Author Archive | Susan May Warren

I’ve been studying lately secrets to making my characters not only unique, but the kind of heroes that cause readers to cry over them. I’ve discovered three secrets that hold the keys to great characterization. Secret #1 is Compassion. Secret #2 is Strong Motivation. And now, Secret #3: Sacrifice – We love a man who sacrifices. Whether he sacrifices his noble cause, his dreams, faces his fears, or even sacrifices the woman he loves for the greater good…sacrifice is the key to a hero that makes us cry. Why do we love Jack Bauer – maybe some of you don’t but I do…and it’s because Jack continually sacrifices himself for others…for American, for Audrey…I for one was in tears at the end of last season. I just want Jack to […]

I have the big picture for my plot ~ but I am stuck on figuring out individual scenes. How do I come up with scenes that don’t drag? Good question! I am loving the new show, Journeyman, a time travel show about a guy who gets snatched (by who, what cosmic force?) to be sent back in time to “put right what once went wrong” (to quote my favorite time-travel show Quantum Leap). I love time travel shows, and this one is stellar because of the layers of relationships and trouble his “bouncing” causes. It also raises a lot of questions. Like, what if he gets killed back in time? Or what if he changes something that affects his life, or the life of someone he loves? What if he’s […]

I’ve been studying lately secrets to making my characters not only unique, but the kind of heroes that cause readers to cry over them. I’ve discovered three secrets that hold the keys to great characterization. Last week I talked about Secret #1: Compassion. Secret #2 is…Strong motivation – The key to every hero’s guarded behavior is his motivation, or his noble cause. Even if we don’t discover it until half-way through the story, we need hints of what it might be. Braveheart does a good job of this by setting up the death of his wife. We need that if we’re going to stand beside him through all the warfare. But, let’s take Jason Bourne – we don’t know much about him. We do know, however, that he was shot, […]

Ask the Doc: My question has to do with secondary characters. Do you generally create them before you start writing? How well to you have them sketched out? Or do you write the story and then realize you need a character here and create them on the fly? It happens. There you are, cruising away at your story, and you run up against a moment where you need your heroine to interact with someone other than the hero, other, even than her co-workers, or friends. So, you put together a quickie character, someone who just serves as a sounding board. And then, suddenly, that minor throwaway character gets up and demands a voice! But wait, you say – I don’t know what you look like, really. Or what your flaws […]