Archive for February, 2010

Don’t Stereotype Your Characters

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

When you are writing a story, you want to create unique characters for it, not cookie cutter stereotyped characters.

Don’t create a dark shadowy figure that lurks in the shadows of an alley. Create a real character that watches your hero from the gloomy depths of the alleyway.

Rather than a busty blond or nondescript brunette taking your hero’s order in the cafe, maybe their order is taken by a young man that has traces of grease under his fingernails from his second job as a mechanic.

A danger zone is in too much detail, however, which can be just as bad as a character that is too classic a stereotype. Yes it might be stereotyping to have a meek bespeckled librarian, but just as dangerous is to toss out all of the traits of your stereotypical librarian. There should be aspects of the character that, while not what one might expect from the role, are also universally expected.

For example, a librarian might be different in their body builder physique, but they likely still love books or they would not have become a librarian.

A good exercise is to take a sheet of paper and write the kind of character you are creating at the top. Then draw a line down the middle. On the left write everything you think of when you think of that particular type of person, including and especially stereotypes for them. Then on the right side of the paper write all of the things you need for the character in your story. From these two lists you can create a character that has the traits of both what you need and what you expect, and from that you can create a non-stereotypical character or your story.

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Romantic Cancun Vacation

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Every once in a while I get one of those days where I know that things are going to be lousy even before the day starts. Those days that are preceded by this sensation that by the end of the day you are going to end up wanting nothing more than to scream and throw something at the wall. These are the days when I can feel the exhaustion as it seeps into my bones, days when I just can not focus. I’m so exhausted, my energy so low, that I know I need to escape and recharge before I burn out. Unfortunately daydreaming about escape is often as close as I get to that needed relaxation.

So, if you are going to daydream, daydream about things like long sandy beaches and swim up bars. About nice romantic cancun vacation for one. About a chance to get away from it all and pamper yourself for a little while without worrying about anything else.

This is the kind of daydream places such as the Karisma Hotels are made of. Daydream resorts where you can go to pamper yourself such as the all adult El Dorado Royale Resort on the Riviera Maya.

With a mile of unspoiled beach in over 400 acres of tropical rain forest, who could ask for more? And they include such luxurious things such as beachside spa treatments, milk baths and aromatic massages. You can even daydream at the resort in a luxurious four-poster bed draped with flowing white gauze then step out of your room and into a winding artificial river that leads to a swim-up bar. Relaxation and luxury. Just my kind of daydream destination.

This post sponsored by Karisma Hotels

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How to Submit a Story

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Submitting a story to Phantascene is easy.

Once you have joined the site, go to your member account page and select Add New Story.

Enter the title for your story.

If you have collaborated with someone else, and you are both members of Phantascene, then you can credit them as a co-author of the story.

Enter a brief summary of what your story is about and add optional story notes. Then select the most appropriate category for your story to be displayed in. Select your story’s rating and rather it is a complete story or will be left open as a round robin story.

If it has multiple chapters select a name for the chapter you are publishing, and any notes about the chapter.

Either you can enter the story text in the provided box, or upload your text from your computer.

Finally you want to add any end notes that you might have about the story and preview it.

Done, you should now be able to publish your story to the site. If it does not show up for a little while do not be concerned, it sometimes takes me a day or two to get back to the site to approve any new stories.

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Creating Endearing Characters

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

There are, in the most basic of terms, only two kinds of fictional characters

1) memorable characters that the reader will think about long after they have put the book down and want to read more stories about

and

2) Easily forgotten characters that the reader simply can not bring themselves to care about.

None of us want the type two character, the ones that cause the reader to yawn and set the book aside, or worse, to roll their eyes and throw the book aside.

We want the memorable character. We want the character that has such a sense of reality about them that our reader is able to fully empathize with the character and wants to spend time with them.

How do you achieve that? You make the character as real as possible. You don’t simply decide that you are going to write about a computer nerd that is into conspiracy theories. You create a computer genius who lives in the back room of a bar, is precariously balanced between the sanity of knowing conspiracy theories are for nutcases and believing in them himself. You give him a phobia, a fear of going outside. Then you find out why he has it.

The character I am talking about here is one that my dear friend created years ago, one that came to life for all of us in the writing group. She laid the basic groundwork and handed me the character who then took on a life of his own.

We discovered that he is afraid to go out because when he was a small child his father went out for a walk to the corner store and was shot in a robbery. After that his mother began claiming that there was some kind of conspiracy behind her husband’s death, that he was assassinated.

The life and history of the character unfolded and with it came details about the histories of several other characters in our story world.

Try an exercise. Sit back with a notebook and write your character’s name at the top of the page, then start writing what you find most fascinating about the character and what you think might have caused that to be a part of them.

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Gold

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Commodity broker United States Gold Bureau wants to let investors that are looking to invest in precious metals know that new gold exchange-traded funds that will soon be hitting the Thailand stock market.

The recently launched Securities Physical Platinum Shares (PPLT) and Physical Palladium Shares (PALL) are exchange-traded funds that allow investors to invest in physically backed holdings. One share in PPLT and PALL is equal to one tenth of an ounce of metal. Now is a great time to buy gold bullion, platinum, palladium and other precious metals.

Specializing in rare and modern US and foreign coins and currency, the United States Gold Bureau is a commodity broker dealing in the distribution of precious metals commodities via coins and supplies.

This post was sponsored by USGoldBureau.com

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