Elsa's Tips on Becoming a Better Author

How to React - Character tip

How to React - Character tip

(Extremely sarcastic filled, good advice from Elsa)

Sandra spilled her tea. "Oh no!" she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. "My-My tea!" she fell from her chair, wailing. "Why? How could this happen?" she said, looking up at the cloudy, grimm sky. "Why?!" she yelled. She clutched her heart, the world seemed to spin around her. Oh my god. she thought. This is the end of the world. I knew it would come one day. I knew I would see it. She glanced at her spilled cup and winced. "Dear god," she muttered, gulping down a sob. "The  cup broke."

As writers, we are given complete control over our character's thoughts and actions, and sometimes we begin to get too caught up in what we can do and forget to wonder what we should do. Take the paragraph above for example.

Our character, Sandra, spilled her tea and as the controler of her world, I made it so she overeacted. In a story, this would be unexceptable (well, there are always exceptions, but no sane character would do this).

You have to make sure the reaction your character has is appropriate. Let's say Sandra was a tough, 'I don't take nothin from no one' kind of girl. Her reaction is absurd! The Sandra you're readers know would laugh in the face of a broken tea cup! Laugh!

Now, if Sandra was a crybaby, she could cry, but not wail and beg for mercy.

*sigh* today is one of my more, sarcastic, "I don't give a crap" kind of days so just bear with me haha.

I have read absurd reactions in books and you guys need to avoid doing that. Like seriously, I get that we all do it sometimes on accident, but it can really ruin a story.

Let your characters react in character. One way I find that helps making realistic reactions is creating a character sheet, which basically lists their likes and dislikes, their personality, what pisses them off, and anything else that defines your character. When something happens and you have a bit of trouble figuring out how they would react, look back at the sheet and try to put yourself in their shoes.

Sorry this was short, hope I could help some of you guys.

BREAKING NEWS: For all you Rabbit Hole fans, I AM EDITING! I am adding extra chapters, lengthening chapters, and adding more to the story, so stay tuned and make sure you read it all again when I update it, because there will be a whole lot more information and important story parts in the edited version. The story that is now on here is being stretched into about two times as long soo...yeah. Stay tuned!