Category: Monday Sparks

What is Your Favorite Literary Home?

Bookish question about novels

This month, I’ll be writing about creating and developing settings in your novel. I’m writing a post on how to develop a home base for your protagonist, so I’m asking: what is your favorite literary home? I’m torn between 221 Baker Street, a hobbit hole in the Shire, and the alpaca farm in Ohio where my teen detective Rae Riley lives with her father, grandmother, and brothers. If you could make a home in any book, where would it be?

If you need inspiration, here are writing prompts for settings.

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First Impression: Protagonist or Sidekick?

How to write a novel

I’m back again to get your first impression: protagonist or sidekick? Sidekicks and secondary characters add so much to a novel. I’ve had so much fun developing them for my Rae Riley Mysteries series. And the fun thing about writing a series is that a minor character in one novel can become a major character in another. I’ve also discovered that my protagonist, Rae Riley, can have different sidekicks depending on the mystery she’s solving. Her cousin Amber is her sidekick in my third novel, A Riddle in the Lonesome October, but she doesn’t play a role in the current novel I’m writing.

Let me know in the comments if he’s a protagonist or sidekick.

Here are more writing prompts for creating characters.

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First Impression: Protagonist or Antagonist?

How to write a novel

I often start building a character by seeing a face that captures my attention. I try to pay attention to my first impression. When I see that character, what do I think first? Major villain? Kindly grandmother? A hero? Or the hero’s best friend. So when you look at this portrait, what’s your first impression: protagonist or antagonist?

I won’t prejudice you by giving my first impression; I’ll put my initial reaction in the comments.

Here are more tips and prompts for writing characters.

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Where Do You Find Characters for Your Novels?

I’m always interested in how other writers, and even other artists, work and find and develop inspiration. So where do you find characters for your novels? Do you pull mostly from people you know? Are you inspired by characters in books or movies? Do you scroll online for inspiration?

Inspiration for my characters fall into two broad categories–inspiration for their physical features and inspiration for their personalities. When I see a face that catches my attention, whether I see it in person or online, it usually suggests a personality to me. For me, the face and personality have to work well together or the character will fail. If I decide this character will be a major one, I explore their personality based on my experience of human nature. So while the character’s physical appearance is inspired by a 1940’s movies star, her personality is based on a mom I know from my kids’ school.

One of my favorite places to find faces is old movies. Eighty years ago, producers cast roles differently from the way they do now, so you’ll see actors who can look different from the ones working now.

Let me know in the comment where you find characters for your novels.

Here are more tips for creating characters.

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How Do You Start Writing Your Novel?

How to write a novel

Last month, I discussed ways to get ready to write a novel. This month’s posts are about starting the writing process by creating characters–this is how I often start my novels. But the most common way for me to begin is for the climax to pop into my head and then I write a novel to meet it. But telling rookie writers to start their writing process with inventing a climax is too confusing. So I’ll focus on characters, my favorite aspect of writing. But before we dive into characters, I want to ask other writers–how do you start writing your novel?

There’s no wrong way to begin. Does a specific plot twist inspire you? Or an intriguing setting? Maybe it’s a genre or subgenre. I’m curious to get other writers’ opinions because there are as many approaches as there are writers.

Here are my posts on getting ready to write a novel if you missed them from last month.

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