Writing Tip of the Week

 Hi there again! Sorry I didn't get a chance to write yesterday. Did my school most of the day and I went to Youth Group tonight. Interesting group, that is. It's called the Studio and I went with some friends (okay as of now I'm not mentioning anyone's real name on the internet unless they already gave me permission) Saw some other friends I knew too. It looks like they do a lot of fun stuff there and there is a lot of other homeschooled kids there. The Pastor at that church is a good one and the kids seem like good Christians too. I had fun.
     Now for the writing tip. I was thinking that I would post one once a week. I am certainly not a pro at all this stuff (although I think I'm becoming closer) but one of my favorite parts of being an author is helping other kids out.
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Writing tip-- Character development

 Character development in a story is very important for overall novel quality. If you do not have a strong character that people will like, you story will not be strong.
     The first thing I did with my book Appaloosy was develop the main character, Storm. When I first started writing this book, however, I was thriteen and didn't really know that much about writing, only that I really liked it. :) I did know alot about my character because he was the horse I always wanted. I didn't need to do much developing. I am now on my fourth book (written, not published) and now before I began to write the story, I get to know my character. I reccomend that if you can you should draw a picture of your character. What color hair does he/she have? Are they tall? Short? Fat? Thin? What color are their eyes? All of these things have to stay consistant through the story. Then learn all of his secrets. Where has he lived? What is his favorite kind of ice cream? What's his biggest fear? Hope? Dream?
     You should also know what your character behaves like. There's nothing like having a person (or horse!) behave out of character in a book. You should know your character like a good friend. After all, he/she is the one that will be leading you through an entire novel!
  I have scratched the surface here in character development. You can go as far as you want with this, just make sure you know your character well before you begin to spell out his problems.

-Mattie