Eileen Cook - Build Better Characters: The psychology of backstory & how to use it in your writing to hook readers: 2

A note about spelling

All three of the founding members of The Creative Academy for Writers live in Canada, and we made a conscious decision to use Canadian spellings throughout our book series. Becausewellits who we are, eh?!

Like most writers, I started as a reader. I would go to the library every week with my parents to check out a massive stack of books. When I realized that someone was responsible for making up those stories, I knew that was what I wanted to do. I got in the habit of running my finger down the shelves to where my future (as yet completely unwritten) book would go. Then Id jam my hand in there and shove the books on either side over a bit to make room for me. One day there was already a space. Someone else had moved the books! The childrens librarian came over and whispered, Dont worry, Im saving room for you.

She was one of the first people to believe in my dream of being a writer.

Writers need someone to believe in our dream to help hold us up during the times when we feel like letting go. Choosing to write takes courage. Courage to continue to try during the times when the words wont come. Courage to share your work with others and invite their feedback. Courage to send it off into the world, be that through agents and editors or by indie publishing your story. The bad news is that the world has too many people who will tell you that dream is foolish and instead of encouraging, will go out of their way to discourage you. Its easier to tear down someone elses dream than it is to work toward one of your own. What you need to do is surround yourself with the right people.

Thats why we started The Creative Academy for Writers. We wanted to create an inclusive place that fostered big dreams for writers and provided practical guidance to reach those dreams. We wanted to build a community of like-minded people, offer encouragement and practical support, and assist people in taking the next steps on their writing journey. We wanted to be that voice in your ear that says you got this when you feel like you very much dont.

This book is hopefully a part of that journey for you and if you arent already, we hope youll consider joining us online at The Creative Academy for Writersa community is always stronger when it grows to include great people. And dont worrywere making some space on the shelves for you. Theres always room.

Im one of those people who dislikes clutter. Put me in a crowded space and I get antsy. The exception is craft books. I could be a writing craft book hoarder. (Although theres no mummified cat under the pileat least to my knowledge.) When we wrote this book, the goal was to combine useful information that would get you thinking about your own project, but also prompts that would jump-start your creativity.

This book is designed to be read from start to finish, but were not going to put you in a corner if you prefer to dip in and out of things based on your interest or what sparks your creativity. Be aware the content does build on previous sections, but you dont have to have read everything to understand any one part of the book.

Youll see that all the sections have content and a checklist of things to follow up on or prompts to try outthese are called Your Turn sections, and the idea is to get you thinking about your manuscript.

Some prompts will get your pen moving or your keyboard clacking, but others may fall flat for you. Thats fine! Weve done our best to provide a lot of possible jumping off points so use the ones that spark your interest. Be aware that certain ideas or prompts will work better with some projects versus others. When in doubt, just get through that draft. If you need a little help to get that first draft written, check out the first book in this seriesScrappy Rough Draft: Use science to strategically motivate yourself & finish writing your book by Donna Barker, to help you get that idea out of your head and onto the page.

I grew up with very practical parents. While they supported my plan of becoming a writer, they also wisely advised that I should have a way to support myself. Given that Im a big fan of things like eating and shelter, I had to agree. When I reviewed my skills, I realized I was that person other people always went to when they had a question or problem, so counselling seemed a reasonable occupational option. I liked people and suspected I would enjoy the opportunity to help others. (It also helped that counselling wouldnt require a lot of math which I hated with the white-hot passion of a thousand suns.) I went on to pursue a masters degree specializing in rehabilitation counselling where I worked with people with catastrophic injuries or illness.

Counselling provided me with the opportunity to study human behaviour. I discovered writers can learn a lot from counsellors that would help us create better characters. These characters have more realistic responses to conflict and crisis to make our books richer and deeper. Any mistakes I made in this book are on me.