Newly Published: Developing Characters: Fun Ways to Cast Your Fiction

[safeharbor27]

My name is Marilyn Flower and I believe there’s no one right way to develop characters for your fiction. Some methods are logical and linear, giving you a basic bio or trait list. Other methods are open-ended and playful. If the latter is your cup of tea, My recently published, fully illustrated ebook, Developing Characters: Fun Ways to Cast Your Fiction is right up your alley.

In this short ebook, I show you how to blog as your characters, create collages of them, and use the Enneagram’s nine personality types to not only depict them but hear those characters' unique voices. Actually, I don’t just show you, I demonstrate using examples from my own novels. The only hard part will be figuring out which technique to try first.

But don't take my word for it. Here's what Ida Adams, my Substack reader had to say:

I've just started reading your Soul Collage book and I am gobsmacked. Wonderful stuff. I'm in the first chapter of rewriting a novel I wrote in 2003. I've decided to stop writing there and have my main character blog. File those blogs under their profiles, I think I'll number as well as date them. Hmm, what to do when they change, oh so many ideas going through my mind. I'm afraid Medium is going to take a back burner but I can't afford to do that.

Aarrgghh............
Thanks again.
Ida Adams

And here's what fiction and non-fiction writer, Jason Wrench had to say:

Marilyn Flower’s Developing Characters: Fun Ways to Cast Your Fiction is a delightful guide for fiction writers seeking deeper insight into character creation. As an author myself of more than a dozen published novels, I found Flower’s three techniques (blogging from the characters’ perspectives, creating SoulCollage® cards, and exploring Enneagram personality types) engaging springboards for developing authentic characters that won’t feel flat or contrived.

Although letting characters take the reins risks distraction, Flower gives tips to keep writing priorities in check. I’ve known several authors who spend so much time getting to know their characters that they never actually write a single word of the story. To help avoid this problem, Flowers ends each chapter with accessible exercises to try these methods yourself. Developing Characters bubbles over with offbeat humor and a contagious passion for the fictional friends we conjure up out of thin air. This guide is a boon for writers seeking to people their stories with dimensional, delightful characters destined to linger in readers’ minds long after “The End.”

Developing Characters: Fun Ways to Cas ... on Amazon