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101 Ways to Love Your Characters – Introduction

Welcome to the Valentine’s Day Character Clinic! 

Have you ever stayed up all night to finish a book because you just HAD to know what happened to the poor character?  Or dreamed about a character in a book or movie?  Or months (even years) later after reading a book, you still remember the character’s name, his/her story, and FEEL emotion just by remembering?

I think it’s safe to say that every writer dreams of creating such memorable, haunting characters.  So how do we go about breathing life into these characters and make them more than just a few words on a page?  That’s what we’re hoping to explore in this clinic.  So get comfy, pour a cup of tea, coffee, or your favorite beverage, and let’s chat!

Remember, there are incentives (e.g. free books!) to participate, whether you have a blog of your own and want to write up an entry (or several), or if you simply want to comment on the clinic entries.  Both are fine and double your chances of winning.  Simply comment on this entry with your link, or e-mail me, and I’ll include your article in each day’s link roundup.  Feel free to comment on any participating clinic article as many times as you like.  I’ll enter every commenter (the more you comment, the more chances to win) in one pool, and every clinic article creator (again, the more articles, the more chances to enter) in another. 

Stop by often — many of us have several posts a day scheduled!

Up for grabs:  two $20 gift certificates to any online book retailer of your choice (e.g. Fictionwise, Amazon, B&N, Drollerie Press, My Bookstore & More, etc.)  Or, if your order qualifies for Amazon Prime, I can have your books shipped directly to you (assuming you’re willing to provide your address).  If your wish order doesn’t qualify for Amazon Prime shipping, your order including shipping must be less than $20.

Winners will be announced Monday, Feb. 16th.

So to kick things off, I’m going to include some general character creation links I’ve found useful in the past.  If you have other links to share, I’d love to see them!

Tami Cowden’s Hero Archetypes
Tami Cowden’s Heroine Archetypes
Tami Cowden’s Villain Archetypes
The Emotional Toolbox
Archetype Storycards
How to Create a Character
Personality Types
Personality Strengths and Weaknesses
Character Trait Chart

These aren’t exactly “character” links but who can forget PBW’s John and Marcia series on novel writing?

The Novel Crash Test Dummies
John & Marcia, Together Again

12 thoughts on “101 Ways to Love Your Characters – Introduction

  1. Oh goodness- PBW’s Novel Crash Test Dummies 😆 Great linkage there. I think i will have to check a few of those out.

    Oh, and :

    My Introduction Post :mrgreen:

  2. Yaay Character Clinic! It’s finally here! :mrgreen:

    Here’s my first post: http://bethaniesbrain.blogspot.com/2009/02/101-ways-to-love-your-characters-gregar.html (er… hope that works…)

    And those are some great links, Joely. I can’t wait to check them out (and I am SO happy I’m caught up with my class and won’t feel guilty about taking time to do so this weekend!). 😀

  3. I’ve been looking forward to this all week 😀 I’m doing a series on character interviews, kicked off by Unstructured Character Interviews/. Enjoy!

  4. Hey Joely, great links. Thanks for setting this up. 🙂

  5. […] Aries (Part of Joely’s 101 Ways to Love Your Characters.) […]

  6. Woo-hoo! I think we’re off to a great start! Thanks, all, for participating!

  7. http://letters2charlie.blogspot.com/2009/02/dear-charlie_13.html

    I’ll probably do another one later because I’m not sure this one really fits, but I did want to get something out there!

  8. Yay! Very cool, I’ll be back (often) to see how it goes. Thanks for the links, I’ll check them out. 😀

  9. […] Taurus (Part of Joely’s 101 Ways to Love Your Characters) […]

  10. […] Gemini (Part of Joely’s 101 Ways To Love Your Characters) […]

  11. […] Cancer (Part of Joely’s 101 Ways to Love Your Characters) […]

  12. […] Leo (part of Joely’s 101 Ways to Love Your Characters) […]

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