Amber’s Method on how to create characters and stories.
(Background – Amber is my 9 year old daughter, but she’s already teaching me a thing or two about writing.)
1. Start with a name.
She uses name books to look up interesting male and female names.
I prefer to make names up, another reason I love the fantasy genre, but I often find the names are not unique and are used in unexpected places. My current W.I.P ‘Garrick’ is actually a London theatre and a nearby road I’d never heard of before. ‘Brogan’ has been an ogre in Sherk. ‘Rike’ has been used in Mark Lawrence’s Broken Empire trilogy.
2. Use pictures off the internet to create an Inspiration File
If she wants a particular type of character like a fairy or mermaid, or maybe a dark haired 10 year old, she’ll put in the search and look through the pictures. She then copies the pictures into a file that she can use to describe the character and refer to when she needs to. This also works for settings and objects.
My method has always been looking for faces and places in magazines and plastering them around my wall. Unfortunately my workspace is in the kitchen so everyone has to put up with my mess. Using a computer file would be a lot tidier and I would have it will me all the time.
(Pinterest – I used this to give me inspiration for the cover of Visions of Zarua. It’s a great resource, and one I want to put to better use for future books.)
3. Write the story – don’t edit until then end!
I’ve often said to her are you going to change that word (I hate seeing a word underlined in red) but she says ‘No, I’ll edit it at the end.’
4. Don’t show it to others too soon.
I have not been allowed to read her work yet.
Sometimes it makes sense to show restraint and get the work ready for others to see. Also talking about the WIP too soon can kill the spark of inspiration.
5. If you’re stuck use picture prompts, or read other books for ideas.
My daughter has shown me a picture prompt site called Pobble365.com that has a picture for each day of the year to use for inspiration. It also give you a starting sentence or words, and asks questions that can spark story ideas. It’s used in school, so is aimed more at children, but it’s still a fun way to spark story ideas.
I’m looking forward to applying these tips to my writing in the future.
***
Tomorrow I’ll be discussing Beta Readers, and then onto some more crafty posts. Right now its off to Hampton Court to spent the day steeped in history and beautiful buildings. I hope to have some interesting pictures to share for ‘H’.
(The pic is of a beautiful fountain at Witley Court, Worcestershire. It’s my picture prompt for the day!)
Please leave comments and I’ll get back to you this evening. I’m looking forward to checking out some new blogs on this challenge.
What a wonderful fountain. Thank you for sharing these tips, I have bookmarked the pic for a day page already.
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Thank you. The fountain is very special, I’d love to get it in a story somehow.
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Great post to kick off the challenge. I’m looking forward to the rest. Thanks for the link to the picture a day for inspiration!
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Congratulations on day one of the challenge. Love your daughter’s tips. She promises to be a great writer😍😀
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Thank you. If she carries on as she is, we’ll be comparing sales figures in no time!
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Great start. Thanks for sharing the website with the story inspirations (though today’s picture of all the animals is a bit scary!).
Hope you enjoy the challenge!
Amanda from http://www.amandafleet.co.uk
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Thanks for visiting. Yes the picture prompt today was a bit of a mad one, April Fools day influence maybe.
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Great tips – she knows more than I do!! Good luck for the rest of the challenge 🙂
barbedwords.wordpress.org
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The trouble is she thinks she knows it all!
But she is very dedicated for a 9 year old, and I’m proud of her.
I will need lots of luck for the challenge, I still have most of the posts to write. At least I have Z covered though!
Hope you manage to fit in the challenge too.
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These are excellent tips. Amber is going to be inspiring a lot of writers!
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Thank you. It will make her smile to hear that.
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I enjoyed your writing and character development kicks. I’m especially like the vision board technique for character appearance. Pinterest is also an interesting resource.
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Thanks for visiting. Visual prompts can really get you in the mood for writing. I can’t wait to start using Pinterest more.
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Sounds like your young one has a lot of great tips!
@mirymom1 from
Balancing Act
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I wish she could help me more with wordpress and technology!
I’ve only just found your comment again after my cat ran across the keyboard and somehow managed to put it in the trash!
Thanks for visiting.
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Hi Suzanne,
Thank you for visiting today!
How fun and heartwarming that you share the joy of writing with your daughter! My daughter is 8 and it’s getting super fun to see the personality traits and interests we share. I look forward to reading more of your tips on writing! Thank you! 😊
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Thank you. It’s great to have things in common with my daughter, but not when we’re fighting over the laptop because we both want to write.
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😉
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Great tips, Suzanne. I often get names for characters when watching TV but mix them all up to produce new names. For example, when watching the football results I’ll write down some of the names of those that scored a goal and then combine them with some names from a TV series or movie.
Photo and picture prompts always work for me. They never fail to get the cogs in my imagination working.
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That’s an interesting way to come up with names. I can make use of being forced to watch the football later today!
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Now you have a reason to watch those results which nobody will know the reason for.
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Good suggestions.
My Post for B – Build and Develop Google+ Page for Your Blog – Blog Promotion
Good to visit your site as a part of my A to Z visits. My theme Blog Promotion
Getting Traffic to Blog – Essential Activity of Bloggers Along with Writing.
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Pingback: #AtoZChallenge C – Candle making | suzanne rogerson fantasy author
I love http://www.pixabay.com for photos. I find they’re a great prompt, and each says whether it can be used copyright free or not. Good luck in the Challenge.
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That’s brilliant, thanks. I’m always on the search for images so I’ll give this a go. And it’s great to know what’s free to use without getting into trouble with copyright.
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Hi, Suzanne, yes, I just check that an image I’d like to use is licenced for what I want to use it for. Each image does specify.
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Fantastic tips! Amber sounds like a wonderful writer and creative spirit. Thanks to both of you for sharing! 🙂
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Thank you
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Great tips. I actually like that pobble site. Even today’s entry of hidden temple can really spark an idea for adults :).
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Even with all the great tips available, it’s still is up to the writer to make it all work and work well. Good luck. Thanks for liking my blog posts. I look forward to reading more of yours.
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Thank you.
I agree, we writers have to put in the work, and it is a lot of hard work!
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