Character Development

Some of my writer friends rock in this area. They are so good in finding the emotional hook of their main characters in stories. You would just fall in love with the characters instantly.

I’ve been reading about this subject and I figured this will be useful to share with all of you.

According to Elizabeth Lyon in Manuscript Makeover, underdeveloped characters miss the following elements –

1. Backstory wound
2. Universal need / personal yearning
3. Strength and weakness
4. Clarity of theme

To relate Lyon’s points to actual fictional characters, let’s take the example of Neo’s character in the Matrix Trilogy movies.

Backstory wound

Neo doesn’t believe in himself and his abilities until he learns that his life has been an illusion, a computer generated world beyond anything even his own computer hacker sensibilities can grasp.

Universal yearning

Morpheus, the Oracle, Trinity and other characters in the story believe him to be “ the One”. When Neo fully understands who he is, he leads the battle to save the human race.

Strength and weakness

Neo’s strength lies in never giving up and his weakness lies in his own confidence.

The theme

Neo against his computer generated world, in other words, man against machine. There are also amazing instances in the movie where Neo and his friends possess superhuman strength and skills. The machines possess human qualities, like the way Mr. Smith replicates himself out of ego.

No wonder, the best made movies and stories are filled with deeply strong, memorable characters that make a lasting impression on us.

What is life without its characters?

Without you and me and all the beings that make up our world. Where would we be without each other? And when we share the ups and downs, the fun, the sacrifices, the victories and defeats that our journeys bring, we become strong, memorable and make a lasting impression on each other.
Don’t you agree?

On that note, which fictional character has influenced or intrigued you? Do keep me posted.

PNWA Literary Contest and more...

The deadline for PNWA Literary Contest is fast approaching. If you have a manuscript or you're working on one, I strongly recommend sending it out to the contest. Here’s the link. You may enter multiple manuscripts for various categories.
( http://pnwa.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=6 )

On the personal front, the funny part of being jetlagged and waking up at odd hours in the day is that my characters too arrive at odd times with names, stories and even astrological signs. Isn’t that cool?

So, here’s a poem that I wrote a couple of years ago. It fits my current state of mind perfectly. Happy Reading!

Winding back

The silent road outside my house
in Woodinville, USA
carries me somehow
to my home in Bangalore
where my memory wants to go.
We see people, so many of them,
walking, moving on cycles,
rickshaws, bikes and in trucks,
fruit and vegetable vendors
with their wooden carts,
housewives gossiping between compound walls,
boys barefoot,
playing gully cricket
in the middle of the road,
cement houses,
girls quarreling over a bucket of water
at the public roadside water pump,
crows cawing from lamp posts,
and the rag picker collecting plastic bottles
from the road-side dust bin.

My silent road asks me:
How will our people transcend
from years of shunning silence?

***********************************************************

Also, my friends, I’m happy to announce that I’m planning to start a new series titled

“Picture Friday” starting February 04, 2011 where I’ll be posting lines, poetry, short pieces of fiction, scenes or stories based on a picture from our everyday lives.

On that note, you may share with me any pictures that you'd like to write or would like me to write about.

Do you have any pictures to share?

Reading List

“There are many rules of good writing, but the best way to find them is to be a good
reader.”
- Stephen Ambrose

I usually come across writers saying they read books from the genre that they write. They read a lot of it. A lot before entering the concrete jungle of New York to sell one of their own.
Many of us love to indulge in reading work by other novelists and somehow the experience of the reading reflects in the light of our own writing.

On that note, I’d like to share with you my “To-read fiction list” for this year. It’s got some new ones and some repeats from last year’s books. The list is in no particular order and is bound to grow in the coming months.

1. The Toss of a Lemon – By Padma Viswanathan
2. Esperanza Rising – By Pam Munoz Ryan
3. Tell Me a Secret – By Holly Cupala
4. What I saw and how I lied – By Judy Blundell
5. Leaving India – By Minal Hajratwala
6. Something Like Hope – By Shawn Goodman

You also don’t wanna miss this video that I came across at the presurfers. It is an interesting robotic gadget to inspire reading in a technically savvy world.
(http://presurfer.blogspot.com/2011/01/take-seat.html)

Do you have any good books or gadgets to share ?