What a JERK

Or maybe He Isn't much of a character at all. Think about it. That might be the problem in your story. Your characters need to jump off the page and become living, breathing people--at least while we're reading your story or we won't care about them at all. Then, we'll put the book down to go do laundry, dishes, or...

Have you ever noticed why you love a good story? It's because you get involved in the journey the characters are taking, at least emotionally.

I can't put a book down when I care about the characters and what happens to them. But, to care about the characters, we have to get to know them really well.

It doesn't even matter if we love or hate the people in the stories we read. We simply have to feel so strongly about them that we can't wait to find out what's going to happen to them.

As writers, that's what we have to do to make our stories come alive: make the reader love or hate (and maybe both) our characters. To do that, the characters have to be multi-dimensional.

The best way to achieve that goal is to give your characters many facets to their personalities. We have to work hard, as writers, to chip and shape our characters into full-bodied individuals. Before you know it, those boring lumps will turn from mere words into brilliant diamonds.

One way to work on this goal is to use a Character wheel, which is similar to a color wheel. We want to make our characters so vivid they'll stand out in the crowd.

Worksheet:

Start by drawing a circle on a piece of blank paper for each of the main characters in your manuscript.



Now slice the circle into sections - like a pie



Put your character's name in the center of the page, above the blank circle or "character wheel" so you can come back and refer to your wheel time and time-again.

Character's Name

Label each section of your pie with one of the following topics and fill that piece of the pie in with character specific information:

1) Personality: Shy, timid, selfish, sneaky, conceited, impatient, sly, determined, impatient, cheap, etc.
2) Likes: Video games, tennis, running, t.v., reading
3) Dislikes: homework, dancing, playing the piano
4) Physical Appearance: Hair color, height, weight
5) Hobbies: rock collecting, ballet, soccer
6) Impressions: How others see your character

My critique group used this worksheet to develop character wheels last Saturday during our bi-monthly session. We all worked on one writer's main characters during that session, next time we will work on another member's characters.

We simply started throwing out characteristics that we thought fit the "people" we had read about during our critique sessions.

It was a lot of fun and we all came away knowing the characters much better.

If you have fun with this exercise, you can adapt the character wheel to make a story wheel. Simply label the pieces of the pie with:

1) Story setting,
2) genre,
3) major problems,
4) conflict,
5) action,
6) resolution

Now start filling in the pieces. Before you know it, you're going to have a multi-layered, rich pie ;)

Magical City Lights

Thanksgiving Memories

Can you believe half of December is nearly gone? It seemed like just yesterday it was Thanksgiving. That was a wonderful holiday weekend filled with friends and family and--yes--lots of food. But that was already weeks ago.

Jake looked a little grumpy when we all sat down to eat, maybe it was being woken up to eat an early dinner or maybe it was driving up to the zoo - at the break of dawn to pick us up from the turkey trot that morning - when we'd already hopped on MAX and headed home. Oops! Poor communication on my part.

A 23,000 calorie SALAD...?

So, I had a "salad" my husband made me for lunch. Of course there was no lettuce in this salad, not even little itty-bitty shreds that you had to scan through the ingredients to find. There was, however, about one pound of hamburger, sour cream, cheddar cheese, guacamole, salsa and some other random tidbits.

I don't want to complain because he packed my lunch for me to take to work, which was really nice--I think.

I only ate about 1/4 of what he sent with me and I still have some left in the refrigerator...waiting.

But, it was so full of grease, I got an upset stomach. I didn't want to tell him because this was one of very few lunches he's made for me over the years. Usually, I get up and make us breakfast, then I'm the one who packs our lunches...but this salad felt like a 23,000 calorie salad and it sat with me all week. Now, I'm wondering if just maybe he likes me chubby--after all I have been working hard to drop some extra poundage.

I don't know what do you think?

Anyway, my husband's salad reminded me of this commercial:

Waisalling

This is my homemade Wassail recipe

I take a big jug of red wine and put it on low heat adding in one container of frozen orange juice and two cans of frozen apple juice. I chop up a couple of apples, oranges and throw in a stick or two of cinnamon. You can add cloves and nuts - but I usually don't. The aroma is wonderful and the sweet taste is divine.

I add a candy cane to stir the drink and it's festive, pretty and perfect for any party, even a party of two
My husband likes to drink his on the couch while reading a good book.

Homemade Caramel Popcorn

It's so EZ anyone can do it - oh but the sugar is HOT - so maybe not little kids unless they are very careful and working with supervision

All it takes is sugar, butter and popcorn

I airpop a big bowl of popcorn

Then I sprinkle it with salt...yes, salt and caramel are tasty together like peanut butter and jelly, or coffee and cream or...well, you get the idea.

Just melt a couple cups of sugar over low heat.

And then CAREFULLY add in a stick of chopped up butter. When your caramel is golden and the sugar is dissolved (175 to 180 degrees-measured with a candy thermometer-but I just eyeball it) pour it over the popcorn and mix it up with a wooden or metal spoon (don't use plastic-it will melt). YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMilicious!!!

This can make a perfect present with plenty of Taste. Simply put your caramel corn in a big bowl, cover it with foil and deliver it to neighbors, coworkers, friends or family for a foodtastic gift. This is an inexpensive way to "treat" your loved ones at the holidays.

Play with Your Food - Yes, I said PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD

Don't you wish we could create our own perfect Little Men?

Well here's the real secret to PMS---Perfect Men Snacking.

And, these guys are always wonderfully delicious. Still, baking can take time, energy and crafting skills that some of us just don't have. But not to worry. With a few of my handy-dandy tips and tricks, I guarantee you, you'll be on your way to Homemaking Heaven.

I've figured out some EZ-smeazy ways to make yummilicious goodies without all the expense of buying fancy food gadgets and gizmos galore.

I've always liked playing with my food and I never really grew up so I simply used a little bit of that kid-like resourcefulness and pulled out my kid's Playdoh craft center.

Yep! You heard me...um, read me, right. Playdoh Play Center.

It was over the Thanksgiving weekend that I had my eating epiphany.

My daughter, me and one of her friends spent a few hours eating and playing with our food. We made lots of cookies and ate more than we should. But, sugar cookies are always fun at Christmas. . .right?

It's not like I don't have any tools for cutting and cooking "special" occasion cookies and cakes but they are EXPENSIVE and I only have a few. So instead of running out and buying more of those things, we simply used our old playdoh tools (of course I washed them really well first), utensils and cutters to make fancy shapes and strange little tidbits. It was like being a kid again. We squeezed and squished out our aggressions and even shaped some strange cookies for our eating-time pleasure.

It was a lot of fun and OH-SO foodtastic! And, if you look close, I bet you'll see the ice cream container on the side. Sugar Cookies and Ice Cream...what could be better? So, don't just play with your food, eat it too ;) And, if you want to look for some more great blogs, hop over here.

No wonder I need to run!