How To Get Your Novel Published

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Rebecca, Rhonda, Claudia, Jane, and Evangeline, thank you for adding your work in the comments section of Part 3. You’ve written some powerful character studies. No one could ever accuse your Sheilas of being cardboard cut-outs!

Let’s wrap this up.

It’s easy for Charlie to say what Sheila is. She’s the bitch. But we’re not Charlie, or any other character. We’re the writers. So we need to know why Sheila is being such a bitch.

Our knowledge might not appear on the page. In fact, most of it probably won’t. But we need to know, so we can make Sheila’s behaviour consistent, because even irrational behaviour needs a rational basis somewhere back there in the writer’s plans.

I think most of us can remember occasions in our lifetimes when we’ve behaved irrationally, and I bet none of us considered ourselves irrational at the time. That’s how it is with our characters. No one thinks she’s the baddie.

This is how we make our unpleasant or difficult characters into three-dimensional people, rather than cartoon black hats.

Everyone is the Main Character of her own story!