Building Stronger Characters

Guest post by Elena Hartwell (Taylor)

I’m thrilled to welcome Elena Hartwell Taylor to the Miss Demeanors. Elena Hartwell writes the Eddie Shoes Mystery Series, and the Wait, Wait, Don’t Query (Yet!) guides to writing, as well as darker mysteries and suspense under the name Elena Taylor, including her most recent novel, All We Buried.

Elena is also a developmental editor with Allegory Editing, and I can vouch for her ability to cut through the morass of a first draft and ask insightful and intensely helpful questions, ultimately helping a manuscript shine.

The second book in her Wait, Wait, Don’t Query (Yet!) series, Building Stronger Characters, is about to launch into the world, and I can’t wait! Elena was kind enough to share some of her insights with us.

Character is Everything

Writers are inherently curious about the human condition, which helps us fill our stories with dynamic, complex characters. But even the most observant of us can use a little help to translate our knowledge of human behavior into the strongest characters that we can invent or record in nonfiction.

Memoirists and writers of narrative nonfiction also deal with “characters.” Those characters just exist in the real world instead of solely in a writer’s imagination. The choices that nonfiction writers make about how to portray themselves or others still impacts the reader’s experience and can use many of the same techniques as writers of fiction.

I wrote The Construction of Character to help all writers strengthen the craft tools in their toolbox and build stronger characters, regardless of genre.

Characters Must Have Objectives

One aspect I investigate in The Construction of Character is the importance of objectives. Here is a brief excerpt:

An objective is a goal. Every character has a goal in every scene. Whether a protagonist takes down a bomb-setting super villain or a waitress carries a plate of food to a table without spilling maple syrup down the diner’s suit, every character has a goal.

It’s true the bomb-setting super villain scenario feels more “important” in the sense of greater far-reaching consequences and immediate physical danger. But consider this for our fictional character Patricia: She’s a single mom, putting herself through school and working the graveyard shift at the twenty-four-hour diner. If she gets one more complaint from a patron, she’ll get fired. Spilling maple syrup on a diner has just become a lot more important.

Character Emotional Landscapes

Another concept I explore in The Construction of Character are character landscapes: emotional, psychological, and physical.

A landscape is the geography of a specific area. It’s how a region appears or feels in its totality. The landscape of England is pretty. The landscape of the Swiss Alps is majestic. They are both wonderful—just different.

Characters also have landscapes: emotional, psychological, and physical. A writer can use those landscapes to heighten tension, increase stakes, and engage readers.

Characters are impacted by their emotional states (temporary), psychological states (long-term), and physical states (chronic versus short-term). Applying landscapes for each of these states can help writers develop more complex characters and dynamic plots.

While emotions are impacted by everything in a character’s environment, a character’s psychology—a complex combination of biology, genetics, and experiences—is a driving force behind behavior, and much more permanent than an emotion.

A character’s underlying psychology hugely impacts their actions. Psychology determines a character’s ability to handle events as well as how they might respond to any situation. The actions of characters create events, and events build plot.

Delving into the relationship between psychology and emotions and using physical aspects of a character to build stakes and increase tension are all useful tools to add to a writer’s repertoire.

Character Building Through Dialogue, Backstory, and Exposition

Dialogue, backstory, and exposition are other areas of character building included in The Construction of Character.

Another common misstep for writers is providing background information much earlier than a reader needs. Referencing a past event or relationship at the beginning of the manuscript, then not connecting it to the character’s present day until one hundred pages later, will likely create a “huh?” moment for the reader rather than an “ah ha” moment. Readers can’t remember everything they read and won’t remember a minor detail if it’s too far removed from its introduction. It can be unclear why readers are being told a particular piece of information if the moment of its importance happens too far into the story.

Distinguishing between backstory and exposition, and how to integrate both into a work in progress will also strengthen character complexity.

Through learning the concepts in the guidebook and using the exercises in each chapter, writers will be able to immediately apply new skills.

Readers remember how characters make them feel even more than they remember plot twists and turns. Regardless of genre, age range, or fiction versus nonfiction, building stronger characters can make a manuscript shine. Whether a new writer learning new skills or an experienced writer needing a refresher, The Construction of Character may be just the ticket to get a manuscript to its final, polished state.

The Construction of Character will launch soon!

Meanwhile, don’t miss The Foundation of Plot, available now through all your favorite bookstores and websites. Available in

eBook, paperback, and hardback.

Elena Hartwell writes the Eddie Shoes Mystery Series, and the Wait, Wait, Don’t Query (Yet!) guides to writing. She also writes darker mysteries and suspense under the name Elena Taylor, including her most recent novel, All We Buried. To learn more about Elena, visit her on the web at www.elenataylorauthor.com & www.elenahartwell.com. Elena is also a developmental editor with Allegory Editing. To learn more about Allegory, visit www.allegoryediting.com or email her at elena@allegoryediting.com

Want to be the first to learn about upcoming book launches, book news, and writing tips? Join her newsletter either through her websites or email her at elenahartwell@gmail.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Elena_TaylorAut

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElenaTaylorAuthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elenataylorauthor/

Buy Links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Plot-Wait-Dont-Query-ebook/dp/B0B37SQYMK

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-foundation-of-plot-elena-hartwell/1141574239?ean=9798986020600

IndieBound: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-foundation-of-plot-a-wait-wait-don-t-query-yet-book-elena-hartwell/18539514?ean=9798986020600

Emilya Naymark

Emilya Naymark is the author of the novels Hide in Place and Behind the Lie.
Her short stories appear in the Bouchercon 2023 Anthology, A Stranger Comes to Town: edited by Michael Koryta, Secrets in the Water, After Midnight: Tales from the Graveyard Shift, River River Journal, Snowbound: Best New England Crime Stories 2017, and 1+30: THE BEST OF MYSTORY.

When not writing, Emilya works as a visual artist and reads massive quantities of psychological thrillers, suspense, and crime fiction. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her family.

View all posts by Emilya Naymark

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