The Write Focus

4:11 / 4 Bright Lights or Hot Messes / Discovering Characters

When we study character analyses, we’re often left with the sense that these discussed protagonists and antagonists are masculine rather than feminine.  In this episode, we’ll look at women in the leadership position, positive forms as well as negative. Women can burn brightly, illuminating all around them, or can burn themselves up when they fall prey to the worst inside themselves.

We’re looking at women as primary characters, from ancient days to the present. You may wish to reference our previous episode on $ Types of Leaders: Alpha / Beta / Gamma / Delta.

(You may consider these four leadership episodes and think “no update for trans or nonbinary?” Well, whether a character is trans or non-binary, that character will still fall into one of these dichotomous truths from primitive days to now.)

Contents

• 0:39 Intro
• 1:25 Bright Lights
• 2:47 Ancient Days
• 4:30 Queen Alpha / B*tch
• 5:30 Counselor Beta / Courtier
• 6:07 Non-Conformist Gamma / Little Miss Independent
• 7:01 Visionary Delta / Missionary
• 8:02 A Woman’s Conflict
• 9:41 Genetic Wiring in Men and Women
• 13:13 Closing

See previous episodes or the blog for Resource Links.

Direct Link to the Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2023/02/4-bright-lights-or-hot-messes-disc.html

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

4:10 / 4 Unheroic Heroes / Discovering Characters

Our last episode examined the 4 Classic Hero Leaders who can become protagonists with developed personalities and flaws. Skew them sideways, and they become antagonists.

The same will happen with the 4 Unheroic Heroes that are the focus of this episode: Warrior, Creator, Magician, and Sage … or looking at them as antagonists, Tool, Dreamer, Machiavellian, and Robot.

Contents

• 0:39 Intro
• 1:18 Unheroic Heroes
• 2:46 Warrior / Tool
• 6:06 Creator / Dreamer
• 8:35 Magician / Machiavellian
• 11:28 Sage / Robot
• 14:10 Closing

Direct Link to the Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2023/02/4-unheroic-heroes-disc-characters.html

Discovering Characters  can be purchased at these links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

4:09 / 4 Types of Leaders / Discovering Characters

Celebration! We’ve achieved 150 episodes since we began podcasting in 2020.

We check-in with new and upcoming releases. Then we launch into this week’s episode.

4 Types of Leaders

Whether protagonist or antagonist, our central character is a leader. The question is What Kind of Leader?

We have the 4 expected types, 4 unheroic heroes, 4 strong women or their polar opposites, and 4 we don’t consider leaders even though they are.

That’s 16 types of leaders. Which one did you want now?

Over the next four weeks, we’ll examine them in detail, starting with the 4 Expected Leaders: Alpha / Beta / Gamma / Delta. We’ll loo at the positive and negative forms.

Contents

• 0:39 Intro
• 4:05 Four Types of Leaders
• 4:48 Alpha-Ruler / Alpha Dog-Tyrant
• 7:45 Beta Seeker / Sycophant
• 10:39 Gamma Destroyer (Rebel) / Nihilist
• 13:28 Delta Protector / Caregiver (Wuss)
• 17:10 Closing

Discovering Characters  can be purchased at these links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk

Enter the Writing Business   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0848CK3C2  Look for the audiobook on your favorite audiobook retailer. EWBiz is available at over 40 audio retailers.

Inspiration for Writers bundle (Just Start Writing by M.A. Lee, Write a Book in a Month by Remi Black, and Enter the Writing Business by Edie Roones) paperback https://www.amazon.com/dp/1734015985

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

4:08 / Boxing Characters to Build Foundations / Discovering Characters

Boxing Characters helps the writer explore the many sides of their characters … so those characters come alive on the page and don’t change personalities in the center of the story.

After all, the greatest of all writing crimes is to betray the reader by having characters change on them. Plot holes and unsurprising twists can be forgiven when our readers love our characters. Few readers will forgive characters who change their goals and behaviors in the story.

Then how do we create a strong foundation for our characters? We build those foundational blocks by working through various boxes: simple, ticky boxes that create solid walls of personality.

Contents

• 0:39 Intro
• 1:30 Simple Boxes: the Humours and the Enneagram
• 6:03 16 Boxes / the Myers-Briggs
• 8:19 Dichotomous Categories
• 12:45 12 Original Archetypes / Carl Jung
• 18:59 Positive and Negative Duality
• 20:16 Closing

Discovering Characters  can be purchased at these links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

 

4:07 / Reaching the Psyche of Protagonists and Antagonists / Discovering Characters

What happens when a story idea strikes? If we don’t start with the central character, then very quickly our minds will focus on that single character. Our minds will swirl around a scenario and the character who controls our perspective of that scenario.

Any character can serve as that central focus. We writers decide who will be the focus based on which character is best suited to confront the conflict.

Our characters spin around an interactive conflict with a push-pull synergy. Two characters, opposing each other, will create a story. These two—the solution-finder and the conflict-creator—cannot work alone. We need both to drive the novel.

Who are these two characters? Let’s find out.

Contents

• 0:39 Intro
• 2:42 Protagonist / Hero
• 7:53 The 3 C’s: Choice, Coercion, Compulsion
• 10:31 Antagonist / Villain
• 15:30 4 Shades of Evil
• 17:17 Closing

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

Discovering Characters  can be purchased at these links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

4:06 / Characterization / Basic Terms pt 2 / Discovering Characters

What details do we writers need to manipulate for the readers to see and understand our characters?

This unfolding view, presented in scattered snippets throughout our stories, is Characterization.

Herewith, 6 ways plus 2 pairs to develop your characters (did I just call gin rummy?) as well as a bit on Non-Primary Characters.

Contents

• 0:39 Intro
• 1:13 Characterization
• 2:00 6 types of Characterization
• 8:00 Placeholder vs. True Character
• 9:52 Constant vs. Change
• 12:53 Decisions about Characterization
• 13:19 Non-Primaries
• 18:50 Closing

Discovering Characters  can be purchased at these links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

4:05 / Perspective / Basic Terms pt 1 / Discovering Characters

How do we present the story to our readers? This question is often asked on social media.

Should I write in first person? Deep Voice? Limited?

All of these are the narration of the story through a character’s eyes and opinions—or more than one characters’ eyes and opinions. This is Perspective, viewpoint, point of view. Our choice of viewpoint matters. How do we make that choice? This episode will help you with that basic decision.

Contents

• 0:39 Introduction
• 1:15 Start
• 3:52 Perspective
• 7:30 Story-Telling Pronouns
• 9:40 4 Successful Points of View
• 13:12 Worrisome Points of View
• 18:18 Decisions about Points of View
• 18:56 Closing

Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

4:04 / Interview / Discovering Characters

The character interview is a vital method to reach into your characters’ voices.

Before launching into a major storyline, writers should interview their primaries: protagonists & antagonists as well as the important secondaries whose decisions will affect the primary characters.

Yet what questions do we ask? We’ve an excellent interview adapted from several sources, starting with M.A. Lee’s years in journalism (before she escaped the real Nosy Parker business and entered the fictional NP one).

We’re Discovering Characters.

Contents

• 0:39 Intro
• 1:20 Start
• 4:58 Questions on Goals (5)
• 6:14 ~ on Secrets and Loss
• 6:44 ~ on Fears and Sacrifice
• 7:15 ~ Last Question
• 7:36 Example
• 11:40 Closing

Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

4:03 / Templates / Discovering Characters

Templates are the easiest way to build a character from ground up.

The only problem is that most templates barely cover more than appearance and bits & pieces of relationships and angst and secrets.

Don’t fret. We have 10 templates that delve deeper than the surface façade, into the interior spaces where characters live.

We’re Discovering Characters.

Contents

• 0:39 Intro
• 1:20 Start
• 6:52 Templates ~ Basic (3)
• 10:40 ~ Character in Society (3)
• 14:26 ~ Secrets plus (4)
• 16:50 Example
• 21:20 Closing

Discovering Characters can be purchased at these links: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19 https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.

• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

4:02 / Introduction & Getting Ideas / Discovering Characters

Where do writers get their ideas? How do we build characters?

Those 2 essential questions start every bit of writing. All else (situation, plot, genre, tropes, length) comes from those questions. Our work as writers is to make the answers that we discover hide on the page, so that readers have only the enjoyment of the story.

Contents

• 0:39 Opening
• 1:21 Introduction to Discovering Characters
• 6:47 Getting Ideas
• 15:27 Closing

Special Links

“How 50 Famous Authors Find Writing Inspiration” / thejohnfox.com

“Where Do You Get Your Ideas” / neilgaiman.com

17 Sept. 2017 / Robin Storey / storey-lines.com

 

Discovering Characters  can be purchased at these links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y7LYK19

https://books2read.com/u/3RJrZB

Discovering Your Writing, a bundle of four writing craft books, is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08691892S

View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/hTVQn92kNBk

 

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Discovering Characters. We’re bookcasting!

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Just up is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook.
• Templates from the Discovering Characters series are also there.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)