Photo free-stock courtesy of Fidel Fernando at Unsplash.com.

I’m delighted that my article, “4 Tips for Creating Characters That Feel Real,” is featured today over at the fabulous Women Writers, Women’s Books.

Also thrilled that my photograph was recently featured in The Charleston Anvil! Check out this very cool magazine and consider submitting your own art and writing: about the magazine.

An excerpt of my craft article:

A character who (eventually) acknowledges their own stumbling blocks is a likeable character

You know how much readers love know-it-alls who either have no faults or who never get caught up in false assumptions, poor decisions, or self-sabotage, the characters who point out others’ faults and always know what to do and say? Yeah, about as much as we enjoy people in real life who project an impossible image of perfection: zero percent. One of the easiest and best ways we can make our readers connect to our characters is to give them a foible.

The flaw should be big enough that it is negatively affecting the character’s life and, preferably, also starting to affect their loved ones’ lives, too. In fact, if the character can have fears and other emotions and, even better, direct actions to cover up or stop the consequences of the flaws, that’s a character readers will be eager to read from beginning to end. Much as we grow to love and protect our characters as we write them, we must make sure that characters don’t avoid growth by running away from conflict. Characters who go through the fire of trouble and make it out the other side with new experiences are characters readers identify with and want to know more about through a story.

Read the rest at: clickety!