Want to create deeper, more three-dimensional characters?
Today's quick tips are geared to help you do just that.
Tip #1: Use the Enneagram to understand your character's motivations, fears, and desires. Make sure this stays consistent throughout your story.
Tip #2: Give your character a flaw or a quirk. Make it a visual representation of their internal story arc for extra depth and development.
If you’re enjoying this podcast, please consider supporting the show. For a few dollars a month, you can help us cover the ongoing expenses—like hosting and editing—that are critical to the creation of this podcast. Plus, supporters will be thanked on each interview episode, so you'll get to hear your name on the air!
Click here to become a paid subscriber and support the show!
Another great way to support the show is to leave a five star review and share it with a writer friend. We don't advertise, so our growth is entirely dependent on word of mouth.
We appreciate your generous help!
Follow Us!
The Author Wheel:
Website: www.AuthorWheel.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorWheel
Greta Boris:
Website: www.GretaBoris.com
Facebook: @GretaBorisAuthor
Instagram: @GretaBoris
Megan Haskell:
Website: www.MeganHaskell.com
Facebook & Instagram: @MeganHaskellAuthor
TikTok: @AuthorMeganHaskell
FREE Mini Email Course
Have you ever struggled to explain to others exactly what you write? Or wondered which of the many fiction ideas running through your brain you should tackle? If so, The Author Wheel’s new mini-course might be your solution.
7 Days to Clarity: Uncover Your Author Purpose will help you uncover your core writing motivations, avoid shiny-thing syndrome, and create clear marketing language.
Each daily email will lead you step by step in defining your author brand, crafting a mission statement, and distilling that statement into a pithy tagline. And, best of all, it’s free.
Episode Transcript
Welcome to the Author Wheel podcast.
I'm Megan Haskell,award-winning fantasy author of
the Senare Chronicles and theRise of Lilith series.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
And I'm Greta Boris, usa Today bestselling author of
the Mortician Murders and thesoon-to-be-released Almost True
Crime series.
Together we are the AuthorWheel.
Our goal is to help youovercome your writing roadblocks
so you can keep your storiesrolling.
This month we've decided to goback to our roots and discuss
craft.
(01:05):
You know it's a topic thatoften gets ignored in the larger
discussions of marketing andthe business of selling books,
which you know we all getobsessed about from time to time
.
But honestly, if you advertisea bad book you might get some
sales, but the chances ofselling another book are you've
just kind of shot yourself inthe foot.
(01:26):
So craft, in its own way, is apart of marketing.
It's super, super important.
It's kind of the foundation foreverything.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, I think in the in the modern publishing
landscape, you know we you havehave to start like it's a given
that you have to start with agood book.
You can't publish just, youknow, your first draft up to
Amazon anymore and have it gaintraction.
It has to be, has to be good.
So we should be talking aboutcraft just as much as the
business side of things.
(01:57):
So each week in May we'll begiving you two of our favorite
tips on the craft topics thatpeople ask us about the most,
and this week we're startingwith characters.
How do you create memorable andbelievable characters that
readers want to visit again andagain?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well, my first tip is use the Enneagram.
Tip is use the Enneagram.
The Enneagram, if you haven'theard of it, is an ancient
personality typing system thathas kind of come back into vogue
in recent years.
Psychologists and professionalsuse it to help people
understand themselves, you know,live a better, more productive
life.
There's podcasts on theEnneagram.
(02:38):
There's a website.
The website we use is theEnneagram.
There's website.
The website we use is theEnneagram Institute.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, enneagraminstitutecom.
But I was also going to suggesttoo that that you go check out
Claire Taylor's work if you'reinterested in Enneagram.
She does.
She's more on the author sideof things, but she does have
quite a bit of work on Enneagramfor character development as
well.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
But she's kind of, she's kind of the Enneagram
expert within the indie authorcommunity.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yes, she is, and we've had her on the podcast and
we should probably put a linkto that episode in the show
notes as well.
So if you're using theEnneagram for the creation of
character, we don't need to goas deep as you know the
psychology people go.
(03:28):
But just looking at the ninepersonality types outlined in
the Enneagram are a very quickway to choose or check that the
character you've created orplanning to create is cohesive
and realistic.
So what you'll find if you goto the Enneagram Institute is
(03:48):
that you can use it to determineyour character's greatest
motivation and their greatestfear.
It's also a great tool to figureout how different personality
types get along with each otheror don't.
So you might not want to createa love interest, for instance,
for one personality type thatyou know according to the typing
(04:11):
system you'll discover oh no,they wouldn't get along at all,
they would just fight.
Or you might want to do it sothat you could have them fight
and those are the kind of fightsthey would have.
So you can see things like thatalso great for villains, you
know, finding the personalitytypes that clash.
Or I often like to do my maincharacter and my villain the
(04:33):
same personality type, but youknow, my main character will be
on the healthier end of thatcharacter type, whereas the
villain will be on the veryunhealthy end.
So, and you can see that in theEnneagram Institute, you'll see
how different personality typesreact to different kinds of
(04:54):
stressors and so on, and thatwill influence the plot.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
And that leads us to our next tip, which is so tip
number two is to give your maincharacter a flaw or a twerk.
So quirks make characters bereal.
We all have them, right, we allare eccentric in some way.
It might be small, but it'sthere.
It can be a dialogue quirk, itcan be a physical twitch.
(05:25):
It can be an object they alwayscarry or play with, like a wish
stone or worry stone or apaperclip in the pocket right.
Different people have thesesort of talismans that they
carry.
You can do that for yourcharacters.
It could also be a dark thoughtor a belief that they have, but
whatever it is, it should alsobe pertinent to their character
(05:47):
arc or character developmentover the course of the book or
series.
So in my case, lil is blunt tothe point of offense at times.
In the Rise of Lilith seriesshe has to learn how to be a
little bit more diplomatic andmore of a leader rather than
pushing people away.
And in the Senyari Chronicles,rie's thumb twitches when she's
(06:09):
nervous or feeling uncomfortable.
So as she grows in her owninternal strength and confidence
, that twitch fades away and youdon't notice it as much.
So those are just a couple ofexamples of ways that you can,
you know, show through action orthrough thought, dialogue, your
(06:29):
character's development in avery subtle way that actually
really improves thatrelatability.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, and when I wrote my original Seven Deadly
Sins series, my editor and Ikind of and publisher, we kind
of decided that each maincharacter and each villain had
this struggle with the title sin.
So writing those books kind offorced me to think about
character flaws, like my maincharacter in Envy the one I'm
(06:59):
working on was Envy.
You know that had to be a flaw,like that had to be something
that she struggled with and itreally ended up creating helping
me create Red Herring andanother character that she
particularly was envious of.
It really informed the plot alot and so that was interesting.
(07:25):
You know, having to do thatseven times was very good for me
.
I always say, like writing thatseries is kind of like, you know
, writing my thesis or somethingfor college and also you want
to do it in a way like you said,megan, and more subtle.
You don't want to do it in sucha way that is like super
predictable.
So in Lust, none of mycharacters well, a little bit,
(07:50):
but mostly it isn't sexual lust,mostly it's other kinds of lust
because they thought, well, youknow, that's just so obvious.
So you know, looking at doingthings in a different way is
always fun.
Anyway, if you are enjoying thispodcast, please consider
supporting the show.
At the bottom of each episode'sshow notes is a link that will
(08:13):
lead you to a place where youcan donate as little as three
dollars to help us cover theongoing expenses, like hosting
and editing, that are criticalto the creation of the podcast.
And not only can you feel goodabout supporting the show, we
will tell the world about yourbooks or author service on air
with our, as we are institutinga weekly subscriber sponsor
(08:38):
section.
So another way to support theshow is to leave a five-star
review if you'll love it andshare your favorite episode with
a writer friend.
So until next time, keep yourstories rolling.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.