The Cornerstone Of A Satisfying Story By Christina Hollis #Giveaway

 Please welcome author Christina Hollis. She's talking about Satisfying Stories today. And there are Giveaways! 

The Cornerstone Of A Satisfying Story

What does the name Scarlett O'Hara mean to you? Whether or not you've read Gone With The Wind, I'll bet the picture of a willful Southern Belle jumped straight into your mind.

Scarlett was so perfectly drawn by her author, Margaret Mitchell, we feel we know her. Her personality is even bigger than Gone With The Wind, and she’s the perfect example of how character (rather than simply characters) gives a book its heart and soul.

If the central figures of your book don't capture the imagination of your audience, they may not read on past the first few pages. Make your audience care enough about your heroes and heroines to follow them through all the ups and downs of your story. You can do this by using the three C's—Characterisation, Credibility and Consistency.

CHARACTERISATION

Take the time to build up a detailed picture of your main characters. When I worked in Marketing Research, we created customer profiles for our clients. In creative writing, the type of forms I designed for that task can give your fictional people a good grounding in reality.

Start off by cataloguing your character's appearance. It's a cliche to make heroes perfect and handsome, while every villain is rotten to the core and ugly with it, so mix and match. Handsome Bellocq, the mercenary with no morals in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, is a good example of how to confound expectations.

Create a complete fictional past for your characters, right down to the pets they kept as children, and the schools they attended— imagine the contrast in outlook a strict faith school gives, compared to one where free expression means everything. How someone reacts to rules and regulations early in life sets the scene for conflicts later on.

What does your character do when they have any spare time? How do they relate to other people—are they sociable, or are they a loner? Are they the sort who loves their work, or are they a disgruntled wage-slave? Do they do voluntary work? The more questions you can invent, the more detailed your characterisation will be.

If you send an email with the words Character Sheet in the subject line to christinahollis(at)hotmail.co.uk, I'll send you a copy of the form I fill in for each of my fictional characters. 

CREDIBILITY

Nobody’s perfect, so give your hero a flaw or two. It makes them more human, and believable.

Scarlett O'Hara, for example, has plenty of recognizable faults. That’s why we all identify with her at some stage, or at some level. Most people have bent the truth, been stubborn, or shallow, on occasion. We might be driven mad by what she does, but we’ve all been young (and sometimes reckless).  None of us alive today lived through the American Civil War, but we all know what it's like to feel hard-done by, or engulfed by some mad yearning. Scarlett's turmoil is far more acute than ours, but it’s still got that kernel of familiarity. That's one reason why we read to the end of Gone With The Wind.

CONSISTENCY

The way a character develops (for better or worse) during a story keeps us turning the pages, right to the end of the book. It's important these changes happen in a believable way. That means mixing up the big upheavals with smaller ones. Your character may be caught up in a national disaster, or they may not be able to pay a gas bill. The way they react to these situations may be completely transformed over the course of your book, but be careful they don't see-saw too wildly in between, unless there's a cast-iron reason. In my latest book, His Majesty's Secret Passion, Leo manages to unwind stressed-out Sara one step at a time. Gradually, they reach the point where her fury at uncovering the secret Leo's been keeping from her is defused by the way they must both adapt to changing circumstances. All through His Majesty's Secret Passion their attitudes to each other soften, but although this happens at different rates and at different times, they always behave in character.

To keep up with the progress of His Majesty's Secret Passion and my other writing projects, visit my author page here and click on the "like" button for updates. 

Blurb:

Leo Gregoryan is determined to be the perfect king. Loyalty to his country means sacrificing his own happiness, but he’ll divert the energy he once poured into his dream of becoming a doctor toward royal duties. All he needs right now is a stress-free vacation–no future queen need apply. Sara Astley escapes to the luxurious Paradise Hotel after she’s dumped by her partner, who then stole the promotion she’d expected. She hides her broken dreams behind a tough exterior. Her stubborn streak makes her a challenge Leo can’t resist. His special brand of hands-on persuasion seduces Sara into enjoying the holiday of a lifetime. Their fling can't hurt either of them–or so they think. Leo's focussed on being the ideal hero. Sara knows what she wants, and that’s independence. Then a revelation tears them apart, meaning things can never be the same between them...

Buy Links:

Amazon

Amazon UK

Wild Rose Press   

Christina Hollis writes contemporary fiction starring complex men and

independent women–when she isn't cooking, gardening or beekeeping. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and she’s sold over two million books worldwide. You can catch up with her at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com, on Twitter, Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at http://www.christinahollis.com. Her current release, His Majesty's Secret Passion, is published by Wild Rose Press.
  

Enter this Giveaway to win signed copies!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

His Majesty's Secret Passion

by Christina Hollis

Giveaway ends February 20, 2015.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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