Talking Characters with the Citrus Crime Writers

One of the benefits of overwriting the first draft of your initial manuscript and then discovering how much work it needs is the necessity to dig into craft.

It was either learn or not publish.

I had to learn—about almost everything.

That learning process, which officially began in the fall of 2011, led to the opportunity to give back. Last week, took a chance and presented details of my author education to one of my favorite groups ever, the Citrus Crime Writers, the Central Florida chapter of Sisters in Crime.

As it happens, late last year I was elected as CCW’s vice president. One of the chief duties of that role is to recruit speakers for the group’s monthly weekend meetings.

A late conflict with the speaker scheduled for March led to a sudden opening. Which meant someone had to fill in the gap.

Which is how I found myself volunteering to present to the group — in our first hybrid meeting, no less — about how to develop fictional characters. Specifically: Building Characters from the Ground Up.

It was a presentation built from the many notes scribbled down while listening to a handful of authors who spoke about character development at author conferences (SleuthFest, ThillerFest, et al). The authors of note: Steve Berry, Lisa Cron, Reed Farrel Coleman and Vic DiGenti.

As is always the case (at least with me) when putting together a presentation like this, I re-learned a few tips and tricks from my notes. I was reminded of the techniques and lessons I needed to have when I started that first manuscript in 2005-06.

That’s the real lesson. Never stop learning.