Names Chosen & Fleshing Out Characters

Thanks to all of you who helped me by voting on my poll. You all helped me confirm my MC’s name. Her name will be Miyuki. 🙂

Along with that name, I’ve narrowed down names for other characters too. Now comes the task of fleshing them out and making their little biographies. I always do this for my books as it helps me get a better picture of the character in my head. Of course it’s only preliminary since they often reveal hidden aspects of themselves as the story goes along. But it gives me a concrete idea to work from instead of picking through dozens of other characters from other stories in my head. It’s crowded up there and characters can get lost 😛 I suppose it also shows me that I’m one of those writers that tends to need outlines and guidelines in order for me to write. 🙂

When developing characters for your story, do you come up with individual bios for them or do you work best in the moment.? Perhaps your head isn’t as crowded as mine and you are able to summon your character easier than me. I always like to see how other writers work out their stories 🙂 And of course I have another poll.

Character Names Again

I promise this will be my last post on names 🙂 I did a lot of work yesterday narrowing down a few name choices for my characters (at least the ones I can think of now). I still haven’t been able to decide which name to choose for my MC; I keep going back and forth between two or three. So, I’m going to ask you, my faithful blog readers for an opinion. You know what that means? Polling time!

Feel free in the comments to let me know why you chose it. Of course, don’t feel obligated to do this last part but you know I’ll appreciate it!

Are You Organized?

Just a little question I wanted to pose to all out there.

I know I personally fall somewhere in between the bottom 2 😛 Currently my study reflects number 4 and the rest of the house fares a little better…but not much.

My mom would shake her head in shame to see my study now. She is the definition of organized and clean.

Methinks it’s time for some early spring cleaning. What better time to start than before the family comes down to visit this Saturday?

Prologues: Should Your Story Have One?

I know I’ve been wondering whether or not I should have a prologue in my story. I’ve read that a lot of agents don’t like them and many will reject the entire manuscript because it has a prologue. Personally, I think that’s a bit overboard–I’ve read plenty of books that were published and that the prologue added to the story.

I was reading on Writing World that for a book to warrant a prologue, it needs to be one of the four following:

1. Future protagonist–meaning that the prologue is set after the events of the novel and show why the following story occurs. It also needs to be written in the same POV as the rest of the novel.
2. Past protagonist–It shows a defining moment that occured and made the protagonist who/what  he/she is and helps the reader further understand the character.
3.  Different POV–Obviously this is that the prologue is a relevant event seen through the eyes of another character. The relavence HAS to be seen at some point in the book. It helps an author pull of plot twists that would not otherwise be revealed or known to the MC.
4. Background–Normally these are used in fantasy or sci-fi novels to give a background to the world that the story is set in that the reader would not be able to pick up on in the story. Again, it has to be relavent to the story. This one is the hardest one to master and do successfully.

Currently, my novel is using a mix #2 and #3. It starts off with Kaiyo as an infant, a few months old. Obviously we don’t see in her viewpoint as she is so young, but I have it through her mother’s. In it, I briefly introduce her father–who throughout the story remains obscure to her–and show him parting from Kaiyo and her mother. I don’t go into the reasons behind it, simply to say that it’s safer for them both. I thought by using this, it would show some background to her story and thus is a “defining moment” when her father determines to stay out of their lives.

I’m wondering if it’s really needed or not, though I do like the fact that it’s there. I do have to change some of it. I figure I’ll decide on its necessity as I edit more.

Anyway, if you are writing a novel, do you have a prologue? What’s its significance? Does it use any of the four types of prologues or mix of them? I’m curious to see how many actually use them in their writing.