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Writing Fiction: Character Development, Point of View, and Plot

by UPPAA Spring 2014 Conference

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    Recorded live at the UPPAA Spring 2014 Conference in Marquette, Michigan at the Peter White Public Library
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Novelists Donna Winters, Jenifer Brady, and Tyler Tichelaar will discuss three major components of writing fiction—character development, point of view, and plot—including how they make decisions on these components and what is needed to make them effective. They also will share their own writing tips and experiences as well as theories about writing fiction and mistakes people should avoid when writing novels.

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Donna Winters: So you want to write a novel and you know who the main character is. Here are five points to developing a strong main character.

Five Essential Points on Character Development
1. Get an image of your main character before you start to write your story.
2. Pick a name that fits your character.
3. Keep a chart of character names.
4 Decide who is in your main character's family and how they impact the main character and the story.
5. Add more details to your character outline.

Tyler Tichelaar: Plot and Character are equally tied together in creating a great novel. Neither one is superior to the other, while the Point of View, although perhaps not quite as important, is integral to both informing the reader about the characters, whether first or third person, as well as in its ability to advance the plot, which determines what the characters will or will not know about events and may or may not allow the reader to know more than the characters so the reader can often guess or have foreshadowing of where the plot is going.
Second rate authors of fiction usually make one of two errors:
1. They write a book about a character that wanders all over the place and may be entertaining but the reader is left continually wondering “Where is this going?” Such writers tend to be writers, but not novelists.
2. They write a plot-driven novel in which the characters lack development, and consequently, we can all guess what is going to happen. Terry Brooks, author of The Sword of Shannara, is one such author, and this fault tends to be more common among writers of “formulaic” novels, especially fantasy and science fiction, as well as crime and thriller type stories, although of course there are plenty of exceptions.

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released May 25, 2014
Recorded by Tyler Tichelaar. Audio engineering by Victor R. Volkman.

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Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association (UPPAA) Marquette, Michigan

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