Bestselling Author, Jennifer Blake: Jennifer's Journal

Jennifer's Journal

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

Your heroine should have a strong value system. Her motives should never be self-serving. High ideals are the hallmark of worthwhile characters.

Labels: creating heroines, value system

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

To accept responsibility for the welfare of others is another characteristic of a strong heroine. Facing up to obligations is an admirable trait.

Labels: creating heroines, responsibility

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

Giving your heroine a secret lust will add depth to her character. Most readers can empathize with unrequited longing for a person, place or thing of great worth.

Labels: creating heroines

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

A heroine should have some weakness that makes her vulnerable. People who are too sure of themselves can seem arrogant.

Labels: creating heroines

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

Allowing the heroine to feel something is missing from her life is another way of making her human. A perfectly satisfied character can seem shallow and uninteresting, or an eternal Pollyanna who fails to recognize the darker side of human nature.

Labels: creating heroines

Friday, February 26, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

A heroine may have something she wishes she had never said or never done. Facing up to past regret will make seem her more human and likeable.

Labels: creating heroines, regret

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

A deadly fear can be a powerful addition to a heroine's character. Her courage in facing and overcoming this fear will aid in creating reader sympathy for her.

Labels: creating heroines, deadly fears

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

A heroine should have a method of attack for her goal, something she intends to do if fate allows. Concrete plans and the will to carry through with them are signs of intelligence in a character.

Labels: creating heroines, goals

Monday, February 22, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day

A heroine should have something she wants more than anything in the world. The reader wants to pull with her as she strives to reach her goal and to celebrate with her when she succeeds.

Labels: creating heroines, goals

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

The heroine should have a reasonable measure of self-control. She should not succumb too easily to the blandishments or sexual attraction of the hero as this can make her appear lacking in resolve. If she must yield physically for plot purposes, she should still retain emotional distance.

Labels: creating heroines, emotional distance, self-control

Monday, February 08, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

The internal values and moral strength of the heroine should be paramount. It is these qualities which will bring the hero to his knees.

Labels: creating heroines, moral strength

Friday, February 05, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

Regardless of how powerless a heroine may appear because of her circumstances, she should have an internal bastion of strength no one can breach, not even the hero.

Labels: creating heroines, inner strength

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

The conflict in a romance novel should never be completely set aside by the physical intimacy between hero and heroine. The story is over the instant the problem which keeps them apart is resolved--unless you immediately introduce a different and stronger conflict. Ideally, the increase in intimacy should lead to greater difficulty.

Labels: creating heroines, intimacy

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

The heroine should be consistent in her actions and emotions. If she initially despises the hero or another character, the transition to a different feeling should be gradual and caused by specific events. An about-face without sufficient motive strains the "suspension of belief" for the reader.

Labels: consistent actions, creating heroines, emotions

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

Allow your heroine a modicum of reserve regardless of her circumstances. A heroine overwhelmed by her physical and mental reactions to the hero will appear incapable of sustaining the conflict between them. The story will weaken in direct proportion to her loss of emotional control.

Labels: creating heroines, emotional control

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

Emotional reactions in the heroine are best illustrated by their physical effects. These effects should be added in small increments as one or two line descriptions of stress movements, or responses following dialogue and in dialogue tags themselves. An accumulation of small reactions has greater impact than a large section of exposition about the heroine's emotional state.

Labels: creating heroines, emotional reactions

Friday, January 29, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

The success of a romance novel often depends on reader empathy with the emotional reactions of the heroine. These should be shown at all appropriate points, and allowed to escalate in complexity and depth in tandem with the rising tension of the story.

Labels: creating heroines, emotional reactions

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

Avoid the heroine who flares into temper for no reason except to display her "feisty" nature. This taps too easily into the stereotype of the over-emotional female. A truly tempestuous heroine should be given distinct and meaningful motivation for her attitude.

Labels: creating heroines, Motivation, temper

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

The TSTL (Too Stupid to Live) heroine is one who acts in ways no rational female would consider. If your heroine must go into danger, her motive should be concrete and the situation unavoidable.

Labels: creating heroines

Monday, January 25, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

To create a fully developed heroine, you must write the character as if she were an extension of your personality. Allow her to think, act and react as you would if you were in her shoes. No two heroines will be precisely the same because authors have a variety of personalities at their disposal, just as actors are able to play different roles.

Labels: creating heroines

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

The virginal heroine, once the mainstay of romance novels, has become outdated--though she still has a place in romances set in historical time periods where early marriage was the norm. Beware of the ultra-experienced heroine, however, as she can seem lacking in discrimination and judgment. The heroine who has good reason for her failed past relationships plays the best.

Labels: creating heroines

Friday, January 22, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

Female archetypes with their varied attributes can be useful for the creation of heroines. These archetypes have been labeled as: Boss, Survivor, Spunky Kid, Free Spirit, Waif, Librarian, Crusader and Nurturer. An explanation of female archetypes can be found at: www.likesbooks.com. Other sources are: "Type Talk" by Otto Kroeger and Janet M. Thuesen, and "45 Master Characters, Mythic Models for Creating Original Characters" by Victoria Lynn Schmidt.

Labels: archetypes, creating heroines

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Writiing Tip of the Day-Characters

Compassion for others, particularly children, animals, the disabled and the elderly, is a stellar trait in a heroine.

Labels: compassion, creating heroines

Monday, January 18, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

The backstory of the heroine should not be mere window dressing. The events from her past should add depth to her personality. They should also have direct bearing on both her motivation and her ability to gain her heart's desire.

Labels: backstory, creating heroines, Motivation

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

A heroine should be a person the reader can identify with and care about, a warm and human personality with a sense of life and adventure. This is true even when she starts out as less than perfect and must change to become worthy of love and her HEA (Happy Every After).

Labels: creating heroines, happy ever after

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

A heroine's actions should always be logical within the framework of the story. If she will use extraordinary strength, intuition, knowledge or other advantages to shape events, then these qualities must be revealed and explained in advance.

Labels: creating heroines, logic, story framework

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

The willingness to sacrifice her time, her comfort and her own desires for the sake of others can be admirable in a heroine--as long as it isn't carried to extremes. She should never appear to be a martyr.

Labels: creating heroines, sacrifice

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

A heroine can and should have flaws. She can be klutzy, scarred or handicapped, have issues from previous trauma; be timid, abrasive, cynical or afraid to trust; be too self-protective, too quick to act, too ready to condemn and a thousand other things. Her given flaw should serve a purpose in the story, however, usually one which interferes with the attainment of her goal. Change in it can illustrate the evolution of her character.

Labels: character development, creating heroines, flaws, goals in fiction

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

A romance novel heroine, as the protagonist of your story, should have the same courage, honorable intentions and strength of character as the male protagonists of other commercial fiction genres.

Labels: creating heroines

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

A romance heroine doesn't have to be drop-dead-gorgeous, but should be attractive in her own offbeat or non-trendy fashion. She is the stand-in character for the (predominantly) female reader, the one with whom she must identify, and few women consider themselves completely unattractive.

Labels: character development, creating heroines

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Writing Tip of the Day-Characters

Tolerance and a broad view of the world make a heroine more appealing. A narrow, uninformed mind doesn't lend itself to the open emotions which inspire devotion in the opposite sex.

Labels: creating heroines, tolerance