Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Ashley Dawn - Shadows of Pain - Guest Post



Making Characters Believable

When writing, I fall in love with my characters. To me they seem as real as most the people around me. Ok, so I do realize they are just these voices in my head demanding that I put their story on paper but the amount of time I spend with them makes them ‘alive’ for me.

My challenge is getting the readers to see and feel the characters in the same way that I do. It is a combination of physical description, personality, and just overall presentation. I have a literal picture in my mind of what each of my characters looks like. I describe them in detail but you still may not ‘see’ what I do. The thing that seems to make them the most real is their personality.

If someone is described as funny, you see their physical traits differently than if they are described as serious. Dialogue is key to making each and every character real. It can be tons of dialogue if they are chatty, very little if they are the strong silent type, or something in between. It is a challenge but so much fun when you achieve someone reading your book and ‘getting’ your characters.

When the reader connects to a character or when they feel the emotions the character is feeling, that is when you know you’ve succeeded. It is fulfilling to share the people in your mind with others and know that they understand and enjoy the story along the way. My hope is that good or bad, my characters come across as real and their story captures someone’s attention.


About the Book

Revenge is sweet…unless you are on the receiving end of it.

“Do you know of anyone who would want…you dead?”

Officer Daniel Jenkins was no stranger to the dangers his job posed but usually he knew who was trying to kill him. Being stalked was a completely different ball game, and he wasn’t sure there were any rules…

“…I need you.”

Terrified didn’t even begin to describe how Kami felt with the stalker targeting her. As an FBI agent you were trained to handle stressful situations, but being the victim put the whole process in a different light.

As the killer gets closer, so do Kami and Daniel, but will they live long enough to see their love bloom?

Only God can save them from this unknown killer…


Tour Schedule:

December

9th Phaedra @ Identity Discovery
10th Julia @ TV Backstory
11th Lynelle @ Aspired Writer
12th Connie @ The Character Connection
13th Susan @  My Cozie Corner
14th Linda @ One Desert Rose
16th Rachel @ Stressed Rach
18th Ruth @ My Devotional Thought

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