AUGUST, 2018
CREATE CAPTIVATING CHARACTERS—
PLANT A HEART-HOOK IN YOUR READERS
(Continued)
In other words, you must put your main
character into trouble and danger. You must
make her fate uncertain, preferably perilous.
Put her on a roller coaster ride. Most crucial to
your success as a storyteller, put us, as your
readers, on this thrill ride with her.
Plunge your main character into hot water,
and then turn up the heat. You have made bad
things happen to her, now you must make
those bad things worse. Mercy is inappropriate
here, no matter how much you have come to
love her, as have the rest of us, your readers.
Intense, dramatic, powerful events make
your character intense, dramatic and powerful.
Trouble and danger are intense, dramatic and
powerful, especially when they inflict them-
selves upon someone you have made us care
about—a lot.
This is the how to create captivating char-
acters. Intense, dramatic, powerful characters
are captivating characters. They captivate us
because we can’t take our eyes off them. We
can’t take our hearts off them either. We care
too much for that to be possible.
Create captivating characters and you will
have us hooked. We will be hooked by your
characters and by you as their author. We will
prove how captivated we are by—drum roll
please—buying your next book. And, that is
something else all writers want. No doubt
about it.
Biography:
Alice Orr is the author of sixteen novels, three novellas, a memoir, and No More
Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript That Sells. A former book editor and literary
agent, Alice now lives her dream as a full-time writer. She has two grown children and
two perfect grandchildren and resides with her husband Jonathan in New York City.
Alice’s latest book, A Time of Fear & Loving—Riverton Romantic Suspense Book 5, is
available HERE.
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