Write in 3-D!

Hello from Margie!

What draws you into a story?

The plot?

The characters?

The best is when authors surprise you. Anyone can create a tough football player or a bratty sibling, but the best characters are those who do the unexpected.

How about a football player who also loves collecting seashells? How about we take it one step further and say he really collects the shells for his little sister, and he would do anything to make her happy? See what we did? Not only did we learn something interesting about this character, but we also learned just what kind of brother he is.

Let's tackle the annoying sibling.

Picture a five year old who always barges into his big sister's room. All he wants to do is mess with her stuff. She doesn't like this at all. One day, he runs in and the big sister is crying on her bed. Instead of going through her things, he climbs onto the bed, cuddles with her, and tries to make her feel better. We see this is a sibling who cares. Know what else we learned? He's probably not that bratty. He just wants to be with his big sis.

The goal is to make characters that care or like different things. You want to show your readers all the different angles of this person. Kind of like a 3-D movie. In 2D, we only see so much, but put on those 3-D glasses, and it's a whole new experience.

Want to give it a shot? Go for the GOAL!

Below are some plain characters. Can you add something interesting and unexpected to spice them up? 

1.     A boy who gets straight As and collects bugs

2.     An cranky neighbor who doesn't like people walking on his grass

3.     A race car driver

4.     A teacher

5.     A rich actor

-Margie