Creative Fiction Writing Workshop: Character Development

Would you recognize your characters if you ran into them on the street?

Answering a resounding “yes” to this question indicates you have been able to develop solid, plausible characters in your fiction stories.

Make your characters come alive, whether in good or bad ways. Let them talk. This means using dialogue. However, you need to also provide vivid descriptions of the characters’ mannerisms or facial expressions or body expressions. Your readers must be able to create a visual picture of your characters, as well as hear what they are saying.

Pay particular attention to how your characters interact with other people in the story. How they behave toward others reveals much about their character. Are they kind? Abrupt? Intelligent? Funny? Weird? Concerned? Evil? Strong? Controlling? You need to convey these traits to a reader in a way that will inspire your reader to love, hate, admire, or feel SOMETHING about the people you have created.

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“And she hates you.”
“With a passion and what a passion.”
“And what have you done to earn such ire from such a young woman?” Tonie seemed mildly amused by the man.

“I tried to force her to marry me. I shot one of her oldest and dearest friends down in cold blood and killed him.” He didn’t even pause for breath as he listed his catalog of worthy accomplishments. “I betrayed my own brother. And I shot her lover in front of her eyes. A pity Frederick William wouldn’t give up on the man or he would have died. As it was it took him months to recover. I guess you could say the woman has a personal vendetta against me. Will there be anything else, madame?” he concluded with a practiced politeness.

“Not at the moment.” Tonie left the room, Konrad on her heels. She stopped long enough to pull Greg aside and give him instructions in regard to the pursuit of one Laurel d’Anlass. “Ever try betraying me, and I’ll kill the woman myself, Konrad.”

“I would expect nothing less. But, my lady Tonie, I highly recommend you do not seek to threaten me.”

“Take it as a threat if you will, Konrad. But you have shown your weakness, my dear.” Tonie’s barbed words struck with more force than even she realized. “In that warped heart of yours you love Laurel and could never kill her without dying yourself. So don’t push me unless you want me to take all control out of your hands and make you lose any possibility of ever possessing that beautiful, young woman.”

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In the above scene from the coming book, Righting Time by Kat Jaske, even though you have not read the book, you can discern much about the characters. Note that Konrad is speaking rapidly and doesn’t even pause for breath as he rattles off his list of worthy accomplishments. He is polite, but it is not real. He has a “practiced” politeness. These behaviors help the reader to instinctively dislike the man. Readers quickly realize that Tonie is a killer since she is amused by evil deeds and so easily states she will kill Laurel herself.

Who is in control here? Tonie or Konrad? Near the end you see that Tonie controls this scene, but Konrad pushes back when she threatens him. These two people are fighting to establish who is really in control.

Note also the double use of the word “passion.” Although one would not normally use the same word twice so close in the same sentence, this is much more powerful and descriptive than saying, “With a great passion.” Kat Jaske http://www.forhonor.com.

About The Author

Kat Jaske is an English and French teacher and fiction author in Las Vegas, where her high school selected For Honor as the featured book for the 2006 Reading Incentive Program in the school. See samples of her great writing and all her articles at http://www.forhonor.com. ©2006 All rights reserve

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Blogging For SEO: How To Get Maximum Search Benefit From Your Small Business Blog

If you have a small business blog, or are thinking of starting one, you should be aware of the ways you can use your blog to drive traffic to your Website. It's simpler than you think.

The first thing to understand about your blog is that each entry is counted as one Web page. Even if you have your blog set to display 10 blog posts on the same page, each of them is counted as a separate Web page by the search engines. That's why it is important to treat each blog entry as an SEO tool. The following tips should be kept in mind for each blog entry in order to optimize them for the search engines and drive more traffic to your Website from your blog:

1. Optimize each blog post around a single keyword
2. Make sure your keyword is in your blog post title, preferably at the beginning
3. Use subheads with or tags that also use your keyword
4. Include 1-3 keyword links (anchor text) in your blog posts
5. Sign every blog post with a signature link that uses your keyword
6. Use bold and italics effectively to emphasize certain keywords and phrases
7. Be sure to ping the directories
8. Include tags for all of your blog entries
9. Use categories effectively
10. Make links appear natural by linking to internal pages of your Website

Because each blog entry is a separate Web page, the search engines will crawl them and index them just as they do your Web pages. Optimize each one heavily around a specific keyword related to your Website and that's an extra doorway into your Website for each page indexed at the search engines. Also, by adding anchor text to a couple of those keywords and pointing those links to relevant internal Web pages of your Website you are improving the SEO effect of your blog entry. A poll of top SEO experts by SEOmoz revealed that a majority of those SEO experts said these type of keyword links are among the top 10 most important SEO factors for ranking Web pages. Don't give up on keywords and anchor text.

You'll also want to include keyword tags with each blog entry. Those tags will be used by the search engines to index your pages appropriately for your keywords. Also, social bookmarkers will find it easier to tag your blog entry if they like it and this makes it easier to share among their social group.

Your blog category should indicate an important element of interest as well. Unlike tags, you should only choose one category for each blog post. Don't use "main" or "uncategorized." Those are too generic. Use a specific keyword-related category as that will make your blog posts more crawlable by the search engines.

There are more than 100 blog directories that you can ping to let them know you have updated your blog. I suggest you do this every time you update your blog. With WordPress, and several other blogging software platforms, you can input each directory into a field and the software will send out an automatic ping each time you update your blog. If you are not using WordPress you should go to Ping-o-Matic and use it to ping your blog for free.

Finally, if you sign your blog posts with a keyword-rich signature that points to a relevant internal page of your Website, this will make your Website more crawlable and give you another anchor text link. Use something like, "Find Out More About Keyword." Then add another link that points to your home page.

The important thing to remember about keywords and links, whether on your blog or your Website, is to make them appear natural. The benefits are enormous.
About The Author
Caroline Melberg is President and CEO of Melberg Marketing. She has over 20 years of experience creating exciting marketing campaigns for some of the most successful companies in the world. She publishes the popular eZine, "Blue Chip Tips: The Secrets of Blue Chip Marketing...Revealed!" Learn more today at http://www.melberg.com.

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Love Links

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The Golden Rule Of Website Design

Ever browse any of those personal improvement books that crowd the bookshelves at the booksellers and the libraries, not to mention the coffee tables of your friends and desks of your coworkers? Ever notice how they all say the same thing? That’s because there are very few truths in life.

The same goes for website design, where the Golden Rule applies every bit as well as it does in your personal interactions. Design your website for your visitors as you wish they would design their websites for you.

For example, are you thoroughly annoyed by popups, especially those that run complex scripts, take forever to load, seize other browser windows for themselves, require interaction before you can continue with your reading or research? What makes you think you are the only one? What makes you believe your visitors will be more tolerant of such antics that you are?

Ever been confronted by one of those popups telling you to click here to do a registry scan or a virus scan? In the current atmosphere, with legitimate concerns about spyware and trojans, do you think you are building trust with your visitors by appearing to attempt to download malware onto their computers?

The common wisdom is that you should have no more than one popup, preferably an exit popup offering one last chance to buy your product or service, or asking your visitor to join your mailing list. However, even a single popup can be extremely annoying, especially when just about every site out there has one or more. Besides, with the advent of some very good popup blocking software, especially those incorporated into the Google and Yahoo toolbars, what makes you think your popup is even going to be seen? We surf quite a bit in our daily activities, and we see most popups being blocked by our free toolbar software. Therefore it is much more effective to write good tight succinct page content that attracts your visitor’s eye, keeps him interested, makes her want to bookmark your page for future visits.

Then there are those raucous audio blasts. These days, many people listen to music or radio programming via their computers while they surf. There is nothing more annoying than to have your favorite music interrupted by some obnoxious sales pitch, sound effect, or someone else’s idea of listening enjoyment. Sure, those audios make your website “kewl”, or so you think. But be honest. When you walk into a brick and mortar store, are you sometimes put off by the walls of sound that greet you? When you are surfing, do those audios interfere with your chosen listening enjoyment? Think maybe your web visitors feel the same?

Ever tire of those never ending sales letter websites? You know the ones, where you read and scroll and read and scroll, and finally give up, scroll to the end, looking for that place where you can buy, or request further information, only to find that what you want isn’t there, but is buried several paragraphs up? Most people do NOT want to read long and winding web pages, with a lot of repetitive information. What most people want are the essentials, and a means of finding you again later. You don’t have to give a long sales pitch with the expectation that your visitor is going to buy then and there after reading your convincing content. Your visitors are looking for general information, with the idea of purchasing your product of service later, after having comparison shopped. Think about it. When you walk into a store, do you want the salespeople to engage you in a twenty minute pitch, or do you want to look around first, see what’s available, and then consult the sales staff for more specifics? It is no different on the web, and your website should reflect this reality.

Lastly, take care what features you incorporate into you website. Are your visitors going to have to download or upgrade software in order to view your content? Are they going to want to? A lot of people don’t think they should have to upgrade to the latest and greatest, just because that’s what you have. There are still a lot of older computers and older operating systems out there which don’t support the absolute state of the art toys. Do you really want to exclude those people from your target audience?

Yes, website development, like life in general, benefits from the thoughtful practice and application of the Golden Rule. Build your website for others, as you would have them build their websites for you. By practicing this advice, you will build meaningful content and attract the kind of traffic that will result in sales and success for you.

About The Author

Chuck Larrieu is a common sense voice of reason in the world of business marketing and website design. His company, The Leisure Group, provides information, advice, products, and services to those who want to run successful home and internet based businesses.

http://www.theleisuregroup.biz

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