The Emotionally Engaging Character

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Writing Tips: Book 2

The Emotionally Engaging Character Ruth Ann Nordin

The Emotionally Engaging Character Copyright © 2016 by Ruth Ann Nordin All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Cover Photo images Dreamstime. reserved – used with permission. Wedded Bliss Romances, LLC http://www.ruthannnordin.com

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Table of Contents Chapter One: Getting to Know Your Character Chapter Two: Point of View Chapter Three: The Character is Always Right Chapter Four: Catering Things to Your Character Chapter Five: Tapping into Emotion (Example: Sorrow) Chapter Six: Supporting Characters In Conclusion Additional Resources to Help Writers

Chapter One Getting to Know Your Character In real life, there is a part of us no one truly knows, no matter how close they get to us. Sure, people around us will have varying degrees of intimacy with us. Our spouse will know us better than our friend, and our friend will know us better than an acquaintance. But the only one who truly knows us is us. The same should be true if we are to write the emotionally engaging character. We should know their backgrounds, their darkest secrets (even those that never show up in the story), and we should know their futures. This can be a sad thing. I write romance, which is a happy genre. You always have a happy ending. But I know things about some of my characters that have made me cry, even though these things have never shown up in the book. I don’t write this stuff down. It’s just stuff that comes to me when I’m in bed or taking a shower or going for a walk. I can’t shut this off. I just “know” this stuff about the character I’m currently writing. Usually, this is backstory stuff I had to take out during the edits. For example, there was a lot more to one of my character’s story that I never touched on in a book already charged with a depressing backstory. None of it belonged in the story, so it was never added, but it did add layers to this character’s life that made me understand her intimately. But sometimes, this is something I know will occur in the future (long after I type “the end”). For example, I know one of my couples will lose one of their children to an illness. I’ve been asked to write more of their story, but I will never do it because I don’t want to make them “go through” that pain. As long as I don’t ever write it, they’ll be suspended in their happy ending. Believe me, the reader does not want to know more about this couple. It would ruin the book for them.

Our main character should be as complex as we are. I like to think the reader should be at the level of spouse/best friend with the character. But, the author is the only one who can look into the soul of the main character and see what’s really there. The key, of course, is how much you reveal in the story. My suggestion is to only put in what you need in order to make the story the best it can be. Any revelation you give should advance the plot. If it doesn’t advance the plot, it doesn’t belong there. So don’t be afraid to explore all aspects (good and bad) about your main character. You don’t have to include everything you learn. Just the parts that matter to the story.

Chapter Two Point of View The key to creating the emotionally engaging character is point of view. Point of view is something I have found difficult to wrap my mind around for years while I was writing. I understood you pretty much stuck with that character in a scene, but I didn’t understand there were subtle elements that go into it. I’ll be discussing these today. 1. Point of view is biased. We all have our opinions when it comes to things. We are born into families with a certain way of looking at the world, and this will have some impact on how we continue to view the world as we become adults. Other influencers on our viewpoints stem from friends, our experiences, level of education, and other factors. The point is, we all have our biases, whether we want to admit them or not. The easiest example I can give on varying viewpoints is the one that sparks the greatest fights, especially on places like Facebook. Ever look at a political or religious rant on Facebook? Typically, there are a ton of comments beneath the post, and you’ll notice people have very strong opinions on these topics. Pay attention to the tone they are using. What emotions are prominent? How are these people justifying their views? Some will manage to keep a cool head. Some resort to name calling. You might even know some of these people are super sweet in real life and get surprised they are leaving the kind of comments they are. (I know I’ve been surprised.) Now, let’s use another example that often evokes a lot of comments. When someone is in need of “thoughts and prayers” from family and friends because of death, illness, or a natural disaster, what do you notice in those comments? How do these comments differ from the political/religious ones? One I can tell you off the top of my head is that people (regardless of political/religious affiliations) will often rally around the person in need. So the person who might seem like a “jerk” in the political/religious

comments, can be the most caring and sympathetic of all the comments in a totally different situation. Again, study the choice in words and what emotions are behind them. Bottom line: the character isn’t “bad”, but the character does have a viewpoint that will contain some prejudice. No one is 100% apathetic to everything. There will be things the character loves and hates. Embrace these things when you’re writing in the character’s point of view. 2. Point of view can change over the course of the story. The redeemed character is one of the most complex but also most powerful type. Case in point, Ebenezer Scrooge in the classic book, A Christmas Carol. He was stingy with his money in the beginning, but by the end, he became generous. Another (more contemporary example) is Lightning McQueen in the movie, Cars. The hero starts out being selfish, but at the very end, he gives up the Piston Cup (his goal throughout the movie) in order to help out another car. In other words, he does a total reversal from being selfish to being selfless. A good exercise is to watch movies or TV shows where the bad guy becomes good. Write down the things you notice as the story progresses. What were their thoughts/logic behind the choices they made? What behaviors follow these actions? How about after they change? What thoughts are behind the choices they make then? What behaviors result from these new choices? 3. Point of view allows for imperfections in the hero. No one is perfect. None of us are born 100% happy 100% of the time. We have bad days. We aren’t always at our best. Your character is going to have these, too. Even if the character manages to bite their tongue and not slip in something rude, there’s going to be a wicked thought or temptation to blurt out something inappropriate. This makes the character more real. Now, let’s look at what can happen if the character’s thoughts lead them to make the wrong decision. The truth is, even in real life, good people screw

up and make bad decisions. Your character may say the wrong thing or may behave in a way that makes the reader go, “What the heck?” Point of view should clue the reader into why that character did what they did. Now, the important thing is that your hero doesn’t get stuck in this bad decision. The character may have to deal with the consequences of it, but the character should make up for their bad decision(s) by the end of the story. When would the hero make the wrong decision? In a moment of weakness. This could stem from fear. Let’s say the character is afraid he’ll get shot. I can’t remember the name of the movie because I saw it when I was a kid, but there was a situation where a man ran into a family’s house because he was being pursued by a gang who wanted to kill him. By entering their house, he put them (the innocent people) at risk. At the end, he went back outside, willing to die but knowing he had saved the lives of the innocent people. So the hero made a bad decision out of fear but redeemed that by doing the right thing, which in this case was tragic but heroic. Another moment of weakness could stem from love. If the hero is afraid someone he loves will be hurt if he doesn’t act, he might make a bad decision. An example off the top of my head is Denzel Washington’s movie, John Q, where he holds some patients and staff at a hospital hostage (a bad thing) because he can’t get a life-saving surgery done for his son. His motive was love. One could also argue his motive was frustration because his insurance wouldn’t cover the operation, and no one was willing to work with him on the issue. Not all bad decisions a character makes stem from evil motives. But the key is, what is the reasoning (aka point of view) the character uses to arrive at the decision to act in the way he does. This goes for good decisions, too. 4. Embrace the x-factor. The X-Factor is an unknown or unexplained element that makes something more interesting or valuable.

Your main character can’t know everything. He will only know what he personally experiences and what someone tells him. Other than that, he can only “think” he knows something. This is what I call the x-factor in writing the emotionally engaging character. Point of view is not omniscient. It can’t know everything. Its view is going to be limited. So if you want the reader to know something the main character can never know, you will have to give the point of view of the character who does know the answer. Sometimes what the main character never knows (but the reader does) can be a powerful tool in storytelling. For example, I have one book where the villain kidnaps the heroine. The hero and a lawman both believe the villain killed his wife. So they’re even more anxious to find the heroine. The heroine finds remains of the wife’s skeleton under the dirt in the cabin the villain took her to, further leading the reader to believe the villain really did kill the wife. Long story short, the book ends with the hero, heroine, and lawman believing the villain killed his wife. But I (the author) knew this was not the case. So I had to insert a scene in the villain’s point of view where he remembers his wife tripping on her dress and falling down the stairs, thereby breaking her neck (and dying). So though he is a villain in every sense of the word, he was innocent of murdering his wife. The only way the reader was going to know this was if I inserted his point of view. Otherwise, the reader was going to believe he killed her. That is the x-factor at work when you’re writing fiction. Some of my favorite scenes in movies, TV shows, and books are those in which I’m given additional information the main characters never receive. And this helps demonstrate the power of point of view. Point of view is limited. It is narrow. In real life, we have a limited view of things. We can only know what we pick up with our five senses (touch, taste, smell, sound, and sight). When people tell us why they did something, we have to take their word for it. We can’t know with 100% accuracy that things really happened the way they told us. For all we know, they could be lying to us. But regardless of the situation, we pull in everything we experience with our five senses and

from what others tell us. Then from this, we develop a set of beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. We develop bias. We make judgments based on what we think is right within our limited view of the world. In other words, we have tunnel vision. The same needs to be true for your character if the character is going to be “real” to the reader. The more I learn about point of view, the more I love it. It is a tool that really allows us to delve deep within our character and create a unique reading experience for the reader. Don’t be afraid if your character doesn’t knowing everything. That’s okay. It’s actually realistic if the character doesn’t get all the answers in a neat little package. Instead, play around with giving the reader additional pieces of the puzzle by using other characters’ points of view. You don’t have to use the x-factor in every story you write, but when you do, it can be a neat storytelling technique.

Chapter Three The Character is Always Right To get a better look at how complex point of view is, let’s consider two fundamental things: every character is right when we are in their point of view, and point of view all boils down to how a character reacts to events. Point of view shows differences between characters, and each character is right in their own point of view. There’s an expression I heard long ago that’s stuck with me through the years. There are three sides to every story: what he said, what she said, and what really happened. Nothing is truer than in writing in a character’s point of view. This is where writing in different characters’ points of view can be magical. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about: Let’s say you have two characters (Carl and Abe) who hate each other. They are half-brothers, and there’s a dispute over the same piece of property. Carl feels that the land is rightly his because it was left to him in their father’s will. But Abe feels the land is his because his uncle originally owned it. (The uncle had sold the land to the father.) Who’s right in being angry at his half-brother? The answer is both are right to be angry. The whole thing boils down to the third (aka “objective”) side. The author is the only one who knows all the facts. The characters don’t have access to this information. The characters have to find out all the information they can from conversations with other characters or through their own experiences. So in this example, what does the author know that Abe and Carl don’t? The author knows that the father was a very selfish and greedy man who married one woman to get her money. He had a child with her, and this child is Carl. Carl was never loved. In fact, he was often despised because the father had nothing but contempt for Carl’s mother. Meanwhile, the father loved his mistress and often gave her brother supplies in return for

being able to see the mistress at his convenience. The father loved Abe since he was the child from the woman he loved. Abe, however, never felt loved because he was stuck with the stigma from the townsfolk for being the child of the mistress. The reality is neither Abe nor Carl loved the father, and they have a lot more in common than either side is aware. Carl isn’t holding onto the land out of spite. He’s holding onto the land in hopes of getting enough gold to get him out of town so he can be free from his past. Once he is, he plans to give the land to Abe, something Abe doesn’t know. If both sides understood the other’s point of view, there wouldn’t be so much hate and animosity between them. That example aside, I want you to consider that point of view is all about a character’s perception of events. In real life when people tell their side of things, they are giving a biased version of events, even if they aren’t trying to. The reason for this is because no one has all the facts. We only know what we can see and hear. This brings together our perception of what is going on. Because we perceive things a certain way, this is how the world is according to our point of view. Likewise, a character will only have some of the facts. Their point of view will be slanted to the way they perceive the world. Point of view is about how your character REACTS to things. You start with a reaction and then the character acts, setting off the domino effect that will enhance the conflict (aka plot) in your story. This is where a character’s perception of what is happening leads to their reaction to the event. The event can be anything that is outside the character. It can be something another character says or does. It can be an impending storm. It can be an animal that comes into the camp. It can be a sweet fragrance. As long as it’s the thing our point of view character sees, hears, smells, tastes, or touches, this qualifies as an event. The event in itself is a neutral thing.

What matters is how the character reacts to the event. The character is the one who brings meaning to the event. Did you ever wonder how some people could be celebrating after an election while other people are crying “doom and gloom”? Or how one person can say, “I love it when there’s a thunderstorm” and another looks upon the same storm with dread? Let’s use this storm as our example. I used to live in Nebraska, and in the town I was at, thunderstorms often meant a loss of power. More than that, we’d have tornadoes in the area. I got lucky. The tornado never hit my town, but I did hear about them hitting neighboring towns, and a couple of deaths often resulted from them. So for me, a thunderstorm was a scary thing, and I hated them. I have a friend who had the opposite reaction to thunderstorms. She loved them. It was a good excuse for her to sit on the couch with a warm blanket and read a good book, meanwhile listening to the soothing pitter-patter of rain on the roof while thunder boomed in the background. The beauty of point of view is that you can have the same event happen, and two of your characters can react to it differently. That would be a possible point of conflict if the two characters don’t like each other or get into a fight over the way they react to the event. Also, when you’re writing, don’t worry about whether you would react to the event in the same way the character is reacting to it. This is the character’s point of view. You’re telling the character’s story through their eyes. I’ve heard one of my author friends say they were having trouble with the story because the character wasn’t reacting to an event the same way she would. Well, that’s because she’s not the character. This is the character’s story, not hers. Let your character be their own person. Let them react the way that is natural for them. Their reaction to the events in the story will go a long way to advancing the plot and bringing the reader along for the ride.

Chapter Four Catering Things to Your Character The key to writing an emotionally engaging character is to have the entire universe in the story revolve around him. He is at the center of the entire story. Everything that happens will stem directly from him. In this chapter, I’ll explain common story elements and how to work them to fit your character. Conflict No story can survive without conflict. No one wants to read about people who never have any problems. Problems are exciting. They are fun. They make things interesting. (Maybe not so much in real life, but they definitely do in fiction.) So today we’re going to look at the effective use of conflict. The purpose of conflict is to provide an obstacle to the thing your character wants most. There are many kinds of conflict that can arise. You can throw in a lot of horrible things to delay the character from getting what they want, but I suggest focusing on one or two major things that is stopping the character from getting his happy ending. If you throw in too many things, then you end up with a lot of side issues that have nothing to do with the actual plot. So I suggest picking the biggest source of conflict and focusing on that. That way the reader is focused in on that particular issue and will be more engaged with the character’s journey. What would be a good rule of thumb for picking a source of conflict? I suggest looking at the character’s personality and their goal. Not all conflicts are created equal. The conflict in question has to be something that will have the biggest impact on the character you’re writing. It has to provide a huge enough obstacle that the character has to struggle to overcome it.

For example, let’s say you have a character who had an awesome childhood where she was readily accepted by her family and friends. Then in your story, this woman is put in a situation where people are snickering at her. Given her background, this isn’t a huge source of conflict. She has no past demons to struggle with. However, if you put in a character who grew up in a home where she never felt accepted and didn’t have any friends, then putting her in a room where people are snickering at her will be a whole lot different. And that difference will provide the greatest impact on the character and her story. That’s the aim in writing the character’s story. You have to take that character’s personality and background into consideration when picking the conflict. When tapping into the emotionally engaging character, everything is built around the character, including the conflict. You don’t build your character around the conflict. The difference in the two approaches is subtle, but it’s there. And I believe focusing on the character and making everything in the story revolve around that character will make for a better story than doing it the other way around. Whether or not the character succeeds all depends on the storyline, but I can tell you with romance, the character is going to have to succeed for the reader to be happy. If you’re doing a thriller or horror story, then you can get away with a sad ending. In other words, the character didn’t get what they most wanted. Or maybe the character does get it but at the expense of something equally important to him. Plot The journey is the character’s story, and the way the journey progresses depends on the choices the character will make. The journey, in a nutshell, is the plot. But I’m not the kind of writer who thinks the plot directs the characters. I believe the characters should direct the plot. What do I mean by this? Well, to put it simply, the character comes before the plot. Every character is as unique as a fingerprint. No two can be alike. They might have similarities, but they will be distinct from one

another. Because of this, each character has his own way of trying to obtain his goal. That is why the journey he takes will evolve from him. It’s like a domino effect. You start the story with the character in his normal day to day life. Things are going along as they have always been. From there, the character needs to want something, which is the goal. Everything the character says and does will impact the journey. And with each new development that pops up to stop him from getting his goal (aka. conflict), he will need to adapt and say or do something else to continue on his way to the goal. So the basic format for the journey is simply this: introduce character’s world, give character a goal, bring in a conflict that will hinder this particular character from getting the goal, have him react in a way that makes sense for him (given his personality traits), introduce another conflict (should one be necessary), etc. That’s really all there is to the journey. The journey ends when either the character gets his goal (happy ending) or realizes he’ll never get it (sad ending). Either way, there has to be a resolution to the journey. So when you think of what kind of plot to build around your main character, take into consideration the conflict that will have the biggest impact on the character. What can you do to the character that will bring about the most angst? The bigger the angst, the more powerful the story. But the angst has to be something that makes sense given his personality. For example, putting a secure character in a socially awkward situation is not sufficient angst to resonate with the reader. But, if you put an insecure character in the socially awkward situation, it has a lot more impact. Setting The world your story takes place in is only wallpaper. It is the backdrop to which your characters will go through their journey. 1. Create your world.

Whether the story takes place on Earth in a setting we’re familiar with, in another time period, or on another planet, we want to do our best to make the world real to the reader. You should aim to stay true to the place your character will be in. So research and get a feel for your character’s world. Research can be done on the Internet, in books (I find children’s books work the best because they break things down so it’s easy to understand), going to visit physical locations, talking to people who specialize in the area you’re writing, and watching TV shows/movies. The best approach is to take multiple resources instead of only one. There are some rules you have to follow in being true to your world. For example, you don’t want a cowboy in 1880 to pull up to his house in a truck talking on a cell phone. You also can’t have your character go on a planet that has no oxygen without the proper equipment. And if you don’t get it 100% perfect, learn from your mistakes and do better on your next book. Unless there is a glaring error in the book, I advise against going back to change something. You learn best by writing more books, not going back and revising old ones. I’ll be the first to admit my books haven’t always been 100% historically accurate to the very nitty gritty detail, and I can assure you, if you miss something, it’s okay. Earth will still keep spinning. Life will go on. Aim to be authentic, but don’t get so obsessed with it that you get paralyzed and can’t write your story. 2. The characters can use elements in the world to enhance their journey. These elements must either help or hinder the character’s journey. If the element you want to use doesn’t advance the plot, you need to toss it out. For example, let’s say your character needs to drive from one state to another, but there’s going to be a roadblock up ahead in the middle of a storm. What you want to do is key in on the thunderstorm while the character is driving. Instead of just describing the storm, show the reader

what your character is doing, saying, and thinking during this storm. Let’s say a tree falls right in front of the truck. What did your character do with the truck? Did he try to drive before it hit the road? Did he slam on the brakes and nearly hit it? Did he say anything? What was his heart rate doing? Can he keep going? How will he overcome this obstacle to reach his destination? You do not want to tell the reader all about the pretty fields along the way, the kind of barns the character passed, what music the character listened to, what the character ate along the way, etc. That stuff had nothing to do with the obstacle (the storm which caused the tree to fall which stopped our hero from completing his journey). 3. The character is always center stage and the world secondary. This isn’t to say you can’t throw in details and show the reader what your world looks like, especially if it’s a world we don’t live in. The more foreign your world, the more you have to show. But the key is to show it. Don’t dump all the information about this world on the reader right up front, which is a great temptation. Instead, show the world through the character’s eyes. In chapter one, don’t spend the chapter (or even half the chapter) talking about the entire world and all the cool little things about it. You need to introduce your character. Start building the emotional connection so that the world around the character starts to matter as the story progresses.

Chapter Five Tapping Into Emotions Example: Sorrow When I say that, what I mean is, dare to go into the darkest parts of the human soul. Dig up the hard to deal with topics. Let the character experience their darkest moment. What do I mean by letting the character have a dark moment? A dark moment is the point where the character hits rock bottom. It is when the crap hits the fan, and the character has nothing else to lose. Now, I don’t use this technique in every book I write. Some books are lighter reads than others. So I wouldn’t say this applies to every story. But there are probably going to be some stories you’ll write that will lend themselves to exploring the darker side of the human experience. We’ve all been to the point at some time in our lives where we are down in the pit of despair. Nothing seems to go right. We feel as if everyone and everything is against us. We feel as if we’re all alone. No matter how much we try to explain our pain to others, they really don’t get it. Worse, it feels as if they don’t care. If you’ve ever felt this way, then this is the feeling you need to tap into when you give your character their dark moment. Letting your character go through this can be a painful experience. (It’s hard to watch our creation suffer.) But sometimes it’s exactly what the book needs. I fought a certain plot point for years because it was so dark. I hated putting my character through it. I tried to write the book in other ways to spare my character the level of that much pain. But each time I did it, the book fell flat. I hit a wall where I couldn’t go further into the story. No amount of forcing things to go my way was going to work. Finally, I gave up and gave the character the dark moment. And it worked. All at once, the story fell into place, and I was able to finish it.

Sometimes you just have to go through the deep valley with your character. So instead of fighting it, embrace it. Let the worst case scenario happen and see how things evolve from there. The results just might surprise you, as it did me. I honestly think the book I mentioned above is one of my best works. And remember, just because you have a dark moment in your book, it doesn’t mean there can’t be a happy ending. Sometimes the ending is that much better after the character overcomes the darkness. The important thing to remember in all of this is that the character needs to bring you to the emotion. You don’t bring the emotion to your character. There’s a subtle difference between the two approaches. In the first approach, the character is the one in charge. Everything you write stems from what the character reveals to you as you’re writing the story. The character is free to be who they truly are, without any restraints from you. In the second approach, you are telling the character what they should be feeling and how they should react based on that feeling. You are the one leading the story, not the character. The emotionally engaging character is the one in full control of the story. The character sets the tone for everything, and you are simply there to record what is happening. To me, this is the most effective way of bringing your reader into the story. Keep that in mind as you delve into tools that can help you convey what the character is thinking and feeling. A Deeper Look at Sorrow Let’s take a deeper look at sorrow and how you can work with it. If you’re having trouble coming up with things to help show the reader this emotion, I suggest sitting down ahead of time to write out possible thoughts and actions that usually coincide with sorrow. If you need inspiration, I

recommend watching a sad scene from a movie, reading a sad scene from a book, or listening to a sad song. It has to be one that brings you down to the pit of despair. Unless you can go into the very depths of sorrow, you won’t be able to connect with the character who is going through it. As a quick example, let’s say you wrote out this ahead of time: Sorrow Possible actions – cry, gulp, sigh in despair, shoulders slump Possible thoughts – “Why wasn’t I watching where I was going?” “All I wanted to do was give you the perfect day” “What’s the point in trying when I keep failing?” “Please don’t leave me.” “How am I going to tell him/her the bad news?” Plot you picked - The father was taking his son to the park when he got into a car accident. The son ended up in the hospital, and the doctor’s prognosis isn’t good. If you’re struggling to come up adequate ways of describing his pain, you can refer to the list above to help get things going. Sam squeezed Jesse’s hand, but the fragile hand of his four year old was still limp. He swallowed the lump in his throat. How could a simple trip to the park end up so badly? If only he hadn’t been trying to text his boss he’d have the work done by Monday morning… Maybe he would have seen the driver zoom right through the stop sign in time to stop. “I’m sorry, Jesse,” he whispered, his voice cracking. He blinked back his tears and waited until he could talk without breaking down completely before he continued. “All I wanted to do was give you a perfect day, and I ruined it. Just like I ruin everything.” The snippet above did go differently than I originally thought it would when I started it. Originally, Sam was supposed to be outside the room, watching Jesse through the window as the doctors worked on him. I had pictured Sam as one of those uninvolved fathers who felt obligated to take his son out to the park because his ex-wife was nagging him about not spending any time with his son (hence the text to his boss).

But then Sam decided he wanted to be an involved parent who is still married, and (though I didn’t have time to put it in) his wife is on a business trip so she can’t be there at the moment. Though, the last sentence does suggest there are marital problems, which would be further explored if I were to continue writing Sam’s story. Also, Jesse was originally eight, not four. So the character (Sam) told me what he wanted, and I just went with it. For me, writing in the character’s point of view and letting the character lead me works like this. It’s why I don’t plot. I can’t. This method won’t work for everyone. I don’t believe there is any one method that fits all writers. This is just one idea for anyone who is struggling to write an emotionally engaging character. The Use of Temptation Also, don’t forget the power of temptation which can really impact the emotional connection the reader will feel with the character. A powerful tool in your writing arsenal is temptation. Obviously, this doesn’t play out in every book you write. When I think of different storylines in movies and TV, not every character is tempted to make a decision that has the potential to hurt others or themselves. If you offer the main character a temptation, it has to be something that has the greatest impact for his specific personality. It has to be something that tests their character. For example, in one of my books, I had an exprostitute who was struggling to make her life better. Her big goal was to be someone who was deserving of respect. So in choosing her temptation, I had to pick something that would make her seriously consider going back into prostitution. And this something happened to be hunger. She worked hard to earn money, but her employer was stingy and didn’t pay her the full wages. After a couple of weeks of battling hunger, she had to face the

temptation of reverting back to her old life so she could buy food. (To this day, that is still my favorite book because of the power of temptation in it.) The more you can make your character suffer up to the point of temptation, the more impact that temptation will have. Think of a time in your life when you were pushed to the very limits where you didn’t think you could keep going. Everything that could go wrong was going wrong. All you dealt with was stress upon stress, and just when you thought you couldn’t take it anymore, there was even more stress thrown your way. Your nerves were on edge. You were at the point where you felt as if you’d reached a path in the road, and either choice you chose was going to be the wrong one. This is the point the character needs to be at in order for the temptation to have its greatest impact. Also, keep in mind your character’s motive could be good, except he’s tempted to do something bad in order to obtain get to the goal. A great example of this is the movie John Q. with Denzel Washington. This movie is about a man who holds hostages in a hospital (a bad thing) for the sake of saving his son’s life (a good thing). The effectiveness in this type of temptation is that the reader will sympathize with the character’s plight. Even though the character might do something horrible, he is doing it for a noble cause. The reader will be pulled in polarizing directions. While the reader wants the good thing to happen because of the suffering the character is going through, the reader also knows the potential for harm if the character goes down this path.

Chapter Six Supporting Characters The secondary characters are in the story to support the main character. Their purpose is to bring out the best—or worst—in your main character. I’ll just touch on a couple of character types you might write in your story. Friendship Friendship has a way of revealing things about the main character that few other things can. I don’t know about you, but in my life, different aspects of my personality come out depending on the friend I happen to be with at the moment. Personalities end up balancing each other out. With one friend, I tend to be the comic relief. With the other, I’m a lot more serious. It’s because one friend has a tendency to take things too seriously (in my opinion) so I’ll find ways to show her the brighter side of the equation. The second friend tends to be more rational, which brings out the more logical part of me (and the logical part isn’t a comedian). So there are many aspects in our personalities that tend to come out when we’re around certain people. The same is going to be true for your main character. Your main character will be the focus of your story. When you introduce other characters, their personalities have to bring out something in the main character that helps to advance the plot of the story. For example, in one story I wrote, the main character was very antagonistic toward a marriage she was trapped into. This character needed a friend who would help her lighten up and give the new husband a chance. When writing your story, think of possible personality traits that might aid the main character along in her journey. What kind of friendships would benefit the main character the most? Think of balance. Think of how the friends you introduce to the main character can help her grow. And make the friendship feel authentic. Let the characters have moments where they laugh, cry, get angry, and do other things friends do in real life.

The friendship should feel as natural to you as your own friendships in real life. Next time you’re with your friends, think about how you feel around them. Do the words you use change from one friend to another? Like with one friend, you might talk politics. With another, you might talk about traveling. Why is it that talking to your best friend is a lot easier than talking to someone you’re not as close to? There’s a varying degree of comfort and vulnerability depending on the friend you’re talking to. The same should be true of your main character. But, only spend time with the friends the main character needs in order to fulfill her journey. Don’t get sidetracked by meaningless conversations that do nothing to advance the plot. Every scene needs to have a point. Also, friendships aren’t limited to human characters. They can also be between a main character and an animal. For example, it can be a boy and a dog. Friendship can take many forms, and the form it takes depends on the type of story you’re writing. The Enemy The antagonist in the story doesn’t have to be the “bad guy”. It doesn’t even have to be a person. It can be anything that opposes the hero (aka. protagonist). For example, if a virus is running rampant through a town and the doctor (our hero) is fighting it, then the antagonist is the virus. Another example, the heroine might think she’s unattractive and therefore, not deserving of the hero’s love. In this case, her own belief in her unattractiveness is the antagonist. But for the sake of this post, I’m going to focus on a character who is an antagonist. I want to point out that the antagonist doesn’t necessarily have to be “bad”. How is this possible? It all boils down to point of view. When we’re looking at the emotionally engaging character, we are most interested in complex characters. An emotionally engaging character could appear to be bad when we’re in the hero’s point of view. But, when you take a deeper look, the antagonist might actually come off as a highly sympathetic character. This is why I

love point of view so much. It’s taken me about 5 1/2 years to finally grasp what point of view is all about. It’s perception. It has no basis in actual facts. The person who tells the story determines the truth, but it’s only their version of the truth. So when you’re in the hero’s point of view, take a look at how the hero views the antagonist. What does he believe the antagonist’s motivations are? Why is the antagonist someone he opposes? What things does the antagonist do or say to make the hero perceive things the way he does? Likewise, consider things from the antagonist’s point of view. If you are going to truly understand the antagonist, it can help to imagine a scene or write one out where he confronts the hero. How does he see the hero? What things does the hero say or do that bothers (or amuses) him and why? What is the antagonist’s version of the truth? Most of all, are there any likable traits the antagonist possesses that the hero misses (at least for most of the story)? It’s possible the two work out their differences. In romance, the conflict between the hero and heroine who hate each other but later fall in love is a popular storyline. So the antagonist might also be the hero. Of course, there are some antagonists that don’t have any redeeming qualities. There’s no way they can ever find a common ground with the hero. But it’d still be intriguing if there was some sympathetic trait that the reader can relate to because the truth is, no one is 100% good or 100% bad. We all fall somewhere in the middle. And the same can be true for the antagonist.

In Conclusion The best way to write the emotionally engaging character is by writing with your heart. If you’re passionate about your characters and the journey they are taking, then you will have an easy time writing the kind of story that compels the reader to keep turning the page. If you aren’t passionate about your story, then it’ll show. At the end of the day, this is your story. The characters in it are your own. In my opinion, the most important thing is that you love your book. It should be something you want to go back to again and again to read. The primary objective of writing should be to have fun. Yes, I know there’s a business angle to it, too, but if you’re not having fun writing the book, then how can you put all of your heart into promoting it? If you are lackluster about your work, chances are, that will show up in how you talk about it to other people. The main characters are the key to full enjoyment of your story. When you are writing about characters you love, the rest falls into place. Good luck and happy writing!

Additional Resources to Help Writers If you haven’t already read it, I have a book called 11 Tips for New Writers.

This is for writers who don’t know how to start a book or who have started a book but don’t know how to finish. It also looks at common storytelling elements like plot, setting, point of view, and why the character trumps all. You can find it at this link *** You can find Ruth Ann Nordin at the blog dedicated to helping writers at https://selfpubauthors.com. (This is a blog she co-administers.) You can also find You Tube videos she does (mostly with Janet Syas Nitsick) on helping writers at https://www.youtube.com/user/ruthannnordin.