Tag: character building

Posted in how to write, learning to write, The Writer's Toolbox, workshop, writing, writing advice, writing believable fiction, writing better, writing fight scenes, writing workshop

Fight Scenes Part 1: An Introduction

Posted on by Cynthia D. Griffin

I finally managed to get through my notes from Jonathan Maberrry’s (the author of the popular Rot and Ruin series) a workshop I took. There was a lot of information so I am breaking it down into a five part series. I will start with this introduction, then part 2 on physical differences, part 3 on hand to hand combat, part 4 on weapons, and lastly part 5 on psychological warfare. Oh and make sure to look for the Fun Facts at the end of each post in this series!

So let’s get started as we look at some very basics of fight scenes and fighting information in general. The very first thing to remember with ALL fight scenes is…

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Posted in descriptive, emotional stories, good writing, great writing, how to be more descriptive, how to show your emotions, how to write, learning to write, The Writer's Toolbox, writing, writing advice, writing better

Putting More Emotion Into Your Writing

Posted on by Cynthia D. Griffin

Recently, a friend of mine emailed a question about how to let the reader in on what another character other than the main character is feeling. I promptly answered, and then realized it would also make a great topic for a blog post. I haven’t touched on emotional writing for awhile, so here we go. Let’s dive into how to become an emotional writer.

Ever read or written a sentence like this…..

“You can’t be serious? How could you do that? Roger replied angrily.

OR

“Wow. Would you look at that?” Madison said. I could tell she was surprised.

On the surface there’s nothing really wrong with these sentences. But from a creative writing standpoint, well… they aren’t that spectacular either. Mostly, because these sentences are telling the reader what’s going on instead of showing it. The reader doesn’t want to be told how the characters are feeling, they want to feel it for themselves. One of the best way to accomplish this is to give emotional cues.

What’s an emotional cue?

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Posted in character, characterization, how to write, Michael Knost, online class, The Writer's Toolbox, unforgettable characters, writing, writing advice, writing better

Using Body Language to Tell Your Story

Posted on by Cynthia D. Griffin

I recently took an online class through my friend and fellow writer Michael Knost on body language, and wanted to share some of the highlights that I found helpful. This was a topic I knew some about from other writing sources, but his class really brought everything into prospective for me.

Body language is essential in creating believable characters. It’s the subtle things like a smile in just the right place of a conversation, or a small touch of the hand that can change the whole way a reader perceives a character. When you show a character through their body language, you are allowing the reader to size up the character without spoon feeding information that might push the reader from the story. The reader wants to feel intelligent as he or she comes to their own conclusions. It’s the writer’s job (you) to be invisible enough to help lay out the signs or clues that get the reader to where you want them to go.

Check out some of these statistics…

55% of communication consists of body language
38% is expressed through voice
7% is communicated through words

Yeah, I was kind of shocked by the only 7% is communicated through words. Kind of made me feel small and unimportant with all my writing, which then made me realize that it’s all in how you express those words. That’s the key ingredient to really great writing. So my next thought was… how do my own characters express themselves?

There are 4 major ways for a character to use body language to express themselves…

  • Facial Expressions
  • Gestures
  • Body Posture
  • Space

What are the eyes of your character saying? Is your character fidgeting from boredom or restlessness? Is your character sitting forward to soak up everything another character is telling them? Or is your character in someone’s face for something that made them angry?

Also consider this… does your character’s actions match their words? Readers will believe body language and tone over what someone says. If a character says they’re open to a new idea, but crosses their arms or turns their body away, what the reader really sees is a character who is closed and rejecting the message, but not willing to admit the truth. This sort of “mixed signal” can be used to add to the character, or story. It can also take away from the character and story, if not done correctly.

When using body language it usually helps to build it up to a series of actions, because some body languages (like smiles, fidgeting, or no eye contact) can mean several different things. Writers should give about 5 clues within a scene to show context of an emotion (through body language) without coming out and saying it. This will help lead the reader to make his own conclusion.

Body language is your character. Make sure that that all body language is important, if it isn’t, cut it out. Also get rid of overly used gestures, or body language like… she sighed or he winked. Find new or better ways for your character to express themselves. Remember that too much of a good thing can tip your hand to make the writer visible to the reader. Great writers disappear as their story comes alive.