Comments on: Character Based Writing: Lessons Learned From Sebastian Faulks

By: 8 Lessons I have Learned in the First Week of December: Part 2

8 Lessons I have Learned in the First Week of December: Part 2 — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:43:38 +0000

[...] was very fortunate to come across a this blog Character Based Writing: Lessons Learned From Sebastian Faulks | The Creative Penn by Joanna Penn where I saw reference to an online course she was doing. I followed the link and [...]

By: Writing For High Stakes: Lessons Learnt From Dr Who | The Creative Penn

Writing For High Stakes: Lessons Learnt From Dr Who | The Creative Penn — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:02:52 +0000

[...] in your writing. This lifts the novel from mundane to the memorable. Once you have established character, then you have to put them through the wringer and set the stakes high to keep the [...]

By: How Do I Make My Villain 3 Dimensional? | The Creative Penn

How Do I Make My Villain 3 Dimensional? | The Creative Penn — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:50:38 +0000

[...] has reams of back story. I know her family history and personality intimately. I used the tips from the last character post to write her many [...]

By: Joanna Penn

Joanna Penn — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:06:39 +0000

@Sean – you’re right, bad guys need to be humanised too – otherwise too cardboard. I’m working on that in my own novel.

@Brad – yes, King is excellent at it, although he pretty much always uses the same character in terms of socio-economic scale. I want to read the Dome but waiting for Oz Kindle version! In short fic, I suppose you have to use fewer words for characterisation.

@Livia – I’ll look forward to the blog – I subscribe to yours now.

@Peta – it was a reasonably quick read but I was on holiday so no distractions! I’m sure you’ll enjoy The City & The City – very different book though, much darker.

@e.lee – Agree, Faulks is superb.

By: e.lee

e.lee — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:10:49 +0000

really agree with the setting as character, alot of modern novels fail to evoke a palpable sense of place.

Anything Sebastian Faulks writes comes soo close to flawless

By: Peta Jinnath Andersen

Peta Jinnath Andersen — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:30:22 +0000

Great post. The book sounds fascinating. Was it a quick read? I often find stories with a lot of POV switches too easy to put down–it’s like they have built in pauses.

I’m particularly interested in your notes on “setting as character”. Thanks for the link about “The City and The City”.

By: Livia

Livia — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:40:09 +0000

Nice lessons. I recently read a book that also tried to bring together several character stories, but I actually didn’t like how the writer did it. Most of it was with an interlude paragraph where the omniscient narrator talks a bit and relates the two. Perhaps I should take a look at this. Sky Village did a good job of switching between character arcs. I’ll be blogging about that in a couple weeks.

By: Brad Vertrees

Brad Vertrees — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:44:15 +0000

Hi Joanna, great post!

Characterization is one part of writing fiction I really struggle with. Reading a lot of novels with good character development is probably the best way to learn.

I’m currently reading Stephen King’s new novel “Under the Dome” (as an ebook, of course) and he goes into great depth with each character – which probably explains why the novel is so long.

Since I write mostly short fiction, I don’t have that luxury.

Thanks for the great post!

Brad

By: Sean Platt

Sean Platt — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:01:23 +0000

All great advice.

For characters, it adds a lot of extra depth to the story when your bad guys do good stuff and your good guys do bad stuff.

Have a great day!