We’ve all faced it. You sit down with your mechanical pencil, your notebook paper, and your comfort food. Maybe some music. Or coffee. Or a cat. Anyways! You sit down and-- Writer’s block. Well, how about we discuss a couple different problems when writing a book? YAY!
WHY ARE ALL THE CHARACTERS THE SAME?!
So, when you’re writing a book you don’t always catch the things you do when reading a book (sentences that really don’t need to exist, punctuation, that one thing you mentioned and later never
developed), and one of those things might just be what I found out recently.
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| Grace from Shadow |
Your characters are all the same.
Suuuuuuuure they have different names and personalities, but eventually you will find they have lots of similarities! (And then you’ll wonder how on earth you didn’t notice that.)
For example: I have a book called I am Ombre; Shadow (I am taking beta readers btw). It has a couple main and main side characters: Ombre, Grace, Scorch, Crimson, May, Albert, Holly, Keiko, Vivian, Vesuvia.
Only recently did I realize that most of them have curly hair. How did that even happen?!
Ombre, Crimson, Scorch, May, Vivian, and Vesuvia all have naturally curly hair, and Grace got hers permed. REALLY, DAWN?! How the heck did that even happen?!
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| Jess from Operation; Sweets |
Another one is their past. Ombre, Grace, Scorch, and Crimson (the latter two are brothers, FYI) ALL lived with their dad while mom was away/dead/not around. Like, their dads were different, granted, but STILL.
I mean, c’mon. I even have great advice from Cinda Chima Williams (The Warrior Heir, The Seven Realms Chronicals) to make a ‘Character Bible’. Said CB has a description of the character, name, and book- that way you keep them organized. (I now have an urge to see just how many characters have darn curly hair all-in-all…) Somehow, they still turned out a bit similar.
How do I keep repeating things?!
Another things I’ve noticed is that some things are often repeated in my stories. Scars, aunts, the word ‘Shadow’, a female main character, an angry character, and some reference to Greek Mythology all pop up constantly in my stories.
Like- I have an aunt that got kidnapped, another aunt that took care of the kid who got kidnapped (HOLD UP, WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?! I’M FREAKING OUT, THIS IS NOT OKAY MAN!!!), an aunt who is an evil queen (same story ^), and a person you find is the aunt of the orphans… and, um… an aunt owned the house (same story ^).
That’s a lot of aunts, honestly. But… it’s only 3 out of, like, 68 stories of mine (I’m sure there are more aunts). Their names are as followed (so you know they’re not the exact same): Marcella, Rae, Taurdhiel, May, and No Name.
When I was younger, every character ever had a scar. Now, I still believe they all still have a scar, just not as visible. When I was younger, there was always a scar on the eye, the face, or large on the arm. Now, not so much.
The word ‘Shadow’ keeps coming up too. Shadow Hunters, ShadowClan, etc.
All my main characters except… *checks*... 7? All my main characters except seven are girls. That’s a little tiny bit sad.
Oh! And somehow there’s ALWAYS a reference to Greek Mythology unless it’s in another world (a statue, a comparison, the person cursing like “Holy Mother of the Gods of Olympus”.)
Do y’all have that problem?
Names Are My Own Worst Enemy
Honestly! Names of anything are probably the hardest part of writing. You have to name the characters (again, where the character bible comes in handy) and not name them the same thing, you have to name streets, towns, restaurants, lands, types of people, and just about everything else.
Sometimes I’ll forget what I was writing because I was trying to name someone!
I find fantasynamegenerator.com is a FANTASTIC name place for everything from rivers to elves to flowers. They have places, Fandom related, historical and types of names, and everything else. I SERIOUSLY love that sight, and it is my best friend. (This blog has not been endorsed by them, and FantasyNameGenerator.com does not know about this message.)
I often name characters because of what the name means, or because I made it up. I named a kid that was part starfish ‘Tasman’ because he was Australian and Tasman was a sea near Australia. I named a guy ‘Gar’ because I could (later to learn it was a real name). I also am planning on naming a character ‘Shead’ because my mom accidentally spelled ‘shed’ shead.
I might’ve also stolen a list of names from my best friend… *blushes*
Too Many Stories, Not Enough Time
Ever felt like that? If you’re anything like me (I don’t know if I’m hoping you’re not or not) you know exactly what that feels like. Every stupid little thing gives you inspiration, and then you have a story idea, and you obsess over a couple stories, and then have a million ideas flying around in other places.
See a glimpse of a t-shirt of what looks like a girl spray painting a wall? Now you have a
storyline about a girl living in the slums who risks everything to brighten it up by spray painting flowers on the buildings.
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| I am currently working on this |
Think you grandfather needs a girlfriend? Story idea!
Want to hug a fictional character? Instead of writing fanfiction, you end up creating an entire story, and the scene of you hugging the character like that never actually gets in the story!
Have a fanfiction character you roleplayed with and then suddenly you decide you have a story? STORY!
(These are all true stories. Concrete, a story I haven’t yet started, Fear the ShadowClan, Shadow.)
And songs. ZOMG (pronounced ‘zomg’) songs! They always make me write new stories!! (Icarus by Bastille, Robot by Nate DiRuzza, World So Cold by 12 Stones.)
But you can’t write all of these amazing stories because of more amazing stories, things to do, and books to read- right? And of course the internet and school.
Here’s some help!
Here’s some solid help you won’t find in other things! (Things. Wow Dawn. You’re a great literary person who can actually do things stuff.)
- Character Bible. Write the book, the character, and a simple description of the character. Then you’ll never have to make a mistake with their first or last names, their looks, or repeating names!
Ex.
Tomas “Valpamiucon”
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Shaggy, black hair. Dark brown eyes. Latino. Rightful heir of Solash kingdom.
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Connie, Tomas, and Rift
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Queen Taurdheil
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Evil queen of the Solash kingdom. Long, red hair, burning green eyes with orange flecks.
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Connie, Tomas, and Rift
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Prince Ruscion
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Dark, sly son Prince of Solash kingdom. Bright red hair. Smouldering green eyes with orange flecks.
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Connie, Tomas, and Rift
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Captain Rushingfall
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Captian of Solash royal guard, Rivuborne elf. Long, black hair and brilliant, sea blue eyes.
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Connie, Tomas, and Rift
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- If You Have An Idea, Write it Down. I know, I hate planning out stories, but seriously, this will save your life. If you have a mysterious object, write what it is. If you hint something, scribble it down and stick it somewhere so you don’t forget and hate yourself later (like I always do).
- Read Books with a Similar Voice to that of Your Character. This has helped to no extent. If you’re having a cocky, sarcastic voiced character- read Percy Jackson, Maximum Ride, or something of the sort. If the setting is more fantasy prone, read Princess Academy, East, or something along those lines. This will help shape your voice, and also will give you some nice dialogue ideas!
I love you, and hope y’all enjoyed it! UNTIL NEXT TIME!!
Dawn Dagger
Song of the Day: Icarus by Bastille.
(Just by the way, when I say ‘today’ in any of these posts, that usually means way back when on that day. At this point it’s been a week since I’ve written this post and I haven’t updated it yet. :P)
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