http://booksbywomen.org/how-to-build-a-character-by-toni-jenkins/ Sat, 10 Dec 2016 17:13:12 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.3 http://booksbywomen.org/how-to-build-a-character-by-toni-jenkins/#comment-48142 Sat, 10 Dec 2016 17:13:12 +0000 http://booksbywomen.org/?p=16043#comment-48142 One thing I noticed after getting beta readers for my novel was that the bar for “why” was SO much higher than real life. In real life, people often do things that they are only dimly aware of the “why”s of. In fact when I was editing my memoir I had to go back and give actions an “explanation” even though, in real life, there really wasn’t one that I was aware of, just because otherwise, in the context of a narrative, it was head shaking. Why did she say she’d never go into that coffee shop again and then the next day there she was? Why did she tell that person she wouldn’t mind helping with the laundry but we know from page 25 she hates doing laundry? These are the contradictory, sometimes nonsensical things human beings do all the time. Of course, if you dig deep, you will find a “why” but it’s often not as clear cut as “because this was the last time she was happy, so clings to that time.” Sometimes it’s just “she was a little bored.” But you can’t have “she was a little bored” be a motivator in a novel. Sometimes people would ask me things like “Why’d she walk into that room?” It got a little silly, actually, lol. But it also showed me how much readers want a clear cut “why” – possibly because they can’t get that in real life.

]]> http://booksbywomen.org/how-to-build-a-character-by-toni-jenkins/#comment-47780 Wed, 20 Jul 2016 11:43:29 +0000 http://booksbywomen.org/?p=16043#comment-47780 […] Toni Jenkins If you type ‘how to build a’ into Google, you’ll be given the options of shed, fence, […]

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