William Bernhardt - Creating Character: Bringing Your Story to Life

Creating Character

Bringing Your Story to Life

Creating Character: Bringing Your Story to Life

First Edition

Copyright 2013 William Bernhardt Writing Programs

Published by the Red Sneaker Press

An imprint of Babylon Books

All rights reserve d

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Creating Character

Bringing Your Story to Life

William Bernhardt

The Red Sneaker Writer Series

Other Books by William Bernhardt

Red Sneaker Writer Series

Story Structure: The Key to Successful Fiction

Creating Character: Bringing Your Story to Life

Perfect Plotting: Charting the Heros Journey

The Fundamentals of Fiction (DVD)

The Ben Kincaid Series

Primary Justice

Blind Justice

Deadly Justice

Perfect Justice

Cruel Justice

Naked Justice

Extreme Justice

Dark Justice

Silent Justice

Murder One

Criminal Intent

Hate Crime

Death Row

Capitol Murder

Capitol Threat

Capitol Conspiracy

Capitol Offense

Capitol Betrayal

Other Novels

The Code of Buddyhood

Paladins of the Abyss

Dark Eye

The Midnight Before Christmas

Final Round

Double Jeopardy

Strip Search

Nemesis: The Final Case of Eliot Ness

The Idea Man

Shine

For Young Readers

Equal Justice: The Courage of Ada Lois Sipuel (biography)

Princess Alice and the Dreadful Dragon (illustrated by Kerry McGhee)

The Black Sentry

Edited by William Bernhardt

Legal Briefs

Natural Suspect

Dedicated to all t he Red Sneaker Writers:

You cant fail unless you quit.

Action is character.

Aristotle

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the world of the Red Sneaker Writers. If youre familiar with this outfit or youve read other Red Sneaker publications or attended Red Sneaker events, you can skip to Chapter One. If youre new, let me take a moment to explain.

Ive been writing a long time, and Ive been speaking at writing workshops and conferences almost as long. Every time I take to the stage I see the same tableau staring back at me: long rows of talented people, most of whom have attended many conferences, frustrated by the fact that they cant sell a book. And wondering why. Yes, the market is tough and agents are hard to find yadda yadda yadda whine whine whine excuse excuse excuse. But when aspiring writers do the work, put it out there, but still dont publishtheres usually a reason. Too often enormous potential is lost due to a lack of fundamental knowledge. Sometimes a little vigorous instruction is all that stands between an unpublished writer and a satisfying writing career.

I always do my best to help at conferences, but the large auditorium/general information lecture is not terribly conducive to writing instruction. And sometimes what Ive heard other instructors say was not particularly helpful. Too often people seemed more interested in obfuscating writing and appearing literary than in providing useful information. Sometimes I felt speakers were determined to make writing as mysterious and incomprehensible as possible, either because that made them sound more erudite or because they didnt understand the subject themselves. How is that going to help anyone get published?

After giving this problem some thought, I fo rmulated the Red Sneaker Writing Center. Why Red Sneakers? Because I love my red sneakers. Theyre practical, flexible, sturdyand bursting with style and flair. In other words, exactly what I think writing instruction should be. Practical, flexible, useful, but still designed to unleash the creative spirit, to give the imagination a platform for creating wondrous work.

I started reaching out to other Red Sneaker Writers with an annual conference. I invited the best teachers I knew, not only people who had published many books but people who knew how to share their knowledge. Then I launched my small group seminarsfive intensive days of work with a handful of aspiring writers. This gave me the opportunity to read, edit, and work one-on-one with individuals so I could target their needs and make sure they got what would help them most. This approach worked extremely well and Im proud to say a substantial list of writers have graduated from my seminars and published work with major publishers. But not everyone is able to fly to my seminars, and I couldnt justify traveling all over the world to work with one or two writers. What to do?

This book, and the other books in the Red Sneaker Writer series, are designed to address that problem. Short inexpensive books providing the help people need. Let me see if I can anticipate your questions:

Why are they so short? Ive tried to expunge the unnecessary. Im paring it down to the essential information, practical and useful ideas that can improve your writing. Too many educational books are padded to fill word counts. Thats not the Red Sneaker way.

Why so many different books instead of one big book? I encourage writers to write every day and maintain a schedule (see Appendix B). You can read these books without losing a lot of writing time. In fact, each can be read in a single afternoon. Take one day off from your writing schedule. Read and make notes in the margins. See if this doesnt trigger ideas for your own work.

I bet it will. And the next day, you can get back to your writing schedule.

Why does each chapter end with exercises? Is this just padding?

No. The exercises are a completely integrated and essential part of this book. Samuel Johnson was correct when he wrote: Scribendo disces scribere . Meaning: You learn to write by writing. I can gab on and on in my incredibly intelligent way, but it wont be concretized in your brain until you put it into practice. So dont get in such a hurry that you dont get the full benefit out of this book. Take the time to complete the assignments, because it may improve your next writing effort.

I also send out a free monthly newsletter filled with writing advice, market analysis , and other items of interest to Red Sneaker Writers. If youd like to be added to the mailing list, you can sign up for it at my website: www.williambernhardt.com . You may also be interested in my DVD set, The Fundamentals of Fiction , available at Amazon or on my website. Its about five hours of me talking about writing. Who doesnt want that?

Okay, enough of this warm-up act. Read this book. Then write something wonderful.

William Bernhardt

What is character but the illumination of incident, and what is incident but the illumination of character?

Henry James

Memorable characters are the most essential hallmark of enduring fiction. Not to say there arent other elements of import. Structure is important. Narrative movement is important. Most people prefer a story with a plot that engages their imagination. Many readers enjoy a book with a vivid setting, one that transports them to worlds theyve never seen before. Every reader has experienced that glorious epiphany or vicarious thrill that comes from realizing the book in their hands illuminates one of lifes great mysteries. Who hasnt laughed or cried over a book that provided a spectacular emotional experience, that made you feel better about humankind?