Tag: Characters

• March 1, 2023Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP385 – How to Write a Compelling Hero

  Alpha, Beta, Tortured or Bad Boy? How do you like your heroes? This week Cheryl, Wendy and Shar discuss how to write a great hero (in their opinion) complete with controversial examples! In particular we cover: Character Connection Creating Conflict from Character Main Characters Should Be Equals Characters Should Have Complementary Strengths  Hero should Show Vulnerability Different hero types including Alpha, Beta, Bad Boy, Tortured and Playboy Don't miss out on our take on writing a great hero! 

• January 27, 2021Guest Interview, Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP276 – Character-centric Plotting with Alexa Rivers

  Today we're joined by fellow Kiwi romance author - and one of the SPA Girls' star pupils from their self-publishing workshops - ALEXA RIVERS. Alexa has written and published nine small town romance to date and has really nailed her plotting process, starting with a character. If you've been struggling to find a way to plot and love the idea of starting with those characters who are burning a hole inside your head, this is the episode for you!

• September 19, 2018Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP153 – From Cookie Cutter To Kapow: Bringing Your Characters To Life

  Name your favourite character from any book you've ever read. What did you like best about that character? Was it how they acted? Was it their personality, or because they stood up for something they believed in? Those are the kinds of questions you should be asking when you're designing the characters for your next book. This week our topic is how to create characters that your readers will love, and with that in mind we dissect what makes a good character and how you can create characters for your stories that will take your novel to the next level. We delve into what characteristics are important, how to create tension between the hero and heroine using their personalities and flaws, and how you can use your character's traits to move the story forward and follow the arc of the plot. We also talk about how to help your readers to get to know your characters, how to pull them into the story by making them feel like they know your characters really well, and how to make readers cry. (Mawaahahaha....)

• August 22, 2018Guest Interview

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP149 – Killer Interview with Damon Suede and Geoff Symon

  This week Wendy and Cher sit down in a fairly noisy cafe with Indie author Damon Suede and his partner, Geoff Symon. The f-bomb went off fairly early in the piece, so if you're offended by swear words... you should still listen, because all the rest of the words out of their mouths are gold... :) Damon published his first novel, Hot Head, in 2011, which has since been named one of 'Top 100 Romance Novels of All Time' on Goodreads. He's currently on the board of directors for Romance Writers of America, and is well known for the way he unbundles characters when writing his books. His partner Geoff Symon is a US federal agent, and has now written three non-fiction books all about how to write forensics for fiction authors. He's full of fantastic information about crime scenes, and because he's lived with a writer all these years, he can translate it in a way that makes sense for authors. Between the two of them, they kept Wendy and Cher on their toes, talking at double speed, and giving off gems of information like they were sand at the beach. From characterisation, to stepping up in the author community, to the best way to write crime scenes - this interview has it all.

• October 10, 2016Self-Publishing Process & Tools, Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP51 – Characters Your Readers Will Love

  This week we crawled out from our sick beds to provide you with this delayed episode of the SPA Girls Podcast. We managed to talk semi-coherently about creating amazing characters that your readers will love. As far as we're concerned, it's all about creating characters with flaws, who your readers can relate to and fall in love with through the course of the story. We gave away all our secrets, so that you can learn to write the best characters you possibly can.

• June 1, 2016Writing Craft & Editing

  SPA Girls Podcast – EP35 – A Great Hook for Your Book

  This week we're up to episode number 35, and we talked about brainstorming your next novel. We each talked about how we do it, the kind of methods we use and what we recommend for people wanting to create a solid book idea. At the end we decided to do an impromptu session where we actually brainstorm a brand new novel together. It was a huge laugh, and we hope it's both entertaining and helpful to you when you start planning your next novel.... :)