Have you ever sat down and prepared an outline that describes your characters? Thought about their likes/dislikes? Where they’ve been and what types of things they like to do?

If you haven’t, the time to do so is now. Why? It’s important to know what our characters like and dislike in order to understand what motivates them to behave in certain ways.

Your task is to create a list for each character in your story, whether a main character or a subordinate. Include where they are from, family ties, mannerisms (such as head toss, twiddling fingers) and friends.

Write out some sample dialogue that shows the differences in the ways your characters speak. Do they have an accent? Use contractions or use more formal language?

Upon up a few YouTube videos and listen to what word choices people use. Each of us has a different pattern and rhythm to our speech. Create dialogue that shows those differences.

Lastly  look through websites and find pictures of where your characters live, how they dress, places they might visit.

Put all this in a binder so that it is easy to access.

Now, begin working on your characters!

Have fun  with this one.

Throughout our lives we have experienced many different kinds of journeys. Some are internal, such as exploring personal beliefs, while some involve travel around the country. Most enrich our lives, either through things we have seen, people we have met or observations that impact us due to their unusual nature.

Everyone travels, although the distances that we cover vary depending upon time and money.

Some of us only visit relatives. We might drive overnight to get there and crash on floors while we are there, but we get to spend time with them, learn from them, be with them.

Some of us are lucky to travel further from home. We hop on planes and dash across the country or drop into other countries. We walk about, seeing things that we’ve dream about.

Your task is to write about a journey that you have experienced. Think of the sights, sounds, feelings that might have changed you. Use details to enrich the story.

Add in characters that you saw in order to add depth.

Have fun with this one.