Guest Speaker Margie Church Character Development

On Sunday I spoke about how to develop your characters and where they come from. I'de received an email from someone and wanted to share my thoughts.
Today we have a guest speaker. Margie Church. She is a published author, freelance writer, and executive editor for Class Act Books. Today she will be speaking to us about character and story development.
Dominique Watson (DW): What has been your experience as an author?
Margie Church (MC): I have been a professional writer for about 30 years. I began my career in news writing and editing, moved through corporate ranks in advertising/marketing communications/public relations, and eventually began writing and editing for magazines. I have been writing and editing for magazines for 12 years. Last year, I wrote my first novel, "Awakening Allaire." It got rejected with only a very short description of my problems. Six weeks later, I finished the revision and resubmitted the manuscript. "Awakening Allaire" was published August 1, by Class Act Books. I recently received a contract from Class Act Books for the sequel, "Avenging Allaire," which will come out November 1. I also received one from Guardian Angel Publishing on my children's book, "First Spring."
DW: How do you form your characters?
MC: Initially I have some idea of what the hero and heroine will be like, physically and emotionally. I look at pictures of models to get some physical ideas. I research names and "wear" those for awhile to see if they fit the way a character behaves. As the drama plays out, I develop more characteristics I like to fully define them and the supporting characters.
DW: Do you use character profiles?
MC: Yes, I do. I keep a cheat sheet of the characters that identifies their physical descriptions, and every pertinent detail, including who they are related to, where they came from, what their name means, nicknames, etc. Sometimes as the story ramps up, I forget specifics or I have a character who only made a brief appearance. The "cheat sheet" helps ensure I am consistent. Also, as I develop dialog, it ensures that I am writing the story and the character's voice consistently.
DW: What are some common mistakes writers make in dialogue?
MC: There is a tremendous amount of leeway in dialog from word choice and language pattern points of view. Frequently, I see authors having trouble "keeping in character." I see, for example, a young woman or teenager suddenly using very formal words and phrases, inconsistent with how the character was initially defined or for a person of that character's age. The character stops or starts using contractions when they speak. They may start to swear uncharacteristically in a scene or start talking like a preacher when they've been a guttersnipe. I've done it myself. I sit back and say, Geez, he doesn't talk like that or that phrase doesn't sound like her, and I rewrite it. Try to avoid point of view switches. This also is referred to as head jumping. Imagine who has the most at stake in a scene and write it from his or her perspective. It takes some practice but words such as "think, feel, thought, imagined, hoped, etc. all indicate a point of view switch. In love scenes, it is acceptable to switch perspectives once. Usually a scene break mark is used to indicate this. I also see authors using just about any sentence as a dialog tag. Dialog tags should reflect who or how something is said. A good example: Peter spun on his heel and shouted, "Drop it now!" An improper dialog tag would be something like: Averting her eyes to hide the truth, "I don't know why he left." The clause also is a dangling participle and needs to be fixed. Corrected: She averted her eyes to hide the truth and whispered, "I don't know why he left."
Not every line of dialog needs a tag. Use them for clarity and to add emotion.
DW: What is the proper set up for dialogue?
MC: Each character gets their own paragraph for dialog and for action.

Some authors are hesitant to put the action before the dialog as in this example: "I can't believe you dropped that," she wailed, falling to her knees. It is more powerful to set the dialog up this way: She fell to her knees, wailing, "I can't believe you dropped that."

Don't over-use character names in dialog.

For proper punctuation technique, I strongly recommend The Chicago Manual of Style. It answers just about any style question you might have. It is available on-line, too.
DW: What are some key points in focusing on characters and the story?
MC: I have a tendency to give great insight to how my heroes think and feel in the story and the heroine somehow ends up being window dressing. I sit back after I write a scene and look for balance. I examine whether I've given each character time to express their emotions and illustrate their motivations. If I have a character pulling out a gun and shooting somebody, but haven't given the reader any clue they were capable or motivated somehow to do it, it's not believable. I'm always asking myself, does that make sense? I write suspense so I don't want to give the plot away, but I must give each character enough reason to behave the way they do. For example, in my WIP, my heroine came off a bit cold and stand-offish. I gave her a sister to talk to so the heroine could retain her private ways in the story, but she showed a warmth and caring with her sister that readers needed to see so they could care about my heroine, too.
Don't skimp on self-editing. Enlist the help of skilled people you trust to tell you the truth about your story and the way it's written.

As an author, I believe this info was very helpful. One thing I do as well as Margie is create the character profiles. As a professional writer, it's helpful. I did not do this when I first started out writing but after a while I learned that it was helpful. So I truly encourage that. I hope this interview was helpful and you all were able to take something away from it.
Before we end today's blog...
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Signing Off,
Dominique Watson