1

CONJURING CONVINCING CHARACTERS

Making Your Characters into Real Boys

Meghan Thomas

2

Elements of Craft

CharacterPlotSettingTheme

3

BEING THE BLUE FAERIE

4

“MY PRECIOUS”

What does your character want?

What can’t she live without?Deep desire & immediate desirecan be expressed explicitly or in

the abstract.Desire leads to action and

image.

5

PRESENTING A CHARACTER TO THE READER

Action

Thought

Voice

Image

Telling

Hello, my name is Nadia. I’m twenty-seven years old and no one knows I drink myself to sleep every night.

6

Nadia

Twenty-seven

years oldShoulder Length Black Hair

Alcoholic

Sad/Depresse

dMarketin

g Executive

Likes popcorn

Tone deaf

Thinks if she dies

alone her cat will eat her

Character Trait Web

7

GARBAGE

WHAT WE THROW AWAY CAN REVEAL WHO WE ARE

Peach pits?

Magazines? Cigarette Butts? Bottles?

Tissues?

MAIL? BILLS? LETTERS?

What is in YOUR character’s garbage?

8

INTERNAL TRANSFORMATIONNadia is despondent and unhappy

Nadia encounters an oldwoman in the alley behindher office building whosebody has been ravaged by years of alcoholism

Nadia tries to help the old womanOld woman steals from Nadia

Nadia decides to get sober

9

I don’t want to be a crazy lady in an alley. I’m checking myselfinto rehab and finallycalling my mother.

10

Further Reading

Refresh, Refresh by Benjamin Percyhttp://www.theparisreview.org/fiction/5585/refresh-refresh-benjamin-percy

Hoodie in Xanadu by Ann Beattiehttp://www.theparisreview.org/fiction/6023/hoodie-in-xanadu-ann-beattie