What is a fatal flaw? And how can you develop one for your character? How should the fatal flaw be resolved through your book or series? And how can you keep your characters irrational behavior believable to your readers? Remember that a stories endpoint and a flaws true resolution doesn’t have to be the same thing. Now dig deep into your characters past and find that fatal flaw!
What is nicey-nice? How can you use character flaws and irrational reactions to combat it? As a writer we need to remember to push boundaries, silence that inner critic, and steer clear of writing our own reactions into our character. So how do you fix a section that is too nice? And how can you use character reactions to build tension into your story? Make your characters reactions messy and their relationships imperfect and you’ll be on your way to writing characters that keep the reader engaged!
What are stakes? And how does your characters agency interact with them? How do you make your stakes personal and individual for your character? And how can you use your stakes to evaluate your plot structure? How should the stakes change through the story? And how do the stakes affect your characters actions? Remember, your characters agency must be the thing that drives your story forward!
How should you use layers of emotion? And at what point in the writing process should you focus on getting them on the page? How should your character express their emotions and when can you tell if you are throttling them? Remember that not everything has to be big to be powerful and that each emotional moment for your character will have an emotional tail.
Why do you want to evoke emotions in your reader? And what are some nuts and bolts ways to make that happen? Remember to stick to the basics, to structure your emotional payoffs, and that even emotions deserve an arc. We talk about how to handle this with tension and release, your character’s arc, and offsetting it from your physical climaxes. Don’t stray into melodrama, and keep that emotional pull all the way to the end of your novel!
I'm Alida
I help people express their gifts to the world.
I do not believe in formulas. I believe that the stories we are compelled to tell the world make demands on us, and it is our privilege to meet those demands in order to reach the most people in the most authentic and compelling way possible.
