Fireworks Everytime!

By: Marcia King-Gamble

www.lovemarcia.com 

We all have our favorite authors . Authors we know deliver time after time. Their books are memorable because their  characters aren't perfect people. They come with flaws and foibles, just like real people.  It makes for page turners, hardly boring people who are very much alive.  

Readers  root for heroes and heroines who are sympathetic,  relatable people. While they might be living everyday lives, there's something about their personalities that make them special.   Could be a hobby, a habit,  or even a quirk, whatever, you just want to get to know them better. Take for example, my heroine, Lana, in Loose in Las Vegas. She's  a struggling dress designer on a quest for love online. She takes a chance and goes to Las Vegas  to meet a man she doesn't even know. Most of us think it, few of us do it, and that's what makes her special.

While our character's job may be mundane,  they're usually not mundane people, or why would you want to read about them?  Readers read to escape. Experiences and lifestyles are what form people. And as writers, it's our responsibility to  create multidimensional characters.  These are characters that jump off the page and make you want to get to know them up close and personally.    

Even if our characters are accountants or engineers (typically stereotyped as not the liveliest of  people),  who says they have to be staid and conservative? The  writer's role is to create  a personality that is  different than expected.  Give that accountant an edge. It's called character development.  Could be this person has wanted to be an artist, but circumstances or  fear, caused them to choose a profession more secure.  Just think of the fun you could have writing or reading  about the  rogue accountant with a host of tattoos beneath that buttoned down appearance. 

As a romance writer,  it is my job to make sure my characters sizzle.  With every interaction, Roman Candles  should  go off.  It's  a veritable explosion of sparklers. Main characters  should not just be likable,  but be the two sexiest people you've ever encountered. From the moment they meet, sparks literally should  fly.

Think  of the success of writers like Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Her characters are often hugely flawed, but from the day they meet all sorts of pyrotechnics are in the works. Fireworks between them isn't a once a year thing. It happens with every encounter.  Susan writes about the unconventional hero and heroine. She  has written about football players with a past; overweight, but sexy heroines, heroes suspected of murder, and a woman  who runs off on her wedding day.  See http://susanelizabethphillips.com/ for more.

This month, on July 22nd to be exact,  I'm  giving a workshop on  this  very topic. It's titled, Making Your Characters Come Alive. For more information, click on the below link. For those local, I hope to see you there.

https://sherman.library.nova.edu/sites/spotlight/event/making-your-characters-come-alive/

And for those unable to make it, remember that romances are about fireworks and passion.  Why not make every day the 4th of July!  Add snap, crackle and pop!

Romantically Yours,

Marcia 

About Marcia King-Gamble:

Romance writer, Marcia King-Gamble originally hails from a sunny Caribbean island where the sky and ocean are the same mesmerizing shade of blue. This former travel industry executive and current world traveler has spent most of life in the United States. A National Bestselling author, Marcia has penned over 34 books and 8 novellas. Her free time is spent at the gym, traveling to exotic locales, and caring for her animal family.

Visit Marcia at www.lovemarcia.com or “friend” her on Facebook: http://bit.ly/1MlnrIS