Justice: The Courage of Ada Lois Sipuel (biography)
Princess Alice and the Dreadful Dragon (illustrated by Kerry McGhee)
The Black Sentry

Edited by William Bernhardt

Legal Briefs
Natural Suspect
Dedicated to all the Red Sneaker Writers:
You can’t fail unless you quit.
Action is character.

Aristotle
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter One: Character is Critical

Chapter Two: Character as Metaphor

Chapter Three: Character and Characterization

Chapter Four: Character is Choice

Chapter Five: Character and Contradiction

Chapter Six: Considering the Protagonist

Chapter Seven: Viewpoint

Chapter Eight: Making Readers Care

Chapter Nine: Character Arc

Appendix A: Character Detail Sheet

Appendix B: The Writer’s Calendar

Appendix C: The Writer’s Contract

Appendix D: The Writer’s Reading List
INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the world of the Red Sneaker Writers. If you’re familiar
with this outfit or you’ve read other Red Sneaker publications or attended Red
Sneaker events, you can skip to Chapter One. If you’re new, let me take a
moment to explain.
I’ve been writing a long time, and I’ve been speaking at writing
workshops and conferences almost as long. Every time I take to the stage I see
the same tableau staring back at me: long rows of talented people, most of whom
have attended many conferences, frustrated by the fact that they can’t sell a
book. And wondering why. Yes, the market is tough and agents are hard to find
yadda yadda yadda whine whine whine excuse excuse excuse. But when aspiring
writers do the work, put it out there, but still don’t publish…there’s usually a
reason. Too often enormous potential is lost due to a lack of fundamental
knowledge. Sometimes a little vigorous instruction is all that stands between an
unpublished writer and a satisfying writing career.
I always do my best to help at conferences, but the large
auditorium/general information lecture is not terribly conducive to writing
instruction. And sometimes what I’ve heard other instructors say was not
particularly helpful. Too often people seemed more interested in obfuscating
writing and appearing “literary” than in providing useful information.
Sometimes I felt speakers were determined to make writing as mysterious and
incomprehensible as possible, either because that made them sound more erudite
or because they didn’t understand the subject themselves. How is that going to
help anyone get published?
After giving this problem some thought, I formulated the Red Sneaker
Writing Center. Why Red Sneakers? Because I love my red sneakers. They’re