For most characters, try to stick with things you know about. When trying to come up with flaws, you don’t need to give your character some huge, bizarre issue.

People can relate to characters with problems, as that’s realistic.

Batman wouldn’t be The Dark Knight if he weren’t a borderline sociopath! You might assume that people wouldn’t like to read about a character with a lot of flaws, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Every character needs to have some flaws, some problems, some imperfections, some insecurities. Make sure your characters’ personalities are not perfect.Lots of this information will not appear in your story but it will have helped you to write a realistic character. Do they talk with an accent? Do they have any quirky mannerisms? Know as much as possible about your characters, from what their central motivations are to what their favourite foods are. Write a list, titled with the character’s name, and write all the attributes you can think of, from their favourite sports to their favourite colour.It has been likened to method acting, which makes perfect sense to me with my training and background.įor your story to be believable, your characters need to be realistic. It is important to create a whole person. Many people write whole pages of character notes, what would happen if… they put there characters into different situations, write lists of likes and dislikes, hobbies. People watching with the notebook is a great way to spend some time writing what you see, you never know when it might be useful. To make your characters realistic you can borrow attributes from people you already know or strangers you have seen. Then ask yourself ‘what happened before this?’ If you have strong ideas for certain parts of the story write these first.

REMEMBER you don’t have to write your short story in order, you can write the ending first. Resolution – a SATISFYING ending where the main conflict is resolved, the main character overcomes (or doesn’t) the obstacles. Rising action – the events leading to the climax or turning point.Ĭlimax – the most intense part of the storyįalling action – working towards the resolution for the conflict/problem and heading to the conclusion Initiating action – the point of the story – the rise towards the conflict. Introduction – the beginning of the story has to introduce the reader to the characters and setting. Remember what needs to be produced in a short story (there are of course variations of this sequence) If nothing else it focuses your mind and gets to ready for the big indoor write. I sometimes take a walk as a writer and try to spot as much as I can in the hope that something will spark an idea. You may have to BRAINSTORM to come up with suitable ideas, particularly useful if you are under deadline pressure, or look to family, friends, magazines for inspiration. This is why every writer should carry a notebook at all times, you never know when inspiration may hit and it saves the use of till receipts, credit stubs, drinks mats and serviettes!

Story planner for writers lis5