You've come up with a great story idea.
The plot is good, pacing is no problem, there's action, adventure, romance...
and yet as you write the story something is off.
Somehow it just isn't coming alive.
What could it be? If the phrase "isn't coming alive" fits your situation then consider your characterization.
After all, what is alive in a story? Your characters are or at least should be.
Has that fast-paced story turned listless? Try sprucing it up with this idea.
Stories are interesting things.
They tend to mirror our existence yet they are so much fuller, thought provoking, and exciting.
The reason for this in most stories is the characterization.
The characters existing in stories have the capability and duty to exist an entire lifetime in the confines of a few thousand words.
So ask yourself this, if you were a character and only had a short time to make a mark, how would you live? Larger than life, that's how.
Characters don't have time to sit around drinking coffee and scratching their burgeoning behinds.
No, they get out of the kitchen and race down the street chasing the villain who is hell-bent on destroying the world in some fashion.
They don't have time for small talk and idle time passage.
They need to act and to do it now.
Here is a situation.
Your character knows a storm is coming.
So she gets some supplies, calls in the kids and sits it out in the basement.
The home is wrecked but everyone gets out alive.
The character is a hero.
She is also boring.
Try this version out.
A one-hundred year storm is suddenly appeared.
Your character who is busy learning how to break into a bank's security computer sees the news.
There will be floods, destroyed homes, power loss for who knows how long, and a certain loss of life.
Suddenly she remembers the children are four-wheeling in the countryside.
As she races to the field she notices that her computer activities were monitored and now the police are onto her.
Now the story is ramping up.
Of course keep in mind that storms and police are not enough for your character.
Maybe her ex-husband has taken her kids just as the flood hits and she has to traverse a raging river to save them.
Lightning is splitting trees, crushed houses wiz past in the torrent and in the distance a huge mudslide has caused a section of the town's gas main to burst.
Now there is fire, huge balls of flame.
What happens next? That is up to you.
The thing to remember here is that characters don't have long to make impressions on the readers.
That's why it is imperative to make them larger than life.
They don't just get angry and yell.
They kick and scream, breaking anything in their path.
Their love is endless and they gratefully sacrifice themselves to protect others.
Their voices are strong and loud and their emotions don't simmer, they boil.
Little things don't happen to them, but big and impossible things happen.
Sure you can say that doesn't happen in real life, but remember that fiction is a fun-house mirror reflection of life.
How else can someone with such a short life span be able to make an indelible mark on our society? When it comes to your characters, please remember that their time is short and, as a writer, your job is to make their lives as bright and memorable as humanly (or rather fictionally) possible.
You owe it to them and you owe it to yourself.
Now, if you are seriously interested in continuing your writing education and skills, then following the link below is highly recommended.
The site at the other end is not just for beginners.
Regardless of your current skill level there is always room for improvement.
If that weren't the case then you would never seem published writers attending conferences and workshops.
Give that a thought and then click the link below.
Until next time, keep writing and make those characters interesting.
It's the road to being published!