Personality

One thing that makes a character memorable is a great personality.  In the dating scene, that might mean you attract others.  In writing however, a great personality has to do with how easily the reader can see our character and match that up with the words they use, the actions they take, and who they are.  Being an evil person doesn't necessarily mean the character doesn't have personality; they just have a particular type of personality that hopefully is in line with who they are supposed to be.

As I work on improving my own writing, one tool that has really helped me get a better idea about my characters are biographies.  I have only recently started doing this type of thing, but I've found it so much easier to choose the words a given character might use in conversation or describe the clothes they wear.  I can more easily see the mannerisms my main character has that makes his love interest laugh.  For example, the way his clothes always look like an unmade bed even though his hair has to be combed just so.  These little imperfections help describe the personality that makes these people unique.

One other factor is how personality might change over the life of the story.  Writers talk about character growth, and changes in personality are an example of this.  Where there was once a completely insecure young man might later be a more confident hero everyone is cheering for.  That shy personality just won't work later in the story because everyone expects this change.  And the hero hopefully comes to an understanding about themselves, figuring out that this improvement isn't a bad thing.

How do you capture the personality of your characters on the written page?

Odors

Okay, so odors may be an odd word choice when discussing writing, but it actually is something we need to think about.  I'm not trying to say that we need to describe how stinky the antagonist is;  rather I am saying that writing descriptive passages full of sensory imagery is a great way to fully immerse the reader in our worlds.

The sense of smell is often ignored, which is tragic.  Even if you don't have a strong sense of smell (I don't), there are certain universal smells that can be conveyed with just a few choice phrases.  Consider a passage describing the smell of burning popcorn.  There are very few people who don't know just how bad that smells.  And telling someone about it in detail creates an instantaneous reaction.  While this particular smell is usually something people would prefer to avoid, there is no doubt they could imagine standing there with that aroma and feeling repulsed.

How about a huge flowerbed full of roses?  A passage describing the aroma as a slight breeze flies across these fragrant stems is sure to evoke any number of emotions for the reader.  Whether they like the smell of roses or not, they'll see these flowers as realistically as if they were actually standing among them.  And then they're captivated by our world, eager to see what else unfolds.

When was the last time you described the smells in your world?

November

If you're not aware, November is one of the most significant months of the year for any writer.   It doesn't even matter where you are in your writing journey because there's something that occurs every November to inspire and invigorate any writer - NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it is an event held annually during the month of November.  Basically the idea is to write every day for 30 days with a goal of hitting 50,000 words (or potentially more).  And just about every writer on the planet has heard of it or volunteered for the challenge.

To be fair, I have yet to finish NaNoWriMo (something I hope to change this year).  I attempted NaNoWriMo back in 2009, but I had to stop as the pressure of finishing my Bachelor's degree became too much.  I made the decision to graduate (which I don't regret), but I did write about 37K words before I stopped.  I consider that to be a decent attempt and I learned just how much I could accomplish in such a relatively short time.

Since November is usually a cold month (here in the U.S. anyway), there's a great reason to huddle inside with your writing implements, frantically getting those words down every day.  And NaNoWriMo means not having to write perfectly - just write.  Sure you'll have to go back later and edit, but that's a given no matter how you choose to write.  Just make sure you write.

What will you be doing this November?