Jenyfer Matthews

Award-winning author Amy Corwin is an insatiable reader and a compulsive writer. She joined the Romance Writers of America at its inception and began writing for publication six years ago. Amy’s books have received numerous writing awards including first place in the 2006 Dixie First Chapter and first place in the 2003 Golden Rose contests. Her first historical novel, SMUGGLED ROSE, was published by Cerridwen Press in 2007 and received excellent reviews, including a 4-star review by “The Romantic Times”. Her second book, a historical romantic mystery, I BID ONE AMERICAN, was published by The Wild Rose Press in May 2008, and has garnered excellent reviews, including a perfect score of 5 books from Long and Short Reviews. She is currently working on her next historical romantic mystery featuring the Regency “detective” agency: Second Sons, Discreet Inquires.

Smuggled Rose

A cynical earl and a rose smuggler are an unlikely pair, particularly when the smuggler is a supposedly fallen woman the earl owes for saving his feckless brother’s life.

Nonetheless, Michael, the earl of Ramsgate, is determined to repay his family’s debt by presenting Margaret at Court — an action calculated to repair even the worst reputation. But Margaret has been burned before and is suspicious that Michael’s intentions aren’t entirely honorable…despite the certainty in her heart that she can trust him.

As the tension between them flares and Michael’s feelings for Margaret strain his self-control, an old enemy bent on revenge returns to challenge Michael’s iron determination…and threatens to take Margaret away from him forever.

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Amy’s Tips for Good Characterization

There are hundreds of ways characterization can go wrong. I can’t cover everything, but here are a few tips garnered from editing my own and others’ manuscripts.

Let’s start with some good news. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is terminal. You can fix anything. You would be amazed at what a difference it makes to add a single sentence revealing a character’s motivations. Sometimes, that’s all that is necessary.

Since this is such a huge subject, I’m only going to talk about one major complaint: “I can’t get into or sympathize with your characters”

COMMON MISTAKES
• You didn’t reveal the character’s motivation
• Your first introduction to the character is through the eyes (POV) of another character
• You introduce the character at a bad moment
• Dominance

HOW TO FIX THEM

• You didn’t reveal the character’s motivation

If the reader doesn’t know the character’s goal and motivation, they will not bond with the character. The reader must feel she understands the character so she can be “one with the heroine.” Without that feeling, the reader may drop the book.

Problem: You want to hide motivation to surprise the reader later.

That’s fine, but you must give the heroine a substitute goal and motivation. And don’t assume her goal/motivation should be obvious to the reader by the character’s actions.

If the reader doesn’t understand what is initially driving the character to do what she is doing, then you’ve created the classic “unsympathetic” character that makes the editor complain, “I couldn’t get into your character”.

So how do you reveal goals and yet keep the surprise?

You don’t have to reveal the character’s entire motivation/goals/conflict on page one. You do need to reveal the character’s initial goal, some motivation, and a bit of conflict. Her starter goal isn’t necessarily her main goal.

Let’s say your heroine needs to find her sister’s murder and her motivation is to save her brother, accused of the murder. That’s the major goal/motivation for her. But, what if you don’t want the reader to know that in the beginning?

Reveal a starter goal by defining what she’s after now. This is a technique used a lot in suspense novels where the author wants to keep some mystery around the heroine. The starter goal allows the author to reveal a goal/motivation that is important enough to establish the reader’s bond with the heroine.

Example: In scene one, the heroine is talking to a private investigator. She’s trying to get his help to investigate a theft. Her motivation: she believes she doesn’t know how to investigate on her own, and the theft was a vase that had been in her family for years. So her initial, starter goal is to enlist this man’s assistance to find a thief. That’s the goal and motivation you need to make clear on page one to hook the reader.

Then you can slowly reveal the theft occurred at the time of the murder, and she believes the two are related. And further, if she can find the thief, she can prove her brother is innocent. And she can irritate/conflict with the detective because she did not reveal all of this when she hired him.

One last thing: you should do this for your secondary characters, too, or creating stock or cardboard secondary characters. Every character has to have motivation and goals, even if the goal is only a paycheck. And the more important those motivations/goals are to the character, the more depth your characters will have.

• Your first introduction to the character is through the eyes or POV of another character

This may seem odd or counter-intuitive. For this example, let’s say the book is a romance and your target audience is mostly women. You’ve introduced the hero and you’re in his POV when you introduce him to the heroine. Sometimes this can work, but it almost never works if your heroine is gorgeous, he sees her without any flaws, and he lusts after her immediately.

Here is the problem. Most readers can’t relate to perfection. And if they meet the heroine only from the hero’s perspective of her as the “pink of perfection,” how can the reader relate? The heroine is a beautiful, perfect woman like a plastic Barbie doll with no soul.

That’s why so many romances start in the heroine’s POV, so the reader can understand her fears, anxieties, and flaws. The reader can bond with her before discovering the woman is gorgeous. Or, the author can introduce the hero and heroine separately so the reader bonds with both characters before the two meet.

My preferred method is simpler: don’t make the heroine (or hero) completely perfect. Give your characters flaws, both mental and physical. Flaws make humans more human, real, and therefore more sympathetic.

When the hero first sees the heroine, he should see some flaw in addition to her beauty. And give him a flaw, too. Make her notice a trait she really dislikes in the hero, but even though she sees it, she’s still unable to resist her attraction to him…

Jennifer Crusie uses this method frequently and it works for her, e.g. “Welcome to Temptation”.
If you can’t or won’t add flaws, introduce the characters separately. Show the hero’s starter goals and motivation. Introduce your heroine and do the same. THEN introduce the two of them to each other after the reader already knows them and sympathizes with them.

• You introduce the character at a bad moment

Books always start at crises or changing point. However, avoid portraying your hero or heroine acting out-of-control. Do not make the mistake of thinking that showing your heroine spitting-tacks angry portrays her as a feisty woman who sticks up for herself.

It simply portrays her as an out-of-control bitch. The same is true for the hero.

You want both of them to be the ones in control while those all around are losing their grip. And then, you can gradually make your hero and heroine lose it, too—because by then, your reader will be “one with the heroine.” The reader will feel the agony of the heroine’s slow descent into the maelstrom of your novel.

Think of it this way: what is your reaction when you are in public and stumble upon a scene where a woman is yelling at another person? Do you like the woman or does it make you uncomfortable and wish the woman would get a grip?

Same problem.

You can, however, get away with it if you are Jennifer Crusie and are showing the heroine has a fabulous reason for being angry, and she’s got a sense of humor and is funny. But I have never read a Crusie where the heroine is angry from sentence one. The heroine tries to control it—her action sucks the reader in—and then the heroine loses it in an amusing way. And the humor offsets the anger.

If it is not funny, you are much better off showing some other character haranguing the hero or heroine. That character will be hated by the reader while your heroine is loved for showing self-control. This is good.

• Dominance

This can be less important for heroine, but really, you have to consider it for both hero and heroine. You don’t want either character to appear to be spineless.

Fathers are bad for heroes. If your hero has problems with his father (or worse, his mother), do not place the hero in an initial scene where the parent has the upper hand. Your hero will be perceived as weak and undeserving of hero status.

And avoid downtrodden heroines, unless she is deciding to revolt in chapter one. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t show someone being mean to her, and her taking it. However, in the heroine’s head, she must recognize what is going on and plot to put an end to it. She must make a decision to show some spine.

That decision is her saving grace and will hook the reader’s sympathy.

Conclusion: There is obviously much more to this, but what I tried to cover are some of the techniques you can use to create characters the reader cannot ignore.
Good luck!

* * * * *

Blurb from I Bid One American

An American heiress nobody wants; a duke every woman desires; and a murder no one expects.

When Nathaniel, Duke of Peckham, meets Charlotte, he’s suspicious of her indifference. Too many women have sought—and failed—to catch him. Happily, Charlotte is more interested in dead pharaohs than English dukes and laughs at both him and his suspicions.

Her resolve crumbles, however, when a debutante seeking to entrap Nathaniel gets murdered. All too soon, his reputation as a misogynist makes him a suspect, and Charlotte impulsively comes to his aide.

Unfortunately, both are unaware that a highwayman interested in rich heiresses is following Charlotte. And that another debutante lies dead in Nathaniel’s carriage.

Some nights just don’t go as planned.

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