Character

Character is what I discuss in my book, and some of it here. If readers don't like the character it's probably because the character in question isn't three dimensional to use a tired and aging expression.

But it does tell you that your protagonist is flat, not interesting enough and maybe not likeable.

"Likeable" is a funny trait, like James Candolfini in the Sopranos, was a horrible person; he killed people or have them killed. Yet the audience liked him. This is where the writer has some control but not much.

Some actors can pull that off. they seem to be the kind of a person you can go out with and have a few beers with. That's where empathy comes into the game. Readers and audiences need to empathize with the protagonist or any other character for that matter.

Creating a three-dimensional one that will require going back and filling up that particular character, well, more character. I have more information on Character in my book.

So, what do others like in your character; or what don't they like. They may even tell you why?

From that you can get a better idea as to how to make that character more interesting. Unfortunately it isn't quite easy when you're starting. But it's also not so easy for me as well; all though I have more habits to fall back on to figure out. And that comes with experience.

When I build characters I more than often take them from people I see or know or watch. This comes from a long time ago, at least for me. I wrote a book called Emperor of Mars, it's a fantasy story with a twelve-year old character.

I use a dozen characters that I used to create what I thought they were like. And then, I would push them further with having them fill up what I couldn't create myself. 

The story is about a 12-year old boy who believes that the Emperor of Mars is coming to his small town in the midwest. And to make it more interesting, there's a new school teacher who has come to teach his class. And he falls madly in love with her, although the ages are not the same.

Then, there's an older man, very odd, who lives behind grain elevators and seems to be strange but mostly interesting for the boy and his school buddy. Even if they're told to stay away from him.

Then, strange things begin in the forms of odd lightning colors and alien-like forms create what looks like space aliens or at least something like that. And the young boy decides that he has to save his little town.

Okay, so there you are. You've got the boy, the teacher, the stranger. From these three you can see what will happen.

"I don't think that I truly appreciated my childhood after reading Jim Makichuk's Emperor of Mars. It is such a sincere and magical look at an age gone by that it made me think of the beauty of the work of Norman Rockwell mixed with the modern cynical perspective of Stand By Me."

Review