Sunday, April 17, 2011

5 Ways to Make Your Character Sparkle, with Kevin Emerson #SCBWIWWA

Reported by Liz Mills

Kevin Emerson has published six novels for middle-grade readers: CARLOS IS GONNA GET IT (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2008) and the Oliver Nocturne series (Scholastic, 2008-2009). His next novels, THE FELLOWSHIP FOR ALIEN DETECTION for middle-grade readers and book #1 in the Atlanteans trilogy for young-adult readers, will be published by HarperCollins in 2012. Kevin is also the singer/songwriter for Seattle band Central Services and their kids' music project, The Board of Education.

How do you make your characters unique? Make them pop off the page and into readers' hearts? Kevin gave us some helpful tools using wit, personal anecdotes, and his own work. Here's a quick peek :

Create relatable situations for your characters, drawing on your own experiences.

Push your characters into difficult situations, scenarios in which perhaps the character suddenly takes control after feeling powerless for so long.

Have your main and secondary characters interact and provide insight into their personalities through dialogue and sensory descriptions.

Language, descriptive sentences, setting, and dialogue all play a part in making your characters sparkle!

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