As a follow-up to his March column on Writer Unboxed, which we highlighted last time, Donald Maass takes a closer look at not just situations but characters who inspire awe.

Why is awe so important in writing? Well, to put it simply, it may not be strictly necessary, but it’s an element that will help you craft Maass’s favorite: a breakout novel, one that stays with readers and shakes them to the core. To do that, sometimes, you have to shake your characters to the core, too.

To create characters that inspire awe, he suggests:

Answer the following questions and apply the answers in your current manuscript:

• What happens in your story that makes your protagonist the most angry? Anticipate that anger three times in the story before the big event.
• What does your protagonist believe beyond all else? Create a story event that forces him or her to accept the opposite.
• What does your hero or heroine see about people that no one else does? Find three times when he or she will notice that thing at work.
• Why does your protagonist’s life matter? At the moment when that’s most true, allow your protagonist to humbly grasp their importance to someone else or to the great scheme of things.
• As I’m sure you can see that’s just the beginning. Inspiring awe requires building awesome characters.

You might recognize this as very similar to exercises Maass suggests in Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook. These are challenging exercises that prompt you to dig deep into your characters—so have you ever done them? What have you found from exercises like these?

Photo by Paul Fisher