Have you ever read a book, or watched a movie, only to walk away thinking “wow, that character didn’t have any depth”? This is a common problem that we see in today’s fiction market place, and there’s a really good reason as to why we walk away thinking that the characters have no depth – because the writer didn’t know enough about the characters. Most writers will immediately write down all of the important information about their main characters, such as name, age, job, ethnicity, appearance, residence, ect, but how often do you think a writer will write down most of this information about their secondary characters? And in many cases they don’t have enough information about their primary characters to give good depth to the character.

One great tip is to know more about the character than you’ll ever write about them. Why is this a good idea? Let’s say we have a character named Sally, and we know that one of Sally’s favorite hobbies is to play chess. Now we may never show Sally playing chess in the story, but we may be able to reference it briefly. Say, for instance, that Sally is watching the primary characters argue, she could say something like “checkmate”. The average reader may not think “ahh, Sally likes chess”, but they will know that Sally understands chess, which, believe it or not, may actually show that she’s an intelligent person, as chess is associated with people who are very smart.

The point is that it’s vital that you know a great deal about your characters. You can even make yourself a spreadsheet and can fill it out for each character. Make sure to put information like favorite foods, friends, phobias, faults, secrets, illnesses, nervous gestures, sleeping patterns, marriage status, religion, and so on in your spreadsheet. This will not only help you to get to know your characters, giving them depth, but will also give you something to reference back to if you get confused with one of your secondary characters.

There are a lot of misconceptions that go around about authors. To see this in action, do a little experiment. The next time you meet someone new and they ask what you do, tell them that you work in a factory (even if you don’t) and see how they react. Then, when you meet someone else, tell them you’re a writer and see how they react. Most people believe that writers are extremely intellectual, and that people who work in factories are not. This is a huge misconception.

You may have a genius working next to you in the factory, just as a writer that you love may not be all that smart. But these are misconceptions that have been around for ages and that are not going anywhere. Because of this people have a difficult time believing that they can become a writer, especially if they’ve never tried to publish something before. They believe the hype, that you have to be a genius to be a writer who can make a living off of it. That is just not true! Some of the most popular writers out there today not only aren’t geniuses, but many of them didn’t even attend college!

If you wake up in the morning and you want to write, then you’re a writer. It doesn’t matter if you’re not established yet, as long as you’re working towards your goal and are writing on a regular basis, you can consider yourself a writer. Publishing an ebook is very easy (thanks to technology!) and you will find that if you opt to do so, you’ll not only gain confidence in your abilities, but you’ll also be proud to call yourself a writer!

The other day we talked about writing books for children. Now we’re going to get into a whole different world – writing books for teenagers and pre-teens. Teenagers and pre-teens are a whole different type of crew when you talk about writing. They are too old for books that were created for youngsters, and too young for books that are created for adults. They need to have stories that intrigue and entice them, but that is much harder than it sounds, especially when you’re dealing with teenage boys.

So how do you write a story that is engaging to teenagers? First you have to figure out who your target audience is. Teenage boys, for example, are into entirely different things then teenage girls. There are some books that appeal to both sexes, but it can be extremely difficult to write a book that is enjoyed by both. Once you’ve figured out who your target audience is, start thinking about what type of story you’d like to write. What appeals to that sex? Girls, for instance, tend to be a bit more interested in stories that have a bit of a romantic twist to them, while guys tend to like stories with more action and adventure.

Once you’ve got a good idea in your head, it may be smart to run it past a teen or pre-teen. Snag one that you know and start telling them about the story. If they start asking questions and seem to be enjoying the idea, you’ve got something. If they don’t seem to be getting into it, ask another teenager, and if that one doesn’t get into the idea, it may be time to start at the drawing board again. Once you find a great idea, though, you can create a teen or pre-teen masterpiece!

When your children are young and you read them stories, it’s easy to think that it would be far too simple to be able to write your own children’s book. All you have to do is to come up with some sort of a good tale, and to be able to rhyme, right? Not necessarily. Any really good children’s book also comes with illustrations, and unless you’re really good at drawing and illustrating, you may find that you have a difficult task ahead of you.

If you’re set on writing a children’s novel, the first thing you may want to do is to find an illustrator. You may have a friend or family member who is a good illustrator, but if you don’t, you can always connect with one using other methods. Some people use sources such as Craigslist to place an ad, while others place an ad in their local paper or at their local community center. It’s a good idea to make sure that the illustrator that you connect with knows how to use Photoshop or some other form of digital editing software, especially if you’re going to be publishing your work online, because it is the fastest way to get your illustrations up with your work.

Once you’ve made an agreement with an illustrator, you can start working! Make sure that your story is one that is interesting to children as well as being age appropriate. It should be something that they have fun reading and that actually engages them, so that they’re anxious to learn more about how the whole reading “thing” works. Writing a children’s book is a lot harder than it seems, but if you get the right combination of things going on, you can create absolute magic!