Tag Archives: Writing Craft series

Technique, Works

Character Sympathy is here!

It’s my birthday—and my baby’s birthday! How awesome is that?! Almost as awesome as the present I got for you.

Are you struggling with an unlovable character? Do your beta readers hate your heroine? Are your critique partners confused about your character’s motivations? Don’t despair—a little more character sympathy could help you! Learn how to get your reader on your character’s side from the very beginning, to get your reader rooting for your character and riveted to the story.

IS YOUR CHARACTER WORTHY OF YOUR READER?

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Often we think of sympathetic characters as those we love or envy or pity, but character sympathy runs deeper than simply liking or feeling sorry for a character. Sympathy in this sense is truly feeling what the character feels, worrying over the same things he worries about, and wanting him to succeed against all odds. If we can get our readers to fully sympathize and identify with our character, our readers will enjoy that journey with our character and then clamor for more.

CHARACTER SYMPATHY will help you:

  • Learn what events, actions and characteristics create true sympathy for a character.
  • Engineer your character’s motivations and goals to maximize their sympathy.
  • Avoid clichéd methods for creating reader identification.
  • Foster sympathy for heroes, antiheroes, villains and everyone in between.
  • Observe and analyze master storytellers’ techniques to create character sympathy.

Character sympathy isn’t automatic or easy, but it’s necessary for readable fiction. Applying these principles can strengthen any story and any character.

Hook your readers with a character they can really root for.

Praise for Character Sympathy

“Jordan has a knack for developing great characters. In this book she shows how to strike the proper balance to make characters believable and multidimensional. Very helpful for all authors, from newbies to published.”

—Nina Holbrook

“Jordan McCollum’s Character Sympathy offers a clear explanation of why showing trumps telling and why your hero/ines need to work for the reader’s sympathy.”

—Morgyn Star

“From Character Sympathy I learned how to make my characters tick from the beginning.”

—Syakira Sungkar

More about the book

Find the table of contents and more here! Plus, keep an eye out for upcoming character sympathy profiles looking at the techniques storytellers use to get us on the same page as their characters from the very start.

Get it now!

Character Sympathy is available direct from JordanMcCollum.com (in PDF, Kindle/.mobi & ePub formats) and from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo! Paperback will be available as soon as my final proof arrives for approval.

COVERAlso in the Writing Craft Series

Character Arcs: Founding, forming and finishing your character’s internal journey is available direct from JordanMcCollum.com and Amazon and in paperback—and now at Barnes & Noble! It’s also processing at Kobo now, too.

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Works, News & Contests

Character Sympathy is coming soon!

Character Sympathy is here!

Today, I’ve got two fun things to share. First, my indie author column is running today at Janice Hardy’s Fiction University (formerly The Other Side of the Story). Go learn more about finding your perfect editor and editing level!

Secondly, I’m revealing the cover of my next writing guide today! Character Sympathy is coming soon!

What does it mean to have a “sympathetic” character? Often we think of characters we love or envy or pity, but at its core, what our fiction really needs are characters the reader can root for and relate to.

When you have characters your readers can really care about, even if they don’t love the character, your readers will be fully engaged in your story and beg for more!

Learn what does and doesn’t create character sympathy and see how to use proven techniques for creating character sympathy to really hook your readers.

And here’s the cover!

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More about Character Sympathy

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Works, News & Contests

Character Arcs is here!

This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series Subplots

We’ve finished our series on subplots, but we haven’t touched on one of the most important types: the character arc, the character’s emotional journey of growth. And that’s because I’ve been working so hard on the book about that very topic.

Hooray! It’s here!
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On Kindle and in paperback

With more formats coming soon!

“Amid the vast number of books that focus on the what and why of character arcs, Jordan McCollum has created a refreshing guide that demystifies the how. Any writer interested in learning more about how to create a realistic character arc and smoothly add it to their story will benefit greatly from this book.”

—Becca Puglisi
author of The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression

WHY DOES YOUR STORY MATTER?

CHARACTER ARCS show the events of our story are worth reading about.

In most works of fiction, the major characters don’t just experience the events of the plot—the story changes them. They learn and grow, ultimately succeeding at the climax of the story because of all they’ve gained. Even the greatest plot in the world can ring flat if the character’s internal journey isn’t dramatic enough. For a character to truly resonate with readers, he should change and grow over the course of the story.

CHARACTER ARCS will help you:

  • Give your readers a powerful experience in any genre
  • Discover your character’s arc: their internal, emotional journey.
  • Implement that character arc to make your readers root for your character.
  • Keep your story moving by using external plot events to prompt your character’s internal growth.
  • Revise your character’s arc for maximum impact.
  • PLUS a special chapter on using character arcs in romances, family dramas & other relationship stories.

Far from a write-by-numbers manual, this approach examines the basic mechanics of character change to show you how to apply these principles in your own work, with numerous examples.

Add power and resonance to any story—master character arcs!

More about Character Arcs
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