Determination is a good thing to have in reserve; you never know when you might need an extra kick in the butt to get you going. To make you stop feeling sorry for yourself. To make you stop making up excuses. A reason to downshift a gear and make it up that hill. Determination is mostly what a writer uses in order to make it through one book and onward to the next. Determination is all you have when facing a long dry spell. Determination shows what you’re made of, what you’re capable of doing when everyone has long given up on you. Determination is you.

I think the hardest thing I’ve had to come to terms with in my switch from writing fan fiction to write original fiction is character. I still write the same genre. I still stay within the same plot lines, the same story arc and pretty much the same timing. I write like I approach exercise. I put one foot in front of the other. I keep my head down; focus all my energy on the task at hand. I remember to breathe. I ignore the racing of my heart, the sweat beading down my forehead. And when I want to give up. I’m tired and can’t run that extra mile, I reach down inside and remember the only person who believes in me, is me. And that makes me determined to move just a little further. So when I write my characters, I have to remember everything I love about characters I’ve read before. Everything I hated and wanted to change. Everything I would’ve done differently (but not better, because we all do things in our own prospective) and use it as I would the stair climber. Take those steps one at a time. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Remember to focus on what you want most out of the exercise. Remember to breathe through the frustration. And at the end, you’ll reach your goal (not to mention the end of the torture cycle) your main character. 

Building a main character is the most important part (well to me it is, besides the main plot) of the WIP. The main character is how you’ll draw that reader into your story. The main character shows off your voice to perfection, compliments your writing style, covers up your flaws. Since I write in first person and I write the female POV, I find that writing the main character is a little harder. Not as hard as writing third person, because that’s nearly impossible for me. Most main heroines have a dash of the writer in them. A lot of writers stick with the same kind of heroine, at least an echo of a heroine outline. Characters are what brings your reader back for more. Animated, lively characters, whose interaction with one another won’t let you put the book down. So how you do you find that formula? I’ve yet to find mine. It’s a harmony factor that I’ve been messing with for nearly two years. My male characters are good, but it’s all about the heroine. Once I mix up the right formula for my heroine, the story will flow like a river. It’s all about determination to get to that stage of the game.

Any advice you’ve learned over the years? Formulas for writing up characters? Any favorite characters you’ve read over the years that were a theme for the writer?