Using what you live to deepen character conflict

"That will end up in a book."

If you spend any time around a writer you will hear that phrase. That is because so much of our writing is drawn from our personal experiences in one way or another. While most of my stories are not autobiographical [I don't stalk women based on a misinterpreted scripture, nor am I a college student in a small town trying to solve a murder], I have to admit that things that I experience do find their way in to my writing in one way or another.

Maybe it is the way I personally reacted to a breakup or disappointment. It could be that one of my characters is afraid of the same thing I am. These are all obvious and easy to do.

Have you ever considered bringing the dual nature of your personality in to your writing?

I am really a dichotomy. On the one hand, I am a successful speaker who really enjoys speaking to large groups. On the other hand, I am a total nerd who gets excited at the idea of doing research and looked forward to every term paper in college. My idea of a dream job would be sitting in a room full of ideas, articles, news reels, historical data, etc. and making sense of it all. Pecking away at a keyboard and discussing the implications with a coworker of similar temperment. Trying to find a pattern and constructing possible scenarios from it.

How do you reconcile the two? One is extremely extroverted, the other introverted. One thrives on feedback and the energy of a crowd, the other the quiet solitude of one's own thoughts.

I guess you become a writer. That's what I did.

Think about the contradictory things in you. Then take time to discover and deepen the contradictory nature of your main characters [including your villain]. Doing that will deepen your writing and create a more relatable story.

Learn how to get readers to pick you and your story by following these links:
Getting readers to pick you
How readers decide what to read
Presenting yourself well
Getting noticed by readers
Going on the hunt

The Writing Career Coach blog is moving! In order to offer you more services and a central location for all information I am moving this blog to our main website: http://www.writingcareercoach.com/ There you will find the blog, information on my speaking topics, FREE articles to help you with your writing and more.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

Becoming human

When we are developing our characters for our stories we spend a great deal of time creating believable people. We want them to be flawed, but likable. This even goes for the bad guy sometimes. Some of the creepiest bad guys are those that we want to win anyway. My favorite example is Phantom in Phantom of the Opera. You know what he did is wrong but your heart breaks just the same at the end of the story.

I think one thing we as authors and business owners must also do is be human. There is a delicate balance between being human and committing a TMI-faux pas [TMI=Too much information]. The rise in popularity of reality shows, blogs and social networking, I believe, is the desire to pull people from their pedestals and "see behind the curtain" as it were.

How much humanity are you allowing your readers or your target market to see. Don't show so much that you undermine confidence in your professionalism, but you don't want to be aloof either. It is about striking a balance.

I'd like to share with you a blog interview I did with Nora St. Laurent. Here is the link. I was discussing a bit about Writing Career Coach but I also talked a bit about our family's financial struggles in the wake of my husband's cancer diagnosis 2 1/2 years ago. From that was birthed my other website "The Balanced Life".

As professionals who move in to the spotlight upon publication it is important to maintain our privacy while at the same time being human to the people who invest in us. Consider how you, and your characters, can become more human to your target readership. And please go check out the blog. It is a lot of fun. You'll find out about the Green Dress, Worm Farms [huh], and how we turned little Debbie snack cakes in to a chicken farm.

It's your opportunity to look behind the curtain of my life for a moment and see my driving motivation as a Coach.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at www.WritingCareerCoach.com
Learn more about Tiffany's Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.
Read Tiffany's award winning manuscript "A Face in the Shadow" on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer's Rest.