Wednesday, 14 November 2012

The Artist Unleashed: CHARACTER-DRIVEN FICTION. YEA OR NAY? by Shauna Kelley

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20 comments:

  1. I'm a character driven action junkie also. It's about character's voice, depth, and I like to see something happening. But it is all about personal taste since we readers are really picky.

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    1. I love this term "character driven action junkie!" If I were a superhero, I might borrow that term from you and make it my name! And yes... super picky! I tend to read the same writers over and over because I fall in love with one particular voice!

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  2. I love character driven stores. Anytime I can get inside someone else's head is great, especially when I share some of their thoughts and feelings.

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  3. Wow, what a unique premise.

    Jessica, your post is up! http://theresamilstein.blogspot.com/2012/11/show-and-tell-in-nutshell.html

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  4. What a fantastic post. I too love character-driven fiction. Best of luck to you -- looking forward to reading your book!

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    1. Thanks, Nicole! I would love your feedback if you do get a chance to read it! www.mmshaunakelley.blogspot.com

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  5. I live for character-driven fiction. I want to know who the character is and why the do what they do when hit with a certain situation. I want to feel as if the character is real.

    Great premise, Shauna. :)

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  6. Character driven fiction is incredibly compelling! I love a good adventure, but it has to be character driven to be good.

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    1. I think it is a tough mix to find-- adventure with great characters. But there are certainly great examples! I've actually always like Stephen King for this. What are your favorites?

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  7. I think good books can have both! My books focus on character but there is action.

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  8. I have to be invested in the characters to care about what happens, action or not.

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    1. Thats an excellent point, particularly about being "invested." I've loved books about characters I hated, but I was so engaged in seeing what happened!

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  9. The character has to catch my interest, but I like something to happen too. I'm not one for inner-monologue only or "talking head" type of stories.

    Being a "character junkie," I also like to read series. I was a military brat and lived 52 places by the time I was 18. Series characters were really the only friends I was able to carry from place to place. Now I'm grown and settled in the same house for over 25 years, but old habits die hard. I still love series characters like Stephanie Plum, Anita Blake, Jane Yellowrock, and Charley Davidson. I wait for their books to hit the shelves so I can see what's been happening with them.

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  10. The character has to catch my interest, but I like something to happen too. I'm not one for inner-monologue only or "talking head" type of stories.

    Being a "character junkie," I also like to read series. I was a military brat and lived 52 places by the time I was 18. Series characters were really the only friends I was able to carry from place to place. Now I'm grown and settled in the same house for over 25 years, but old habits die hard. I still love series characters like Stephanie Plum, Anita Blake, Jane Yellowrock, and Charley Davidson. I wait for their books to hit the shelves so I can see what's been happening with them.

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    1. Pam- are you familiar with Depression Cookies by Tia Bach? You might want to check it out. The second one is in the works, but it is a great character-driven book about moving all over the place as a kid.

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  11. I have just finished reading Stephen King's On Writing and was surprised to find that he's a pantser rather than a plotter. His priorities are situation followed by character and then story. He's tried plotting but ranks those books among his weakest. His preference, as is mine, is to take a couple of interesting characters, stick them in an awkward situation and the record what happens; he never knows how his books are going to end. He's not the only popular writer who's learned the importance of character. I remember being impressed by how James Herbert began The Rats. He gives us several quite detailed character sketches, makes us take an interest in the people and then he kills them; they weren't just fodder. Simple and effective. Just before On Writing I finally got found to The Mezzanine in which we spend the entire book inside the head of one man who does nothing bar go to the loo, buy a pair of shoe laces, a carton of milk and a cookie and try to read his book. Apart from that we just experience him think about the minutia of life—he devotes several pages to the evolution of hand towels for instance and several more to the demise of the milk bottle—and it's fascinating; it should be the most boring book in the world and yet it's far from it. Yes, give me character over plot any day of the week.


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    1. I think King is BRILLIANT on building characters. He does it so masterfully and succinctly, but its the people that pull you through his books.

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