Here we look at some alternative words to use instead of 'Look' and words to describing someone's voice. Improve your kid's grammar, vocab skills with our books. Check them out here. Help your child improve grammar, vocab skills with our books. Check them out here.

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What is Worldbuilding? Worldbuilding is how we create an Alternate World for our story where the AVATARS interact and the story events unfold. It is the

Arguments are one those things that are both exciting and difficult to write. These are creative writing tips for making sure they have max impact.

If you want to write a fantastic romantasy story but aren't sure where to start, here are 50+ romantasy writing prompts to help you start.

As most readers will tell you, there is something quite disturbing about a character who loves dogs one moment and is terrified of them the next, or who has pants on at the beginning of a line of d…

Hem / Hur-skriver-man-en-bok? Att skriva en bok och bli författare är mångas dröm. Men hur skriver man en roman? Det viktigaste är att börja skriva. Det låter enkelt och det kan det vara men skrivp…

The meat and potatoes of a novel is the plot; the juicy action and story-telling which brings characters on a journey.

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Don't head into November without a plan. Arm yourself with this NaNo Pre-Writing List and you'll already be more than halfway to NaNoWriMo victory!

The unofficial Queen Of Twitter Chrissy Teigen asked people to share their most stupid 1-minute fame stories and they delivered.

Writing Worksheet – Reconnect with your Story (PDF) Your harddrive is littered with languishing stories; I know it is! You believed in those stories in the beginning and built them up word by word, suffering when you had to run errands or go to work or even sleep. What happened? Don’t doubt that starting spark.…

She came to you in a dream, at the dinner table, in the shower. What did she tell you? Did she speak at all? Did her looks explain everything? The majority of writers understand they cannot completely control their characters. Why? When you create them they become their own person. The writer is just there to report the journey through the conflicts they made. (If you need help with conflicts, start here: Conflict and Character.) I've read from several reference books on how I go about creating characters. It's not so much that they help me come up with one, they help me dimensionalize (oh yes, new word) them into helping me create plot. Once you understand your characters it's easier to make the plot-plot-plotting as you type-type-type your pages. Your characters are the ones that move plot as they deal with the conflicts you've put in their way. Does that make sense? Comment if it does or doesn't. To figure out your character the best way is something we all know and love, but somehow we get the descriptors prioritized differently, perhaps wrongly. What do I mean: the color of your character's hair does not matter when it comes to the reader (unless it's purple, or it's an indicator into something else in the story, or both). The reader cares about caring: the heart, the mind, the soul. Create your character from the inside-out, and let the outside reflect inside. Designing Your Character Establish Goals and Motivations Prioritize Traits Believe The Lie Cue their "Aha" Moment Flesh Out the Face (and body...and hair) Here is my character template sheet I customized on Scrivener. If you don't have this application, I wish I could throw it into your computer right now, so you could get to work on it right away. But I can only send you this handy link from Literature & Latte. (It's a free trial; please take advantage! I adore Scrivener. It makes outlining and note-keeping so much easier. I'm an index-card kinda gal and this app really works for me. ) BRIE'S BODACIOUS CHARACTER TEMPLATE: Look at all that craziness. Okay. It's not totally crazy. Actually makes some sense. Are you ready for the explanations? Here we go: Establish Goals and Motivations This is foremost because this is your plot-driver. Your character is nothing without desire, and your book is plotless if the character isn't wanting enough to be motivated. Establish a concrete goal and figure out why they are motivated to achieve it. A motivation might be an over-protective family and the goal might be freedom to be their own person. I have a character who comes from an abusive household. She wants to be independent and do her own thing but her family restricts her. The motivation might also be the conflict. It depends and that's another subject. Focus! Prioritize Traits You don't want an info-dump to make the reader groan and toss your book aside (or over the fence...cough). Put your character in pieces throughout your story. What trait do you want to show first? Choose wisely. The first trait is the one that'll stick to them the entire book. Like a first impression. This trait will be in their first scene. Are they a womanizer? Lazy? Hot-headed? Family-oriented? You choose. And then choose another. Remember Shrek? Your characters are onions. Make them sweet, sharp, or purple (purple poppin' everywhere today!), but peel the layers one by one, and give your reader a taste. Just a taste. Believe The Lie The Lie is their belief. What do they strongly believe in? What are they convinced about that is their truth? Possible Lies: all women are manipulative See-You-Next-Tuesdays You can only rely on yourself money brings happiness people are too stupid to live independently killing murderers is not murder, it's justice K.M. Weiland wrote an excellent post on Believing the Lie and it's where I got all the questions for it: The Lie Your Character Believes Cue their "Aha" Moment Characters will grow. They will change. Their belief system may be shattered. An "aha" is the moment of realization. Their Lie will be put in the spotlight and crushed before the character's eyes. Truth rises from The Lie's remains and the character sees everything, from their first scene up to the "Aha" moment. What has changed? Why? How? If your character has no "aha" moment, there is no growth, and the reader will be left empty, and your book flying over their fence. Flesh Out the Face (and body...and hair) I said the outside should reflect the inside. Now is the time to look at their personality through their goals and motivators, their traits, and beliefs, and consider their physical appearance. A lot of factors come into play here: their location, origin, discipline, vocation, positive or negative traits, finances, etc.. You're not going to have a soldier with long hair and a beard (unless they're special ops) but maybe they have a tattoo that indicates something more. Or a woman who is very uptight and doesn't have a single wrinkle in her wardrobe. Maybe you have a rebel teen who can't afford a professional haircut, so they cut and dye their own hair against their parent's wishes. Physical descriptions are lesser priority than what will help move your story. There are a couple exceptions that I use, but they don't overrule the goals and motivations which push the characters through conflict. Ultimately, it's up to you. I have given you my template in hopes of inspiring you to build your characters with depth. My character sheet is from months of adding and subtracting what I need to make it work for me. As you can see, I have "Food" and "Song" as a helper. I'm a former chef who worked in the Navy for eight years. The culinary world is a part of me and I know how it feeds into people's lives (you see what I did there?). Favorite food might not be priority, but it gives me perspective on my character. Kinda like going out on a date with them outside the book and just seeing them as a person. That's this blog, by the way: Dating Your Characters. Their food doesn't even have to show up in the book; it's just something to help dimensionalize them. Just like the Song, which is my interpretation of their theme. When I need some motivation to write and need to get into a character's head, I have a playlist. But their theme song generalizes that playlist. For instance, my boy Caelum's song is "King Me" by Lamb of God. I listen to it if I need to and feel the anger, the frustration, the driving factor of him. That's why it's in the template. Add Song to your template, if it helps you. What would you add to your template? Would you take away anything? Please comment below and tell me if this helped or didn't help. I'd love to hear from you. I'm also on Facebook if you wanna stalk me there. Say Hi! Hi!

Creative Writer Worksheet – Character Sketch (PDF) You may have written a character sketch for a fictional person before, but how about for someone from your real life? Try filling in this character sketch worksheet to gain a deeper understanding of people you love, hate, or feel indifferent towards. “People do not seem to realize…

❝ LIGHTNING GAVE ME ABS? ❞ [ BARRY ALLEN IMAGINES ]

This character questionnaire helps you think differently and create memorable characters for your stories with 150+ character questions.

Since I started this blog, I've been trying to figure out something that I could do that hasn't been done a thousand times before. All the...

You can use this table of the 12 archetypes to motivate a character's actions and to check that he or she is acting 'in character'.

Creative Writing Worksheet – Politics (PDF) No subject could be less dear to my heart than politics, and in consequence I find myself immensely impressed by writers who create intricate political intrigue in their stories. On one end of the spectrum are science-fiction authors like Lois McMaster Bujold and Anne McCaffrey who invent the political systems of different planets, and on…

I know you guys like making your readers cry, so I thought I'd enable this pattern.

There are a number of things that can drive readers away from your book, and badly-developed characters are definitely close to the top of that list. It’s not always done intentionally but i…

What is POV? What are objective versus involved narrators? Learn how to use points of view well in your story with this complete guide.

Hast du Lust zu schreiben, aber du weißt nicht was? Dann habe ich hier für dich das Richtige. 10 Tipps für kreative Schreibideen.

What are pinch points? Of all the important moments in your story, they are most likely to be neglected. But they're crucial to your story structure.

Dialogue writing requires a good ear but you can learn how to write dialogue that sings with practice. Read 7 tips for great conversation.

So you're building the world of your story, and you have your map and the basic outline of a country or kingdom. It's time to add people! Get advice on developing the denizens of your fictional world, from their culture to their names and politics.

One of my favorite ways to outline or plan a story is to map it out like a subway or road map. Here's how this technique works. Each road or subway line