Saturday, December 10, 2011

Grown-UP Christmas List #1

As promised, I’m sharing my Christmas list. My writing Christmas list. These are the things I want for my manuscript. They should also be the things every writers wants and the things that make readers love a book.


v     Characters – I want three-dimensional characters that jump off the page. I want characters that are not clichéd or boring. I want characters that my audience can relate to and like or love to hate.


v     Tortured Characters - I want to torture my characters to the point that the reader can hardly recognize them at the end of the book. I want the readers to feel sorry for them and question my (the author) sanity.
 

v     Realistic dialogue – I want my young adult (teenage) characters to sound like teenagers when they talk (and their inner dialogue when they think). I want their exchanges to be honest and not full of adult like mannerisms and thoughts. I don’t want people to think about the “old lady” who wrote the piece while they’re reading the characters words.


v     A Clear Goal for my Protagonist – I want my character’s goal(s) and motivations to be clear to the audience. I want them to have goals that are attainable for the length of the book I’ve written. I want my young adult and middle grade characters to have goals that are realistic for their age.


I decided to pick a song with a lot of character for this post. So fittingly, I chose Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt. Enjoy!



Have a great day. Read a book and laugh.



9 comments:

  1. Great post. I may have to steal your list for myself.

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  2. What a great idea! I want these things for my manuscript too!

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  3. Yep, I'm willing to work for all that. Will even go without food for two days, eat beans and drink water while sitting in a cold, musky basement wearing a tattered knit skull cap, with internet service of course. Sometimes, you have to play the part and set the mood. :-)

    Sexy Christmas song, by the way but that's Ms. Kitt for you.

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  4. Yes, yes. Great list. I want all these things too and will remember them this coming year as I meet new characters and continue with the old. Thanks.

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  5. Fi, go right ahead and take it...I figured most writers would appreciate and want the same things for Christmas. LOL

    Kelly, I figured you would.

    Totsy, I want to read your story if that's what they go through. Fantastic!

    Your Welcome, Beverly. It's Christmas so I'm willing to share my gifts (or wishes for gifts). LOL

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  6. Like Fi, this tempts me to make my own list. I don't usually take the time to think of these things. My only writing rule, besides keeping my spelling and grammar on-par, is 'never be boring'.

    This song is lots of fun!

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  7. Agree. You need to put your characters through some bad torture, and you need to give them some breathing room at the end. Ironic.

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  8. Well, I was gonna come up with my own holiday wish list for my MS, but yours is better, so I'm "borrowing."

    I will, however, torture my characters in their own sweet & sour way.

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  9. That's a BIG relief - I just hate to be a stoner --- Greetings, earthling!! Gottawanna run back to the Elysian Fields soon, but take anything and everything you wanna from our wonderfull, plethora-of-thot to write the next, great masterpeace -if- I can but kiss your gorgeous, adorable feets and/or cuddle withe greatest, ex-mortal-girly-ever to arrive in Seventh Heaven. Think about it. Do it! Get back with me Upstairs, k? God bless you, doll: pleasure-beyond-measure is waiting in the Great Beyond for you and eye. Love you. PS: the musical term MORENDO means ‘dying-away in tone-and-time’. How very apropos for U.S. …thewarningsecondcoming.com

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