Jordan Rosenfeld - Writing the Intimate Character: Create Unique, Compelling Characters Through Mastery of Point of View

Think for a moment about your favorite novels. These are the books you cant put down, the ones you force yourself to keep reading well into the wee hours of the morning, until your eyelids are sandy and your brain is buzzing with excitement and exhaustion. What makes these stories so compelling, so engaging, so un-put-downable?

The answer, in a word: characters. Unforgettable, vivid, chatty, bold, wild, foolish, singular characters that are so authentic, so true and real, that you feel as if youre living in their worldor, even better, inside of them. And while it may not be obvious to the reader, the main mechanism writers can use to deeply engage with characters is point of view. Strong point of view creates a powerful, sensory experience that draws readers into your characters inner landscape and confidently directs your audience to the story youre trying to tell. When the masterful use of point of view is applied to a story, it wont just tell readers about an experience; it will allow them to live it through a character.

Does the term point of view seem too dry and dull? Try intimacy instead. Its a much sexier word, isnt it? The best stories offer a deeply intimate experience. When thinking about character intimacy, ask yourself: How close do you want your readers to be to your story? Do you want them to be distant observers, or do you want them to slip right into the skin of your protagonist? Learn to master point of viewor the level of intimacy through which you share your characters experiencesand you will do more than capture readers minds and hearts. Youll merge them with your characters. The result will be a book that readers wont be able to resist.

Writing the Intimate Character eschews the dull, didactic explanations of point of view so commonly found in other writing texts. Instead youll discover a point-of-view system based on character cues: specific behaviors, sensory perceptions, dialogue, and visual imagery. Point of view is the lens through which the reader experiences your characters emotions and thoughts. Youll learn how character emotions manifest on two distinct levels: as surface feelings and as subset feelings. These levels allow you to dive deeply to build richer, more fully rounded characters. Well also talk about how to weave thoughts (internal monologue) and emotion together with action.

We'll look at every element of a story, from exposition to interior monologue to plot, through the lens of point of view, while studying examples from best-selling literature. Throughout the book I offer exercises so you can test-drive each point of view for your own work. These tools and techniques will help you create a multisensory, layered emotional experience within your story.

Readers connect with characters whose senses they can experience, whose minds they can enter, and whose emotions they can feel. If you want to write characters of this caliber, turn the page.