Create a Memorable Character with THE DIAMOND FAN
Cher Gorman has a good article about character creation over at Realms of Love. The article shows the use of the Diamond Fan from the book Ten Steps to Creating Memorable Characters being released by Watson-Guptill Publishers in September 2006.
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Okay, let’s be honest, there are many, many different ways to create characters. Some authors begin with a character’s name, others have a scene pop into their head from the ether or discover their characters in a dream, or they might build characters through a composite of people they know, or from a line of dialogue they heard in a movie or perhaps they eaves dropped on a conversation in the check out line at the grocery store. But despite how or where a writer finds their story people one thing is universal when writing commercial fiction, characters in a book must have goals, motivations and conflicts. A new innovative way of creating characters is called The Diamond Fan.
In October 2006 I have a collaborative non-fiction book called Ten Steps to Creating Memorable Characters being released in print by Watson-Guptill publishing. My writing partners, Lucynda Storey, Sue Viders and Becky Martinez and I pioneered some “new” words for the standard, GMC (Goal, Motivation and Conflict) that we know are essential in writing commercial fiction. Our “new” words are Crusade (Goal), Cause (Motivation) Complication (Conflict) Change (Growth)–our 4 C’s.
From the 4 C’s, Lucynda had the brilliant idea of making a fan called THE DIAMOND FAN. This fan is quite handy for writers because you can pop it into your purse or pocket. While you’re sitting in a doctor’s waiting room, sipping a latte at a coffee shop or occupying a seat on an airplane, you can use the fan to begin building characters for your next book or strengthen the characters in your current work in progress.