As I am away this week Dreamland’s Insurgents offered this guest posting up for me in lieu of our regular postings. Please enjoy.
Passion is the golden rule for writing convincing characters. When I offered to write a guest post for Random, one of the things that struck me reading over her past blog posts and the manuscript for her WIP she’s shared with me is the passion so evident in her writing. Her enthusiasm has been a real inspiration for me, and it really comes out in her characters, too!
Passion!!!
I’ve seen students in creative writing workshops really fail to make their characters come to life, no matter how good the premise or “plot” is, and I’ve seen the silliest stories really “snap” because a character had an emotional drive to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I think readers really respond to passion, the exploration of an emotion. After all, we’ve all felt emotional under what are probably silly circumstances! At least, if we were to look at it logically. Characters, like us, are not always logical, and their passions are a most satisfactory explanation of their actions sometimes.
In her WIP, Mo Thuras, Random presents two very passionate main characters: Melody and Kyi. Their passions are what drive the story forward. Melody wants to figure out her identity and sets out to explore the galaxy and discover where she is from. Fate features prominently in the plot, but it’s her reaction to it that really makes us relate to her. Watching the plot unfold and the characters grow has been a really unique and satisfying experience for me. I feel lucky to have been able to watch these characters meet and grow into the shoes the plot set out for them!
How about you? Where do you find the inspiration for your character’s passions? How do you make it go beyond merely “interests” into something that really drives them? Share your stories in the comments!
Random Acts of Writing 
Wow talk about fire! This is awesome!
Yes, he wrote an amazing piece, I was ever so thankful to him!!!
Great writing partners are hard to come by, he is the BEST!!!
Wow I am so glad you found someone to write with you are fantastic! Have a great evening!
Great post! And I totally resonate with this. To answer your question, I gave my characters some of my interior life. I didn’t want them to be exactly like me (especially my male characters). But I wanted them to be driven. None of my main characters accepts the status quo, which makes them outsiders. They buck against the system in their own ways (through asking questions and for some, outright rebellion). And it costs them.
As you said, characters are not always logical. I was certainly never “always logical” when I was the age of my characters (15/16/17). I pursued the wrong people and made lots of mistakes. I want the same for my characters.
Reblogged this on Life after work.