One of the most fun aspects of writing…besides spending the day in my imagination is the time I devote to character development. I LOVE this process. From finding the ‘perfect’ name, deciding what they look like to defining all the aspects of their personality.

It may be fun but it’s also important because it helps you develop interesting and compelling characters whose jobs are to help drive the plot of your novel. And, to do this as the novel’s creator you need to know what motivates your characters. You also need to have characters who are believable AND memorable. Characters who readers want to invest their time in so they will actually read beyond the first few pages of your book. Yes, character development is important.  

Character Development Tools
If you google ‘novel character development’ you will be inundated with tips— 207,000,000 to be exact. There are templates, questionnaires, worksheets and charts—holy smokes—it’s OVERWHELMING. Bear in mind what works for one writer, may not work for another. There is no right or wrong process you need to find what works best for you.

Personally, I like to keep it simple and I’ve found that a character development chart works best.  For each character, I brainstorm following elements.

• The Basics =’s name, age, place of birth
• Physical =’s eye colour and shape, hair colour and style, build, height, weight, distinguishing features and mannerisms/gestures. How do they walk? How do they talk?
• Family =’s parents, siblings, grandparents
• Personality =’s list all of the traits you want the character to have according to their role in your novel. For example, a strong-willed, independent heroine with a sense of humour (create a BIG list)
• Values =’s list all of the things that are important to your character be it climate change to punctuality (again, create a BIG list)
• Likes and Dislikes =’s—chocolate, running marathons and afraid of the dark, don’t like swimming (a comprehensive list)

 
If your brainstorming has come to a screeching halt, here is a link to tool that I think is great. WD Character Development Cheat Sheet    

Upon completion of this process, you have a clear picture of who your characters are and how they will behave so you can write them accordingly.

Character Development at its Best
Alan Bradley is a master at character development. Here's an excerpt from his novel The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag:

It's All About You
Write the book you want to read. This is a natural fit. Writers are avid readers and our bookshelves are brimming with treasures that transport us into our imagination. In the era of decluttering, I'm willing to bet those shelves are now home to only your favourites; this reveals EVERYTHING about the type of book you can write. 




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​What's on your bookshelf?
OK...now it's time for you to walk over to your bookshelf and have a peak at the genre(s) that fill those shelves. The rows of books gracing my shelves dip in the mystery genre. I adore the "Queen of Crime" Agatha Christie, Alan Bradly's Flavia De Luce, the precocious 11-year-old sleuth from Bishop Lacey and Canada's Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache who lives in the fictional village of Three Pines. (Can I just say, I'd love to live here and eat buttery croissants and drink steamy cups of cafe au lait at the local bistro).

My shelves are also stuffed with fiction novels set in exotic settings such as...

• The Birth of Venus, Sarah Dunant (Renaissance Florence)
• Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (Congo)
• The Glace Palace, Amitav Ghosh (Burma)

Many are historical fictions. 

After living in Indonesia for a year my teaching contract finished. Like so many other English as a Second Language instructors the world was now open for me to explore and explore, I did. I embarked on a six-month adventure which started in Singapore and I worked my way north up through Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. I fell head over heels in love with this pocket of the world and its people.

During my travels I was one of many foreigners present in Southeast Asia when the December 26, 2004 tsunami struck. Thankfully, I was not adhering to a tight travel schedule and was not on Ko Phi Ph for Christmas as I had originally planned. But I had met other backpackers who were heading that way and wondered what became of them.

When I eventually landed in Bangkok, there were notice boards everywhere that had pictures of fellow backpackers who were missing. It was devastating to think of all the families who were trying to locate loved ones. Hence, I became inspired to write about the plight of the tsunami's victims—not from a tourist’s perspective, but a story about a local survivor and how the catastrophe had altered their life.

​When I returned home and sat down to write my novel. I was very naive which as it turns was a good thing. I was not worried about how to get published or would the novel be good enough. I simply wrote because I wanted too and because I felt I had something important to say. Before I commenced, I developed an outline which was invaluable to the construction of the novel as it gave me a solid foundation to develop my work. It also helped to break the novel into pieces so the prospect of writing it was not as daunting.

To assist with the development your novel, please find below 5 tips to get you going on your novel's outline:

1. Brainstorm. 
This is the fun part. You have an idea for a novel so roughly sketch out all your ideas regardless of how random they may seem—you don’t have to use all of them but get them down because you never know…I suspect there will be a little gem or two in there.​ Consider: characters--Who is the protagonist? Antagonist? Where's the setting? What's the conflict? How does it resolve? 

 2. Step back. 
 and examine all your brilliant ideas. At this stage, I like to group my ideas into three sections. Keep it broad, for example what content would you like to include in the beginning of novel (conflict & rising action), middle (climax and falling action) and end (resolution).

3. Refine and Brainstorm again. 
Look at your sections and further divide them into chapters. For each chapter, include a list of ideas in bullet point form of all the content you want to include in that chapter. Again, the idea is to put everything down, do not limit your brain power.

4. Dig a little deeper. 
Each chapter has a job and that being to build and advance your plot. Examine your outline for each chapter and identify for each:
a.) What is the purpose of this chapter?
b.) Did you accomplish it?
If your chapter does not do its job, rework so that the chapter serves a purpose.
As you write your novel, refer to the outline as it will be instrumental in the construction and flow of your work.​

5. Be flexible. 
Much like my travel schedule, my plot outline was flexible. I found that as my acquaintance with my heroine deepened, I discovered she might not respond to a situation as I had originally planned therefore, I needed to tweak a chapter. And, as my research was ongoing, I would often uncover something interesting and want to work it into the plot. This flexibility allowed me to develop a stronger and more interesting novel. 

Your outline is done...GO FOR IT! DON’T WORRY what you’re going to do with the end-product and enjoy the journey of getting there.

Next step, your characters. Please check out my post that tackles character development.  

Image Source: phys.org and google 

Be True to Your Character
​One of my male narrators was an American Raven fighter pilot stationed in Laos during the Vietnam War. These pilots flew clandestine missions in America’s Secret War and unlike Vietnam where the pilots had to adhere to strict ‘Rules of Engagement,’ the Ravens were the cowboys of the airways where no such rules existed.
I had a fantastic time writing this mavericks storyline. He was a faded jean, untucked loosely buttoned Bermuda shirt, cowboy boots wearing kinda guy who was shall we say…was a little rough around the edges. In line with his personality, his language would be just as rough. Raven was the character who provided me with an opportunity to use all the bad words I had collected over my life time.

Don't Use Your Words
As writers, we love our words. We spend our days with words and we love playing with them. We also become very attached to words—I know I do. Often, when I'm reviewing a passage, I find myself thinking geez, that's a great word and I'll give myself a little pat on the back. But this is where I need to put on the brakes and consider...just because I love a word, it doesn't mean that my character would use it.

During the editing process, watch out for vocabulary or phrasing the jumps out at you as being 'your word(s).' Ask yourself...is that a word my character would say? If it's not, you have to replace it with a word your character would have in their vocabulary. This is critical for the authenticity of your characters voice. 

I love it when artists share their behind the scene stories about how a song came together or provide a peak into what inspired them to write their novel. Because I love it so much I wanted to do the same. Along with a daily reading from Beauty Beneath the Banyan (BBTB) on my YouTube Channel, I will also give a glimpse of what ignited my creativity when the novel was coming together.
#stayathome, #washyourhands and #staysafe. 

Tuesday's Tips
I made SO many newbie mistakes when I was writing my novels. Therefore, every Tuesday, I will post author tips and share these lessons so you don't make the same mistakes as me. 

A BIG congratulations! You’ve finished your manuscript and now it’s time to look for a publisher. Yikes! Actually…it doesn’t have to be yikes, with a step-by-step query plan in place—what may seem daunting is now a manageable task. To assist you with your quest, I’ve broken the process down into the following steps and added some useful tips to help you find a publisher:  

Before you send your manuscript out into the world, the foundation of your search is dependent on getting your manuscript into the right hands. Publishers do not accept anything and everything—they specialize in genres. Therefore, you must send your manuscript to a company that publishes materials in the same genre of your work.

When I began my quest, I quickly learned there are A LOT of genres beyond the fiction and non-fiction classification. A small sample of these categories includes: thriller, mystery, romance, gothic, mainstream, literary, commercial, biographical. Perhaps, you already know where you fit and that’s great! But for those who don't, please click here for a list of categories and their definitions. 

​Research. Research. Research. Create a list of the company’s that publish books like your manuscript and rank them according to their compatibility #1 being a perfect fit and #2 good fit.  You can create your list in Word or Excel or whatever platform you like. 

One of my favourite strategies to help with this ranking system was to go to the bookstore to see who was publishing work that was like mine. This exercise not only got me away from my desk, I found it inspiring to have a novel like mine in my hand. If you really dig into the book-shelves you soon notice—the same publisher(s) will keep coming up. And, voila these are the publishers you want on your target list. 

There are also a variety of tools available to help you with your list. I found The Writer’s Market a valuable resource (US & CDN info) and the Canadian Author’s Association has an extensive listing of Canadian publishers with links to their websites.

And, of course google is your friend…for example, search google for 'UK Publishing Companies' or 'US Publishing Companies.'

In the competitive industry of book publishing you must put your best self forward to get noticed. It is critical to take the time to develop an out of this world query letter/email and submission support materials to grab the publisher’s attention. Support materials may include: synopsis, chapter outline, author bio, list of publishing credits.

Tip: ONLY send publishers what they are asking for. If a publisher has requested the first 20 pages of a novel ONLY send them 20, you are not being helpful by sending them 85 pages. Publisher’s are the experts and they inundated with queries—they know what they want—you don't.

Tip: based on your target list, you have an overview of what submission documents you need to develop. To start the process rolling, rather than develop every document before you even begin the query process you could develop the core requirements (query letter) and send to publisher’s who only require a query and sample pages. And, then develop the outstanding pieces. 

I recommend the first wave of queries be sent to your #1 perfect fit publishers, they are after all your best fit therefore, they should be your priority. You can follow up with the second wave of your #2 good fits.

There’s a lot going on…to help keep you organized, I recommend you expand your target chart so that it includes the following information.

• Publisher
• Ranking
• Submission Guidelines
• Date (when the submission materials were sent)
• Mode (how the submission materials were sent i.e. email/snail mail)
• Status (of your query i.e. No, does not accept unsolicited ms, request for MS, pending. Include date of response)
• Notes (anything you deem important i.e. was it a standard rejection letter, personalized feedback or when submissions open as some publishers may only accept queries during certain months of the year)

This document will be an integral tool during your quest because at any time, in a glance, you will know who your target publishers are and the status for each company query. 

​I'm sure you're wondering...DO I NEED AN AGENT? Although, an agent's expertise is invaluable and they have access to the big publishers (a BIG bonus indeed), getting an agent can be even more frustrating than getting a publisher. It is VERY competitive therefore, many authors publish their work without one--I did, and according to The Writer's Union of Canada approximately 80% of published Canadian writers do not have an agent.   

To find an agent who is a good fit for your work, look in the author acknowledgement section of novels that are 'similar' to yours. Here, you will find the writer's shout out to their agent. Ta-da this is who you should query.

Be sure to mention that you are querying the agent because of their work with this author. This demonstrates that you have done your homework. Agents like it when you have done your homework and first impressions count in this competitive landscape.

Thoughts were pouring out of your head so fast your fingers could hardly keep up. You were in the zone. Your fingers were flying across the keyboard—words, sentences, paragraphs, pages upon pages of inspiration was falling out and you’d caught it all. And then, came that beautiful moment after the flood, tired hands resting on the keyboard and you thought…WOW! Where did that come from? That was awesome. I am BRILLIANT.
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As a writer, there is nothing more exhilarating when inspiration is flowing. The brain adrenaline high is fantastic. But, unfortunately, much like after eating copious amounts of sugar, it can followed by a crash...when future sessions at your desk are a little light on the brilliance and heavy on the crap. 

​When you find yourself smack in the middle of a creative drought, there are days when you are ‘tasked,’ and I do mean tasked with writing—it becomes a chore to pull out the words. So, what do you do?

Perhaps, you venture online…check the weather 4 times an hour, peruse Lainey Gossip for the latest update on Baby Sussex and then you pop on YouTube to find yourself some chakra cleansing, meditative, stress relieving music to put yourself back in the zone. Does it work?

I’d love to say yes! every time I’m in a rut all it takes is a weather update, some inspirational music and a hit of pop culture, but I’d be lying. The reality is more of a two-part answer.​
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​The Reality Check-In

1. Feeding the creative soul is important and do not underestimate its importance so embrace that chakra cleansing music! It can work beautifully.
2. Acknowledge that although music is lovely, if you’re avoiding your writing to the point when all you can provide at the end of the day is a celebrity update—it’s not working. In this instance, there’s a bigger issue at play that must be tackled.

​Sometimes, these writing ruts will last a few hours, days or longer. Regardless, of the duration they are painful. To help pull yourself out of these biggie droughts the most important thing is to…BE KIND TO YOURSELF. We are not kind to ourselves. We kick ourselves when we’re already down. We curse our lack of brain power. We heap on the pressure to try and get the creative flow going. These cruel knocks aimed at our resting creative spirit do nothing for productivity in fact, they hamper it. 

OMG…thanks for that?!!!??? (not). How the heck am I supposed to be kind to myself? My response is this...may I recommend the following 3 steps to self-kindness:

Step#1: Add a little sunshine.
To create a little joy and reduce the stress in your life try to incorporate as many of the following elements—spend time outdoors, pretty-up your work space with flowers or something that makes you smile, exercise, eat well, free write, listen to music, dance, read, talk with other artists, attend a community theater performance, host an artist talk, join a book club, listen to other artist’s podcasts and TED talks. This step should be ongoing. The key is to feed your happiness which in turn fuels your creativity.

Step#2: Give yourself a mantra.
Mine is…I am. I can and I will. Place your mantra on your desk. It doesn’t have to be framed; it can be as simple as a yellow post-it-note—as long as this little reminder is located somewhere you can see it everyday. Kick start your day by saying your mantra out loud firmly 3 times. Still not feeling it? Write out your mantra 10 times. Frequency of saying/writing will help you believe in yourself and your abilities.
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Step #3: Shut down that pesky little voice that’s dragging you down.
Catch your negative thoughts as they fall out and reframe them as an affirmation. For example, turn This writing is terrible, why do I even bother? into Everything I write will not be brilliant but this is great practice. The brilliance will come. The more you do this the easier it gets. Reframing your mindset injects positivity which in turn lifts you up.
 
The art of practicing self-kindness is a process and once you dig in your writing mojo will come back. You will be in the zone and your fingers will once again be flying across the keyboard. 

What helps you get out of a creative funk?

While you are writing, there's a little force that can make an appearance and create havoc with your creative process. Do any of these statements sound familiar?
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1. ​Ooooh, I don’t know…this story is too dark; people will think I’m a serial killer, so I’d better tone it down. Or, maybe I should just delete it and start again.
2. This novel might be a bit too steamy…what will my friends think? I better rework it and come up with something a little tamer.

It's your filter. As soon as you hear it, you are faced with a choice:
      A.)  you turn it off and continue with your work or,
      B.)  you listen to it and alter your work.

​Well, I’m here to tell you…DON’T LISTEN because that darn filter is destructive. To help you ignore it, and choose Option A, here's a pep talk for anyone who is suffering from self-doubt (that lovely little by-product of your filter).

​​​The filter always worries about what other people will think. And who's kidding who, as creators we want people to not only like our work—we want them to LOVE it.

But the reality is (if you can believe it?! 😊) not everyone is going to like what we do. Art, in any form is subjective and it is because of this, as an artist, we need to create for ourselves and the only way we can do this…is to turn off the filter and GO FOR IT!

I’ll say it again. I’ll shout it from the mountain top DON’T WORRY about what people think. People are going to judge your work. People are going to have very definite opinions about your work…and yes, some (but not all) of these opinions will leave you reeling because it feels like someone ripped your heart out and stomped on it five times. It hurts. It sucks. But this is the reality of releasing your work out into the world. But don’t EVER let this stop you from doing so. Be tough. Be brave. You can do it. Trust in yourself. Trust in your work.

And, whatever you do…don’t ever change the content of your work because you doubt yourself. If Stephen King turned on the filter, we might not have The Shining, Carrie or Pet Cemetery. Or, what if EL James turned on the filter…would 50 Shades of Grey be the runaway success it was?

To help get you succeed, please don’t make the same mistakes I did when I marketed my first book. If I could do it all over again, I would not do the following:

1. Believe a book will be successful on merit alone. You may think it’s beautifully written but walk into your nearest Chapters and the shelves are busting with beautifully written books.
2.  Be shy. You are the best advocate for your novel (I will add…my Mom and sister were pretty darn good too). Create opportunities to speak about your book and step up to the plate and let your passion fall out—it’s contagious and it translates into sales. 
3. In continuation with #3, when you’re on that platform don’t be in a rush to get off. Take your time, this is your moment. This is a fantastic opportunity to connect with readers. 
4. The launch period is critical and most of your sales will occur at this time, but don’t lose the momentum. Continue to build on it and you'll get those books into even more hands. 
5. Don’t be intimidated by self-promotion. Re-frame the way you think about it. Your novel is your child, be proud—it’s your opportunity to show it off.

You've got this and I've got this too, when book #2 launches I'm going to the play it smart this time round! 


Image Source: https://linguist.co.in

What to Do When You're Hit with a Creative Drought
​I’ve heard it from other writers and all the statements above have certainly spilled out of my mouth on more than one occasion and, will likely spill out again should I be faced with another creative drought. So, what’s one to do when the thought of facing a blank page is both unbearable and intimidating?

Show up. Sit your butt down in your chair and just write. It doesn’t have to be a critically acclaimed piece of work—it just has to be yours. Embrace the act of throwing some words down on that page and don’t worry where they came from or how they fit together. No pressure. No expectations.

Tools to Kick Start Your Creativity
Yikes, I’ve shown up…now what?! For a little jump start, two of my favourite tools to help get those creative juices flowing are writing prompts and free writing. 

1. Writing Prompts ​
​If I’m really blocked, I quite appreciate not having to come up with an idea for a prompt, therefore I tend to utilize what’s already been developed; there are some fantastic writing prompt ideas online. Some of my favourites include:

• What is a book, movie, song, or television program that has influenced you, and how?
• Who would be the guest list at your dream party? What would the various guests talk about?
• If you could have dinner with ANYONE (alive or dead) who would it be? Why? What questions would you ask them?
• What magic power would you like to have? How would you use it? What would it feel like?
• Invent and describe a new food.
• Imagine yourself in a different century and describe an average day in your life.
• What would you do if you were able to communicate with animals? 
• If someone gave you $10 million dollars what would you do?
• If you had a magic carpet and no budget; where would you travel to and what would you do on your adventure?
• Write about turning points in your life – what would be different now if you had made a different choice?

 
May I suggest, having a selection of writing prompts on hand. Then they’re ready to go when you are. Please click here for some more ideas.

​2. Free Writing
I was introduced to the concept of free writing when I committed to Julia Cameron’s 12-week program the Artist’s Way. The premise of this program is to help unblock artists. It’s fantastic and I highly recommend it. One of the tools Cameron recommends is the morning pages/free writing. I found the process of free writing life changing.

Every morning before I launched into my day, I sat down with a cup of bean in hand, a journal that I had bought specifically for the Artist's Way and a purple pen. The task was to write 3 pages of whatever popped into my head. Now, there were many a day when I filled up an entire page (or three) with “I don’t know what to write," or I complied my ‘To Do’ list for the day or a grocery list. Many, many days. But that was OK, the goal was to 'just write.'

Kindly note, you can use your computer if you prefer. On some occasions I do, but I will confess I find the old-fashioned pen and paper liberating. Try both. Alternate. No rules. If you would like to purchase a copy of the Artist's Way please click here.
I cannot emphasis this next point enough, do not worry about the quality of your work when using with these tools. The idea is simply to get that writing muscle working. Much like going for a run, there are days when you feel like you can run forever and other days when you may wonder why you even bothered putting your runners on.
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I'll keep saying this until you believe me...there are no rules, the idea is to experiment and have some fun. Your writing muscle will strengthen. If you walk away from your desk tomorrow without an idea for a best-selling novel be kind to yourself—the most important thing was to show up and try; the quality and ideas WILL come. You will not remain blocked.

Happy Writing! 

How do you tackle writer's block?