Profiling ~ Getting to Know Your Characters By Connie Vines

CLICK TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON

pro·fil·ing

ˈprōˌfīliNG/

noun

1. the recording and analysis of a person's psychological and behavioral characteristics, so as to assess or predict their capabilities in a certain sphere or to assist in identifying a particular subgroup of people.

It's always a good idea to get to know your characters before starting your novel.  Of course, little quirks and warts always show up as the story progresses.  However, I feel it is a good idea to 'get to know' your main characters before jumping into to your story.

How, exactly is this possible?  Our characters are not 'real' people.  Perhaps they are not 3-dimensional people``but as a writer, my characters must be 'real' to me and to my readers.  Otherwise, I do not have a novel or a believable story to tell.

So. how exactly. do I go about 'profiling' my characters?

Here are a few things which I implement:

See what he/she will share with you.  What he hides, what motivates him, and what he really needs.

• Basic Information:  What is the character's age, sex, ethnicity?  Describe his physical appearance (include unique features, scars, dimples).  How does he dress?  What about his clothing speaks to the kind of person he is (carefully pressed/rumpled and stained).  What item does he carry about with him.  What is it he can't live without?

• Voice:  Does the character speak quickly or slowly?  Does he overuse any verbal tics?  Are his sentences choppy or rambling?  Is he well educated? Working class?  If you were blind folded, could you pick-out your character's voice in a room filled with people?  Why?

• Education and Finances:  Is he naturally intelligent, clever, witty, or shy?  Is he book-smart? Self-taught, or experienced in a specific field?  Is he barely scraping by, allow him to live comfortably?  Is his job a job, or personally satisfying?

• Special Skill and Talents:  Day-to-day skills?  Computers, mechanical, green thumb, cook?  Talents?  Name on unique talent the character has that no one knows about, and one talent he openly shares.  Are any of these skill a pride or and embarrassment?  Why?

• Family and Family dynamics.

• Morals and Ethics:  Is is always of particular interest to me because most of my stories deal with social issues.

• Identity vs. Persona:  What five words would your character use to describe himself?  What 5 words would his best friend/family member use?

• Secrets and Fears:  What is your character's biggest secret? His biggest fear?

• Backstory and Wound: Thinking about that fear and secret, the once your character doesn't want to reflect on or admit to. . .what event in his past caused the very thing he feared come to pass?  How this event sent him on a new life path?

• Needs, Desires: What is your opening moment--the start of the story?  What makes this day any different from any other day?  What does he think will make him happy? What does he care not wish for?  What would allow him to face any challenge/hardship?

Now to but it all together!  The more you know about your character(s) the better you story.  Of course, not everything you discover ends up in your story.  However, it certainly makes the journey more vivid for both the writer and the reader.

My characters are all very different, and lead very different lives.  Yet, I trust each is unique and vivid to my readers.  Each story is a mini-world filled with love, heartache, adventure, and always,always--a happily ever after!

Happy Reading!

Connie 

A word or two about the Vikings--Tricia McGill

My BWL books on Smashwords

As you can probably guess I have a fascination for the Vikings. There have been many tales told of them and their exploits, their travels, and above all about their raiding, looting, ravishing, and brutality. Most of what we have learned of their exploits comes from findings in graves and digs in places around the world that they inhabited. My main fascination with them is because of their great seamanship and their wonderful skills at building the ships that allowed them to sail to far off places. Their navigational skills set them apart.

The Vikings came from all over the region known as Scandinavia. They didn’t get along with each other and fought with their countrymen as fiercely as they fought with their enemies. The word Viking comes from “vikingr” which means pirate, or “Viken” the area around the Oslo fjord in Norway. They were also called Norsemen (men from the north)

The deck of a longship

Vikings were skilled in metal work and this helped their society to create the sharp axes they used to cut down the wood needed for building their famous ships and houses. After the trees were cut down the land that was left was perfect for the farmers to grow their crops. The Vikings prized their swords and it was said they even gave them names.

Warriors would often be buried with their weapons so they could use them in the afterlife.

A Viking craftsman’s chest was discovered in Sweden in 1936 that contained amazing implements and tools that were used for metal working and carpentry. Is it any wonder their longships were a masterful work.

The Vikings did not invent the runes but adapted a script in use at that time in parts of central Europe. The Vikings had a 24 letter alphabet that was reduced to 16 letters by AD800. Runes were replaced by the Latin alphabet as the Vikings were converted to Christianity.

Viking 16 rune alphabet

Vikings were masters of their environment and because of this their culture flourished. So, coastal settlements obviously became over-crowded. Thus the first adventurers set of in their wonderful ships to find new lands. Early Viking raiders were known to arrive at a new land in the spring, spend the summer there looting, then sail home for the winter.

A Viking jeweler's tools

 

Domestic Viking objects found at Coppergate, York UK

Vikings despised weakness. Even their poor babies who were sickly were often thrown into the sea at birth or left outside to perish so they would not be a burden to the family.

If you watched the series on TV last year “Vikings”, which I would not have missed for the world, it had Ragnar’s wife in a quandary as by rights she should have had one of their babies killed when it was born with a slight deformity, but she refused and clung to the child, which caused all sorts of problems between them. This series was not for the faint-hearted as it contained brutality of the worst kind.

The Vikings loved their rituals. Some were horrific by our standards. They made sacrifices to their gods—of animals and people. Every nine years they held a ceremony in Sweden (according to a writer named Adam of Bremen) where animals and humans were sacrificed and their blood was offered to the gods and their bodies were then hung from trees.

I  could go on for pages about the Norsemen, but guess this is where I should end. 

Find information on all my books here at my website

Who Are The Heroes?

On August 15th, 1945, Japan surrendered to the United States, and World War II was officially over. That day has always meant something to me: my father fought in this war, my older brother died in this war, my ex-husband fought in this war, and my husband of 36 years fought in the Korean War. To me, these four men are heroes, as are all the men and women who have fought, died, or returned home from the many wars we have been involved in.

But who are the heroes of today? Sports stars from football, baseball, basketball, and the like are touted by the media as being "heroes." Really? What makes a football star a hero? I guess it depends upon your own personal definition of who or what makes a hero.

This is mine: A hero is a person who willingly, and without a thought of himself/herself, makes a personal sacrifice for the sake of someone else, known or unknown.

This is why every member of the US Armed Services is a hero to me. Each of these men and women have volunteered to sacrifice their own life, if necessary, in order to create safety for those of us left on the shores of the United States. This is why each and every one of the First Responders on September 11, 2001, is a hero to me. They willingly and courageously risked their own lives, and many lost them, to save the lives of hundreds of people they didn't know.

Who are the unsung heroes in our midst? How about the four teachers, school psychologist, and the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary school, who all died defending their students? How about six year old Jesse Lewis, who yelled "Run!" to the first graders in his class when the gunman rushed in, but had to stop to reload his weapon before he could begin killing again? His first shot went into the head of Jesse Lewis, who had waited until all his classmates were out the door before he turned to run. Too late.

What about all the grandparents today who are raising their grandchildren because their own kids have left the life of responsibility to drown themselves in drugs, or alcohol, or who go to jail because of having committed a crime? These Senior Citizens have made personal sacrifices, some have even had to return to some form of work to make ends meet, now that they have children in the home again. Their dreams of an easy and peaceful retirement have come to a sudden halt, as they now have to begin raising kids all over again. As a grandmother, I could not do this, so to me, those who do are heroes.

Where are the values of today's society, when we read and hear over TV all the time about the praises heaped upon the sports stars, celebrities, and other people of note, all of whom are referred to as "heroes?" What exactly have they done to be considered "heroes?" As a society, have we fallen so low that a hero is nothing more than someone who has 715 homeruns, or is a celebrity having children without marriage, and who is often leading an immature and sometimes drug-filled life, but who is still held up by the media as a "star?" These are the people our children are supposed to emulate, to be impressed by, and to grow up to be "just like?" Not in my book.

Who are your heroes?

Mikki Sadil
http:// mikki-wordpainter.BlogSpot.com
The Freedom Thief
Cheers, Chocolate, and Other Disasters
Lily Leticia Langford and the Book of Practical Magic
Night Cries: Beneath the Possum Belly, book one