It is week 2 of NaNoWriMo prep month! Hopefully you have an idea of what you are going to write about in November, or at least have a few ideas. Today I will be giving some insights on characters and will be ending off the blog post with a few motivational tips and tricks so I hope you enjoy 🙂

Characters~

Characters are such an important factor in any story, because when someone reads your story they look for something or someone to connect to. Usually what they connect to is one of your characters, whether it is how they look, act, what they enjoy or hate, or even just something they have experienced. It is also important that you connect with your characters and understand them because otherwise your characters will fall kind of flat! Anyways, here are a few tips to keep in mind when creating characters.

• Flaws – Even though though this should be an obvious one, we have to remember that since nobody in this world is perfect, neither is a character in your world. Whether it is them biting their nails to stubs, always forgetting their keys or being late to everything, they need to have some flaws. It is also good to have physical flaws because nobody looks perfect either! Maybe they are a teenager who has acne or someone who has a scar on their lip from a fishing accident. Whatever it is just give them some sort of flaw that makes them like you or me!
• Uniqueness – What makes them different? Readers don’t want to read about a character they have read about a million times so change it up! You don’t have to have a super massive difference that makes every single one of your characters extremely different from one another, but for a few consider what makes them “special”.
• Diversity – This is a huge one because we need more diversity in books! We need characters of all races, sexual orientations, genders, etc, etc. Everyone needs to be represented in books so remember that when you are writing! Not only does it help more people connect with your book, but it also is more realistic.

Motivation~

Remember to have fun creating your story and world! It should be fun and exciting because you are creating something from nothing which is truly amazing.

If you feel as if you are lacking in motivation, some tips I have for you is to check out some TED Talk videos! There are some really inspiring and amazing talks with authors like Amy Tan, and they talk about creativity and where story ideas come from. I had to listen to a few for my Creative Writing class and I really enjoyed them. Below are a few links from ones I personally enjoyed 🙂

https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius

https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_tan_on_creativity

https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator

That is all for this NaNoWriMo Prep #2 and I hope you enjoyed. Don’t forget to check out my last blog post: Reading/Writing Update!