Just take a break and think of all your favorite characters. I’m positive that you will be able to make a pretty good list. Now, try to make a list of the villains. Well, that must be easy too. Well, let it be a hero or a villain- our job is to do the best and create the best. The good hero would be person who remains unforgettable in a positive manner. A villain would also prove his worth by being unforgettable- but in a negative sense.

Some pointers you ought to know before even thinking about creating characters:-
1. It’s your story- only the characters ‘you’ create for the story will fit in the way it should.
2. Characters must have special attractions/ flaws.
3. They must be unique- there shouldn’t be another character in the history of fiction like the one you are about to create.

I know it’s hard- especially sticking to the third point. Even I find it very difficult, but yeah- no novelist is perfect. Striving to attain perfection to the maximum will always prove to give positive results.

Now let’s check out the 10 pointers that we need to create an unforgettable character:

1. Identity
2. Physique
3. Personality
4. A picture to Work with
5. Uniqueness
6. Crisis and Dilemma
7. Off-road journey!
8. Weaknesses
9. The viewpoint
10. A Change

1. Identity

First and foremost-Things without any identity are bound to go astray. Give a man everything- but without an identity, he is nothing. It is the best way to start off with some solutions for identity problems. Give you character a name and some basic identity. Something like job and interests. Don’t forget to know how playful, social and outgoing your character is.

2. Physique

Fabricating a person with an identity calls for physical features. Cover only basics first:
*eyes
*hair
*shape of head
*height
*weight
*age.

3. Personality

After physical features comes the personality of course.
*moral/ethical/religious beliefs – This forms the base of a hero’s personality. Never forget that.
*habits
*hobbies
*emotionalism
*political stance
*likes/dislikes
*fears or phobias

Another four things that always spice up a character are:
*eccentricities
*weak points
*short and long term goals
*hopes and dreams

4. A picture to work with

 There is nothing better than a picture of the character for working with. If you are good at sketching, try to create a visual copy of how your character looks like- at least a rough sketch. Try to involve all the physical aspects of the character you have in mind.

5. Uniqueness

So now you have a character to work with, but this information is not enough to bring him or her to life. Using the principle that all good stories are about unique, individual complex people, you’ll need to map out a few more points.

When you are creating your character’s personality description, decide what his great strengths are. Give him several strong traits and then add one major glaring weakness. Your character must still be at least likeable, but the glaring weakness must form the underlying tension that drives his behavior.

6. Crisis and Dilemma

 Crisis is one situation where you find people getting tensed as well as excited. Try to involve lots of crisis points- just don’t over extend yourselves, as far as credibility is concerned. There should be rough dilemmas and tough decisions. This will add lots of excitement and thrills.

7. Off-road journey!

There is no thrill if you ride your story on a well tared road. No ones going to like it.
Take your characters off-road! Let them ride the journey of life through the rough path. Let them take decisions that will create tension and that is not normal or expected.

Maker the situation bad enough for the hero to choose a thorny path. Let him/her take risks and try to fix things up. When it comes paying a price for it, let him sacrifice something that he hate to part.

Just make it a bumpy ride for the hero.

8. Weaknesses

That’s one vital part of a good character. Everyone in the world has a weakness. There is no reason why your character shouldn’t have one. Try to make a weakness that looks good and involve some scenes in which you mention it and finally create problems in the main story line such that the trouble ravens his weakness.

A character who overcomes his weakness at the end of the story is respected by everyone.

9. The viewpoint

Remaining in a particular viewpoint is really important. I have wrote in detail about view point in my articles:
-Cardinal Rules on How to Establish the Right Point of View
-Swapping POVs: How to Switch from one POV to Another without a jolt

I hope the above articles will make the point clear.

10. A Change

A noticeable change will be the final touch you can add to your character at the end of the story. The character you created had many conflicts that he/she had to pass through. The character had to decide among dilemmas and lead a rough way of life for achieving victory. This definitely should bring about some visible change in his behavior, way of thinking, etc. And of course, the weakness he had is no longer glaring at him like a poisonous snake.

So totally, joining the 10 pieces together, you fabricated a memorable character who will be loved (or hated, if it’s a villain) specially. That’s the success in creating an unforgettable character. Always remember: Striving to attain perfection to the maximum will always prove to give positive results.

Next? Something inside you says that it’s not yet perfect. You read, re-read, find some itty-bit and then read again. Finally you come up with a perfectly written manuscript. And that’s the end of revision- at least that’s what you think before reading the entire thing again and finding the same old feeling creeping back into your brains.<--moreRead More...--!>

You might have observed that while reading it over and over again, you get lesser and lesser mistakes. Finally a point comes when you have the feeling that something is wrong but you can diagnose the trouble. That’s what you call a ‘revision block’, just a fancy name- nothing else.

How to solve a Revision Block?

Divide and rule the manuscript for the best and effective revision.

Yes, we have a simple ‘policy’ that can help you conquer any mass of unedited text: Divide and Rule. Divide your revision into various administrative blocks and observe the text from each block. In simpler and more understandable words, look for only one type of mistake each time you revise.

Its purely your choice to identify which type of mistakes you should start with. Just don’t start with spelling and grammar. Leave it for the last round, till a point comes when you wont be writing chunks of text or ideas into your draft. Simply because spelling and grammar errors are like hell-hounds, you can never lose it. The more text you add, more errors creep in. You just cant do anything to stop it as long as you are human and not some zombie from Antarctica(provided zombies exist in Antarctica.).

Is there any Standard by which you can Edit your manuscript?

Seriously, no. There are no such standards, but you can create one. And surely, you should consider creating one if you have no standards. Here is the standard order that I use for revising my draft. I don’t feel like selling this knowledge, so I’m giving it for free. You may or may not follow this, its purely up to you.

10 Step method to do a wonderful revision:

1. Remove the fluffy fat.
2. Create hooks and magnets.
3. Add Suspense.
4. Balance of elements
5. Build in more character attributes.
6. Repetitions of thoughts and ideas.
7. Repetitions of words.
8. Comb out inconsistencies.
9. Grammatical errors.
10. Spelling Errors and Typos.

1. Remove the fluffy fat.

First of all, let your manuscript do some dieting. I know you want a big book with lot of words sprawling from page to page. But what is the use of an obese book with less interesting stuff? Anything and everything that doesn’t add to the storyline if fat. Anything that is not involved in the main plot is unnecessary. You need to take some serious steps to burn out the fat- just do it ruthlessly.

2. Create hooks and magnets.

Somewhere, things need to be bright and should hook the reader. If you find a place where you can add some hooks, just do it. hooks can be made by spitting the paragraphs, modifying one dialogues. Its mainly a creative part; it depends upon your creativity.

3. Add Suspense.

Everyone likes a book full of suspense. Suspense kills boredom. Suspense makes the reader love your book. Try to add suspense. Try to end each chapter with a small suspense; it’ll look great.

4. Balance of elements

Scan each page for the appropriate actions and reactions, check the presence of all elements about which the novel is all about. If something is missing, add it. There should be emotions, ‘picturistic’ representation of scenes, etc. Everything should be balanced well.

5. Build in more character attributes.

The success of your story depends on your characters. Deeper the character-reader relationship, better will be your story. So try to express more insights into your character details if you get the chance.

6. Repetitions of thoughts and ideas

Thoughts and ideas make the story lively. But do not repeat them every now and then or unless necessary. Pick the repetitions- weed it out!

7. Repetitions of words.

Some words tend to repeat often. Maybe you have a special affinity to those words, but its not necessary that the reader should have the same affinity. Don’t bore them with unnecessary repetitions. Try to concentrate on the words and not the storyline. Forget that it is a story and read on like a heap of words, you’ll easily spot your kryptonite words.

8. Comb out inconsistencies.

In the novel, you propose many ideas and thoughts. Make sure all the propositions are true at the same time. Don’t make two propositions such that one proves that the other one is wrong.

9. Grammatical errors.

You don’t need to have a PhD in English grammar. Just do the basics correctly s that it doesn’t sound ‘mambo jumbo’. Grammar doesn’t count much to the success of story. You’re not teaching the readers about proper english. You’re just telling a story- that’s it.

10. Spelling Errors and Typos.

Yep, that’s the last part of editing. Do it well, using a dictionary.

So that’s it. I hope this article turns out to be a helpful guide in your revision process. Please let me know your opinions through the comments section.

Now that I’ve started the engine, let me take this opportunity to annouce that I have been working on my new novel lately. The title has not yet been decided(well, that’s the last thing to decide, by the way) but it’s more like a thriller. And I have also been working on some tutorials for my readers. I have drafted a tutorial on ‘Revising the manuscript’ and another on’developing the unforgettable character’. I’m also planning to start a mini-series about approaching and working with an agent.

So wait till I’m back with my tutorials. And once again, sorry for the Houndini act.

I know that I have mentioned the rule Maintain a single POV character per scene- or per chapter in the article ‘Cardinal Rules on How to Establish the Right Point of View‘. There I have told that you shouldn’t switch POVs within a scene. Alright so you can switch POVs while changing scenes- but how do you do them.

Here I’m going to tell three points to take care of while switching POV within a chapter. 1. Warning: Speed Breaker Ahead 2.Show Them The Speed Breaker 3.Please Don’t Test my Patience!

1. Warning: Speed Breaker Ahead

Well, the reader is going on a fast lane while reading through your novel. Let’s say the scene involving Finnigan as the POV character is quite long. So the reader is now going at a high speed. When you switch the POV to Luigi’s then the situation be compared to that of a speedbreaker. So we must warn the reader that there is a speedbreaker ahead.

Warning that you going to switch to Luigi soon can be given by slowly turning the spotlight towards Luigi. Let’s see the first paragraph of the previous example:

“Finnigan was with rage, his teeth clenched and fists balled. ‘Go- get lost!,’ he uttered. There wasn’t mush of shouting work done. The next moment, an involuntary force made his hands thrust forwards, driving Luigi towards the door. The latter merely scurried away from his push.”

Attention is being diverted to Luigi. That’s the first thing to be done- but it’s not always possible. In that case I guess you can’t do anything but to forget about warning your reader.

2.Show them the Speed Breaker:

How to show them? Simple enough- Create one and show. Use seperators to show the switching of character. Well, in case you don’t know, a seperator is: ‘***’ or ‘*****’. That’s it- it’s that simple.

“Finnigan was with rage, his teeth clenched and fists balled. ‘Go- get lost!,’ he uttered. There wasn’t mush of shouting work done. The next moment, an involuntary force made his hands thrust forwards, driving Luigi towards the door. The latter merely scurried away from his push.
*****
Luigi sniggered as he opened the door to let himself out. The news seemed to have a hard impact on the lawyer’s mind; yet he couldn’t hide his surprise at Finn’s reaction. A guy like Finn would have at least pulled out his gun without thinking much- he had expected more action, not a drab delirium. He heard an broken cry behind the door, before it clicked shut.”
See? It’s that simple to show that there is a POV switch!

3.Please Don’t Test my Patience!

Sure- don’t test the reader’s patience by making a fuss about the suspense. Just as the new scene pops in- let your POV character pop in as fast as possible. Because once the reader had slowed down next to a speed breadker, and now he/she needs to pick up the speed.

Switching from one POV to another without a jolt is one of the points where the experienced reader gets an idea of the standard of the author. Also during the publisher’s scrutiny, amateur writers are exposed in this way. There will be an irresistable temptation to step out of your POV character. Just resist that temptation and you’ll find your story getting toned up overall.

I hope this article really help you out. Don’t forget to express your opinions and suggestions.

Related articles

• Cardinal Rules on How to Establish the Right Point of View (pronovelist.com)
• Points Of View (kristinastanley.net)
• Lesson One from the Gold Mine Manuscript Mark-Up: Write Without Looking (jennifermeaton.wordpress.com)
• Writing Lessons from the TV show Firefly (angelaquarles.com)
• Style Article – A POV on POVs by @krisbcullen (projectteambeta.com)
• New Points Of View (kristinastanley.net)
• Switching Point of View (writerswritedaily.wordpress.com)
• Up to my eyeballs . . . (plotmamas.wordpress.com)
• Sometimes the experts really do know… (djlutz.wordpress.com)

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