Creating Character: Bringing Your Story to Life by William Bernhardt

By William Bernhardt

All fiction is character-driven, in response to William Bernhardt, regardless of what you've got heard in different places. in the event that your characters don’t curiosity readers, even the main intriguing plots will fail. “Action is character,” Aristotle wrote, yet what does that suggest, and the way are you able to use that primary precept to create dynamic fiction that may captivate readers? This publication explains the connection among personality and plot, and the way the ideal melding of the 2 produces a captivating tale. utilizing examples spanning from The Odyssey to The Da Vinci Code, Bernhardt discusses the paintings of personality construction in a right away and simply comprehended demeanour. The booklet additionally contains routines designed to aid writers follow those principles to their very own writing. William Bernhardt is the writer of greater than thirty novels, together with the blockbuster Ben Kincaid sequence of felony thrillers. Bernhardt can be probably the most sought-after writing teachers within the country. His courses have informed many authors now released through significant homes. he's the one individual to have got the Southern Writers Gold Medal Award, the Royden B. Davis wonderful writer Award (U Penn) and the H. Louise Cobb exotic writer Award (OSU), that is given "in reputation of a superb physique of labor that has profoundly encouraged the way we comprehend ourselves and American society at large." The pink Sneaker Writing heart is devoted to supporting writers in achieving their literary pursuits. what's a purple sneaker author? A devoted author looking invaluable guide and information instead of obfuscation and angle. crimson footwear get the task performed, and so do pink sneaker writers, via paying shut consciousness to their paintings and craft, committing to labor, and not quitting. Are you a purple sneaker author? if that is so, this ebook is for you.

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Example text

I’ll wait for the next one. But if it features a character you like, your reaction might be, Well, I have to see what’s going on with Ben. Don’t want to miss anything important. Maybe he’ll finally tie the knot with Christina or make amends with his mother…and so forth. So with a series character, the publishers get the best of both worlds. Each book remains self-contained, so they avoid the problem of readers feeling they must read the books in publication order. But they maintain the feeling that fans must pick up each new story featuring this character.

Not necessarily true. Or the writer says that because his book is grittier, or the characters are darker, or everyone behaves in a generally ugly way, the book is more realistic (and therefore better). Makes you wonder what their world looks like—and makes you never want to go there. For instance, I’ve heard writers of hardboiled PI mysteries talk at length about how their books are more “realistic” than cozy mysteries. Here’s a heads up: Neither is remotely realistic, nor does any reader want it to be.

And yet, like Scarlett, he is not altogether a likeable person. He can be rude, even abrasive. Condescending. Arrogant. Treats poor Lestrade like an idiot. Horrible with women. This man’s mother, if indeed he had one, did not give him the lesson about playing nice with others. So why do readers find him so fascinating? Because he’s smart. No matter what else happens, his brain is bigger than anyone else’s. Only Moriarty comes close, but even he cannot defeat the brilliant Holmes. In other words, Holmes is a metaphor for the power of intelligence, for the triumph of brain over brawn.

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