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HOW TO CREATE SYMPATHETIC CHARACTERS (FAMOUS WRITING QUOTES SERIES)

By: Anita Mumm

“I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.
” ~ Stephen King

How’s that for an awesome quote? I thought it would be perfect to kick off a new series where I take a quote or piece of advice from a famous author and talk about ways to apply it to your writing.

So let’s talk about sympathy.

Stephen King is hitting upon one of the most important skills you can have as a writer—the ability to create an emotional bond between your readers and your characters. Without that, it won’t make much difference what happens when the “monsters” come out. And by the way, this is vital not only in fiction, but memoir and other forms of creative nonfiction as well. Ever come across a first-person essay or memoir that made you say, “Give me a break! This guy/gal is way too arrogant”? You can substitute shallow, close-minded, or otherwise unlikeable. . . the point is, you probably dropped that book before the plot even took off.

So how do you go about making a character sympathetic? Here are a few examples:

To read the rest of the post, click here.

~*~

If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again: 

1. Getting Both Ends of Your Novel Right (Thank You, Mr. Chekhov!) | Word Café http://ow.ly/sXCM0
2. How to Create Sympathetic Characters (Famous Writing Quotes Series) | Word Café http://ow.ly/sXCP6
3. Writing Books Faster—Without Compromising Quality | Elizabeth Spann Craig http://ow.ly/sXCSk
4. Shone vs. Shined, Lit vs. Lighted http://ow.ly/sXJHp Daily Writing Tips
5. Indie Ignites: The Post Where I Tell The Truth http://ow.ly/sYaL9
6. Sensory Fiction | The Passive Voice | Writers, Writing, Self-Publishing, Disruptive Innovation and the Universe http://ow.ly/sYaQ0
7. Facebook Updates News Feed for Pages: This Week in Social Media Social Media Examiner http://ow.ly/sYaSk
8. Writer Unboxed » The Lessons I Should Have Learned from Stephen King’s On Writing … http://ow.ly/sYaVB
9. OverDrive Plans to Distribute DRM-Free Audiobooks - GalleyCat http://ow.ly/sYaZp
10. 4 Tips to Boost Your Writing Productivity | Selling Books http://ow.ly/sYb2c
11. The Future Of Facebook [Research] - Heidi Cohen http://ow.ly/sYb7F
12. Should You Move Blog Subscribers To MailChimp? | Molly Greene: Writer http://ow.ly/sYbfz
13. 15 English Words of Indian Origin http://ow.ly/sZ4AK Daily Writing Tips
14. Michael Hauge's Writing Q&As: Emotion vs. Conflict http://ow.ly/t07qu

Happy writing and running, Kathy