Highlighting Characteristics

So you have a character. You know this person better than anyone, yet you aren’t sure you are getting it across to your readers. What do you do? Give them a nice little list of characteristics that make up this person you have created and sneak it in the first few pages of your story?

You could. But you may bore them, plus the chances are your reader is going to whizz through the list and not absorbing your carefully selected laundry list of characteristics.

What if you highlighted one thing? Just one important detail?

Easy!

Hang on. One thing? Just one thing? One thing that makes this character so unique that if he/she was pushed into a pile of fictional characters a reader could identify and yank your dude out of the pile?

For one of my stories, the fact that the main character, Allie, is always losing thing is a defining characteristic. She is brainy and winning awards, yet very absentminded and thus loses things. A lot. How is this important? Well, outside the story it really isn’t. Everyone can probably think of someone they know or times where they have lost things due to preoccupation. Yet, this characteristic is key within the story. People are stealing Allie’s work from under her nose. It isn’t particularly noted or even noticed seeing as she is always losing things. Therefore it is easy to discount missing documents, purses, keys, etc. This causes problems and conveniently becomes a vital plot point.

Once you have your key feature/characteristic, think of a way to highlight that feature for your readers. Take a lone paragraph and fill it with 2-3 sentences on that key feature. The chances are the reader is going to take note. (But don’t overdo it.)

If I had to describe Allie in a few sentences to highlight her absent-mindedness, I might say something like this:

The expression ‘she’d lose her head if it wasn’t attached’ could have been made with Allie in mind. The woman lost three purses in four months. She was losing documents so often she didn’t just fear losing her job, but her sanity as well.

What sort of things might be key to your character and hence become an important part of your story’s plot?

Chewing gum? The fact that your character walks like they’ve been stuck on a horse for days? A severe dislike for dill pickles? Whatever you choose, make it work for you.

Enjoy!

Catch Up Time: Blog Contests

I took a few days off and almost forgot to update you lovely folks on what happened in the online ‘stuff’ I was involved in last week.

Over on Nathan Bransford’s blog and his Agent For a Day contest, I was query number 15. (I offered to have my query tossed in the slush pile for his readers to get a taste of what it is like to be an agent.) I just checked and there are 325 comments with an 8% request rate. I did learn through this process that my query is repetitive. Believe it or not, this query was looked over/critiqued by others. But seeing it through these generous fresh eyes, I see all sorts of things I didn’t before. It was a great experience and I am pleased to be a part of it, even if I did get rejected almost 300 times.

Over on the Miss Snark’s First Victim Blog, I was part of Authoress’s Secret Agent Contest (Entry #34). Sadly, I didn’t hook the secret agent (Kate Schafer Testerman–I guessed it was her. I read her blog all the time and recognized her voice in the comments section.). She didn’t totally discount my entry, but she wasn’t hooked either. And I learned from the wonderful readers who left comments on my 250 word piece that I did overdo the ‘breathing’ thing in my opening. I guess I was kind of banging the issue over their head. Oops! Sorry guys. I will fix that!

The interesting thing with this contest was the fact that the changes I made (based on judge feedback from a different contest) were the very things that turned off these readers as well as the agent. Ack! Another writer, Judith, noted this in her piece as well. I guess we both learned to be ourselves, now didn’t we? Either that or you can’t win no matter what you do. Ha, ha. Groan.

Oh, and I also entered two pitch contests last week. One I’ve heard back on Query Tracker. I wasn’t picked out of the 500+ entries. It was good practice though. Try summing up your work in one line. Wowzers! I won’t hear back for the Knight Agency’s pitch contest for some time yet, but I don’t have my hopes up too high on that one. I’m sure they’ve had at least 2000 entries and while I am pleased with my pitch, I’m not confident I can knock 2000 other folks out of the ballpark. Know what I’m saying?

All the contests were great experiences for me, but they also wore me out. Combine that with the mind bending online class with Shannon Donnelly and my brain is a big, messy, mashed up pile of swirling neurons.

Either way, I’ve learned an incredible amount in the past week…leading me to admit that my trip to Vegas and LA last weekend came just in time. I needed a break and distraction. Not thinking about writing or even checking email for 3 days was just what the doctor ordered. But now I’m back…so let’s hit it!

If you are curious, these were my pitch contest entries (long, convoluted and well, the best I seemed to be able to come up with at the time):

For Query Tracker (one line only):
When Beth breaks up with her fiancé as a way to solve her mounting problems, she also breaks up with her dreams of starting a family; however she doesn’t count on the new man in town waltzing over to offer her dreams on a platter or that following her dreams will only add to her mounting problems.

For the Knight Agency (you are only allowed 3 sentences):
After an accident takes her future father-in-law’s life, Beth breaks up with her fiancé and their mounting problems, not to mention her dreams of starting a family. While she waits for her ex to recover from his debilitating guilt due to causing the fatal accident as well as dry out, Beth meets a fresh-from-the-city doctor who provides exactly what she expects: a steady shoulder to cry on as well as an unbiased ear. What Beth doesn’t expect is the dazzling engagement ring she can’t seem to refuse nor the fact that her ex is suddenly speeding down the path to recovery—just in time to make Beth question whether she should utter the words ‘I do’.