Breathing Life Into Characters by Nancy Kelley Allen

Believable characters make the world of fiction come alive. A character that does not seem real will not be interesting. So how do writers breathe life into characters? The best way to develop a three-dimensional character is to get to know the character as well as you know yourself.

On paper create a character profile. List the character’s physical traits, including hair color, height, and other features. List the character’s likes and dislikes, family members, and unusual mannerisms, such as winking as he smiles or rubbing his hand through his hair when he is stressed. Ask your character questions about favorite foods, sports activities, and friends. Write the character’s answer in a first person voice as though he is talking with you. What are the character’s strengths and weaknesses? What does the character want and why does the character want it? What drives the character? The writer needs to know why the character makes certain choices throughout the development of the plot.

Characters are more interesting if they are not perfect, but they need to be likeable. The reader should want the character to succeed or the story will fall flatter than the page on which it’s written.

Next week: Part II

Historical Fiction Contest

check out this link to enter a chance to win $500.00 and 8-month subscription to Children's Writer Magazine. Hurry...deadline is October 30th.
http://www.thechildrenswriter.com/ad192/

I love contests!

...especially when free. Please take a moment-won't take much longer than that-and go to http://www.short-story-time.com/remus-2110.html
to read my short story and post a comment.
I'll be ever-so-grateful!

The Funny Business of Writing Humor for Kids, Part III by Nancy Kelly Allen

Knowing the sensibilities of the audience is imperative to a writer, especially when writing humor. Young readers use books to help discover the world around them, so the more we know about young readers, the better we can develop the humor in our writing.

Humor should not the focus of a story. The story is a vehicle to make readers think and feel. A story without a purpose is probably going to fall flat, with or without humor.

So how do we infuse humor into a story? When I wrote, The Munched-Up Flower Garden, I wrote the basic story first. In revision, I added the humor. I also wrote in first person so I could flavor the story from beginning to end with the character’s attitude and feelings.

Don’t try to make every character and every word in the dialog funny. One funny character or comment will carry the entire scene.

Watch comedians. They set up the humorous situation and the punch line comes at the end of the joke. Use this technique to end the sentence or paragraph with humor.
Read humorous books written for children at various age levels. Compare how the humor is similar or different among the books and the age groups.

Keep the characters realistic to the story. Even those who inject comic relief have to be developed so the readers will care about what happens to them.

Talk with children. Observe them telling stories and laughing. Notice what action or event or words make them laugh. Play with words and sounds. Make your writing business funny business.

Part II of Nancy Kelly Allen's article, The Funny Business of Writing Humor for Kids.

As children develop language skills, the humor of rhymes and nonsense words make them laugh. Preschool aged kids are attuned to the sound of words. They enjoy the playful sound of repeated variations of a word—catty, batty, fatty, watty. Calling a familiar word by the wrong name, such as referring to the nose as an ear, is just downright funny to them. They also find misplacement of a body parts comical—a dog with two legs up and two legs down or a donkey’s head on a turtle’s body. Exaggeration is laughable to this group—a car that is too long or too tall, oversized eyes, or a basketball for a head. They also find impossible behavior funny—a cow jumping over the moon, a talking dog, or a snake that wears underwear. Rhymes, alliteration, and rhythmic text please them.

When kids enter school, they still love wordplay, exaggeration, and physical or slapstick humor. They also enjoy simple riddles and jokes, especially potty humor, and rhyming and nonsense words. Dr. Seuss books are a hit.

Older kids, seven and up, have a better grasp of the language. They love jokes, riddles and other brainteasers, puns, and potty humor. This is the age when chapter books and middle-grade novels are devoured on various subjects. By age eleven, children gain a better understanding of complex literary devices and appreciate humor in irony and sarcasm.

An interview with guest author Nancy Kelly Allen on writing humor for kids...

The Funny Business of Writing Humor for Kids by Nancy Kelly Allen

Kids love stories that make them laugh. Editors and parents love stories that make kids laugh. Humor is that delightful element that makes a story funny, but writing humor is serious business.

To create humorous stories for children, writers must consider the age-appropriate stages of humor in the development of children. A story that makes a four-year-old laugh may not be funny to a second grader. Humor is subjective and personal, and although everyone has an opinion of what is funny, the type of humor that connects with a child changes as the child grows older.

Babies, six months and older, laugh at silly actions, faces, and sounds. As writers, when we translate this to books, we can make human characters walk like a monkey, hang socks from ears to look like a dog, or moo like a cow to create a humorous book. Notice how parents interact with babies to get them to laugh. If the activity works for babies in real life, it will probably work for them in a book. The human character is doing something unexpected so it’s funny.

Parts II and III of this article will follow.

TURNING IDEAS INTO STORIES...Part 1 from Nancy Kelly Allen's "Writing Workshop"

An idea for a story just popped into your head. A phrase, a feisty character, or maybe a situation. The more you thought about it, the more the story played like a movie in your mind. Days, weeks, even months passed and the story wouldn’t go away. Like a pesky mosquito, it buzzed around in your brain. Sound familiar?

Writers use many techniques to develop story ideas. Some let stories mentally evolve until the characters are strong enough to come to life on paper. Others take an idea and immediately construct a character and plot. Different strokes for different folks. Regardless of how your spark originated-over time or on the spur of the moment-the job ahead is to develop it into a full-fledged account. Try these nine techniques to turn your ideas into stories. These ideas work equally well for professional writers and writers in the classroom.

Who is the audience? Is this story for a four year old or a fourteen year old? When we meet someone on the street and talk face-to-face, we adjust our speech and language to suit the audience. As writers, we have to recognize and understand the reading and interest level of our reader before we begin writing. A four year old thinks the word “underwear” is funny. A fourteen year old will probably roll eyes at the word.

Ask What if. What if a dinosaur came to lunch… What if everyone looked the same… Probe your character and plot with the What if question to develop your story idea. When your story comes to a screeching halt and you don’t know where to go with the plot ask what if. You may be surprised at the turn your story takes and the new ideas you will explore.
Next week, I’ll post part II of this article.

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