Know Thyself (and, um, your character)

I just started reading Noah Lukeman's THE PLOT THICKENS: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life, and was much encouraged when multi-published regency romance author Sarah M. Eden mentioned she owns, loves, and more importantly, uses the book!

So I'm reading it, and the very beginning is rough because it has all these characterization questions to ask yourself, and that just makes me want to put the book down and write. I think maybe I should be taking copious notes while I read it.

Lukeman, a literary agent, suggests looking at your character through a series of lenses:

- like an eye witness describing the character to a police sketch artist
- like a doctor asking his patient for personal history
- like a banker considering the applicant for a loan

There's much more than just that, but it basically ends with you knowing more about your character than you know about your own mother. Which is cool. And I can see this type of method really helping me out with my problem.

My problem: If I don't outline, I get lost. If I do outline, my characters surprise me with revelations, making me feel like I just married someone I don't even know (and basically ruining my next plot point).

I can imagine, however, that if I filled out this sort of questionaire about my main characters - made it so detailed that it inspired the plot, which is kind of the point of a character-driven tale - then I wouldn't have to deal with surprises that derail me into that dreaded black forest of crap-manuscript.

I'm excited to read more of this book. I think I'll be learning a lot as Noah Lukeman guides me through characterization to plot points to the all-important hero's journey. Plot has been my downfall for far too long. It feels good to be studying it at last.

Now you know my weaknesses in writing. What have you learned in your writing journey this week?


(p.s. I'm over at Operation Awesome today talking about bite-sized goals.)

Linky Thursday: Writerly Links for Today

I totally spaced in my last post on linking to some seriously awesome stuff for writers. So here I go with a special Linky Thursday post. Chickity-check it:

Join THE GREAT BLOGGING EXPERIMENT over at Elana Johnson's blog, plus get some great tips on how to blog effectively as a writer.

Literary agent Rachelle Gardner lets you sit in on a Pub Committee Meeting to see what editors and marketing directors think about your book.

My awesome CP, Kelly Andrews (or is it Andred?) writes about pen names and what prompted her to use one over at OPERATION AWESOME.

And if you still don't believe Paranormalcy is the IT book this year, don't take my word for it. Check out Shannon Messenger's glowing review and a contest where you can win a signed copy

or read author Kiersten White's response to hitting #7 on the NYT Best Seller list in the first week! This is her first published book, people!

Ask a Literary Agent (Year 1) is an awesome free e-book available for download that compiles questions and answers about writing and publishing by agent legend Noah Lukeman, author of The First Five Pages and The Plot Thickens.