Southern Maine Writers' Group

Think about it; every movie you love, every story you read over and over, every fairytale you remember from when you were a child, caught your fancy and tickled your imagination because a character or two evoked an emotion within. It might be because the characters you love are brave, or romantic, or cunning, whatever the emotion they stirred, it was as a result of the author understanding that it is character traits that will determine the course of the story. How characters react in times of stress and conflict makes for excitement and interest. When writing your characters, select one major and two or three minor character traits that you can stress. These traits will give your reader a clear picture of what makes your character tick. Here are few examples: In the movie “Toy Story,” every one of the characters (the toys) have their own individual character traits, which make up their personalities. Woody is forever loyal and fearless; In the James Bond films, Bond is relentl...

We’ve all heard the expression: You are what you eat. For a writer, the expression is: You are what you read. The master storyteller, Paul Darcy Boles, in his book “Story-Crafting: A Master Story Teller Teaches the Art and Craft of Writing Fine Short Stories” writes: “The kind of story you want to write is dictated by the kind of story you like to read. The richness and quality and force of your storytelling will always be reflected by your reading. This means that the more you read, the better you’ll get.” Write  the genre and the stories you love to read. Learn from those writers who write these stories. There are many great lessons in the stories from the writers who came before you.