Families, committees, gangs, teams etc all work best when the members know and respect the strengths and weakness of each other, and that there's a mix. So, too, with knowing characters and writing about them. Their voice and actions have to be believable and consistent for their personality.
And look in a train station, bus, exam room, family function - no two people sit in a chair identically. Have you ever tried describing the unique way each of your characters sit?
Some of my characters I know well, but not all of them yet.
I've been told that as I keep writing, the characters will also take some control of the story. We’ll see!
Personality profiles were also an important ingredient for the success and efficiency of the business groups I was with on Monday. I was employed by marketing conference presenters and facilitators Performance Frontiers http://www.performancefrontiers.com , on behalf of Bond University, for whom they were conducting the event. My job was to write down the key words and phrases in calligraphy as they were generated - ending the day with 3 panels each about one and a half metres square. I had about 2 hours to do each. The initial idea was for the university to cut the panels up at the end so that each department kept a chunk as a reminder of their contributions and the outcomes from the day - but they decided to keep them intact (at least for a while).
Many thanks to organisers and presenters Judith, Suzi, Taya and Kate and all at Bond for a superb day!
Back to writing my new calligraphy book, due to be published in 2012.
Peter Taylor
PS My Writing for Children website has just been updated!
