Kelly Hunter is an Australian author who is a USA Today bestselling author, a three-time Romance Writers of America RITA finalist and loves writing to the short contemporary romance form. She is also Editorial Director at Tule Publishing.
I missed the start of this due to a scheduling conflict, so I’ve done a summary of the content. However the room was packed and the feedback from those who were there for it all was good.
- Choose character names carefully
- Build unique character descriptions
- Engage emotions
- Know your character archetypes
- Research character occupations
- Create flawed characters
- Characters exist off the page
- Deepen character conflicts
- Focus on what makes your characters extraordinary
- Challenge your characters to change
- Character arcs (growth and decline)
- Key scenes and other scenes
Plutchick’s wheel of emotions
Robert Plutchik (21 October 1927 – 29 April 2006) was a professor of psychology who studied emotions (amongst other things). He created a wheel to illustrate opposing emotions, and each emotion is expressed with different intensities. These are all useful options for characters in fiction.
Jungian Archetypes wheel
The archtypes developed by pyschologist Carl Jung are universal, archaic patterns and images that derive from the collective unconscious and are the psychic counterpart of instinct. In Jungian psychology, archetypes are highly developed elements of the collective unconscious. The existence of archetypes can only be deduced indirectly by using story, art, myths, religions, or dreams.
So I don’t break any copyright, I have knocked together my own version of the wheel for your edification. Again, some great ideas for characters.
Reading list:
Emotions and life: perspectives from Psychology, biology and evolution, Robert Plutchik
The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious, Carl Jung
45 Master Characters – Mythic models for creating original characters, Victoria Lynn Schmidt
The Complete Writes Guide to Heroes and Heroines, Tami D. Cowden
The Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr and EB White