What are Character Attributes? Character attributes are everything you (or the reader) can use to describe a character. Consider how many words it would take if you had to sit down and describe every attribute that makes you a person separate and different than any other person. Start with how you look to others. Physical attributes include the color of your hair, eyes, and skin, whether you walk with a limp, the fact that you get hiccups after you drink Vernors (Michigan gal here, I think the rest of you call it Ginger Ale), or how you have the cutest little heart scar that you got when you fell off your bike while you were learning to ride it and your mother told you later you had been kissed by the earth. Our outward appearances alone could fill a book. Beyond physical descriptions, we all have biases, philosophies, religious belief systems, traumas, motivations, likes and dislikes, hopes and fears, and more. Our non-physical traits could probably fill a tome. Some of our traits will guide who we are and some will guide how we act in the world or react to events and stressors in the world we walk in. As authors, our goal should be to create characters who feel as real as we do. They should be made up the traits which show they aren't one hundred percent perfect and good or one hundred percent imperfect and bad, and it's our responsibility as writers and editors to make our characters believable. What is a Character Profile? A character profile is often done by writers either before or during the plotting of a novel. Getting to know characters on a level deeper than the surface (such as their eye or hair color), helps determine behaviors throughout the story and makes the characters more believable. A character profile will include physical traits, but it may also include motivations, philosophies, likes and dislikes, back story, and more. The profile will also help determine a character's negative traits or flaws instead of just the character's positive attributes. Flaws make a character feel more real and relatable. If you are interested in learning more about completing character profiles, I recommend Writer's Write or Reedsy because they have really good profiling information and outlines. I also have a OneNote section that I use for character profiling which I built by compiling information from many different sources. You can download my section template. Today's Task
A character attributes outline will make sure you've constructed a character with depth, as well as stayed consistent in not only physical characteristics, but also in personality, style and psyche. This is the flip-side, post-writing, of a character profile that you may have done while plotting. If you did character profiles before you wrote your story, it's nice to be able to compare what you intended to portray with how your characters actually turned out. You may find that you plotted a character with brown eyes for some very good reason, but then wrote in the story that the character had blue eyes. That inconsistency may need to be fixed, or you may have come up with a better reason mid-story why the character needed those blue eyes after all. A reference to the character's brown eyes later in the story would then need to be addressed instead. Days 3 - 7 are activities you can do in tandem with each other. Focus on understanding the steps you need to complete for today's outlining by working through Chapter One. If you have time after reading through your first chapter, go to Day 4 and begin that exercise. As with the other outlines, today's process should be about creating today's worksheet and understanding how to use it rather than reading through the whole story and completing the outline as a single task. This is because you can read through each chapter and complete the various outlines all together and save yourself some time rather than reading through your story three or four times in a row. Exercise: Complete the Character Attributes Worksheet If you are creating your notes in your OneNote Novel Editing notebook, follow these steps to complete the exercise:
Character Attribute Parameters Character - Write in the character's name or, if un-named, a short description. You can do this portion of the exercise from memory. You do not need to list very minor characters unless they come in and out of scenes in multiple places in the story. Intent - You can do this column from memory. Provide a concise description of how you intended your character to be perceived by other characters in the book and by the reader. If you did character profiles before you wrote your story, you may be able to gather some basic information from your profiles to complete this column. An example of what you might write in this column would be, "Evan is a teen conspiracy theorist with flaming red hair who talks too much." Chapter/Page and Description - This portion of the exercise is the fact-finding portion. Do not work from memory for this column. You are analyzing what you actually wrote about your characters. Consider including sections for each type of attribute. For instance, you might include headings such as one for physical description where you document eye color, hair color, and skin tone; another section for personality characteristics like quirks, life philosophy, etc. Remember, you are tracking these traits to ensure you have been consistent from chapter one and all the way through until you typed The End. To Do - Once you have completed the outline for all the chapters, compare the information you collected with your character intentions. You should be looking very closely for evidence that either supports or refutes what you intended your characters to be like. In the To Do column, make a note of any inconsistencies that you find OR any behaviors that are not consistent with the traits you've given your characters. For instance, would a shy character walk into a party wearing neon pink? Maybe, but if that is completely inconsistent with how you envision your character, it might be a note you make in order to correct the scene. Again, try not to make all the corrections as you read through the chapters. Focus on getting the traits down on paper and looking for inconsistencies where a character's trait doesn't mesh with their behavior. If you start making changes before you have finished reading through all your chapters, you may find you are doubling or even tripling your work because you may change something that you realize later you need to revert back or even change yet again. Only read through Chapter 1 for now, then if you still have time, go on to Day 4 and start that worksheet. If you are able to create worksheets for Days 3 -7 in one sitting, that's great! It will allow you to read the rest of your chapters over the course of multiple days. If you are pinched for time, that's okay too. Do what you can and don't stress over what a long process editing can be. Try to give yourself a dedicated block of time just like you would do for writing and get done whatever you can. DOWNLOAD: Character Attributes Worksheet Template Instructions Tips for working by hand If you'd like to work on notepaper or set up your own table in your favorite application, include the columns listed above for each table. The percentage listed is approximately the size you should make each column. If you are going to work by hand, on the second table be sure to give your main character their own page and important secondary characters a half or third of a sheet. Your minor characters may only need a couple lines each. You have a better idea of how much detail your characters were intended to have, so plan your space accordingly. Return to the Table of Contents Go to Day 4 - Outlining (Part 2 - Setting Characteristics) 5/2/2019 Day 2 - Write a BlurbWhat is a Blurb?
At some point in the publication process, probably before you actually hit the Publish button, you will write the "real" blurb for your book (or find someone famous to write one for you!). At one time, the book blurb was the paragraph found on the back of a book or on the back dust cover that acted as a sales pitch for the book. Now blurbs are used all over the place including on the author's website, on social media sites, and in book trailers. You can find lots of websites giving recommendations on how to write a killer blurb and you should definitely check them out when you get ready to publish. I'd recommend any of the posts by Reedsy (https://blog.reedsy.com/write-blurb-novel/), Kindlepreneur (https://kindlepreneur.com/back-book-cover-blurb/), and Writers Write (https://writerswrite.co.za/how-to-write-an-irresistible-book-blurb-in-five-easy-steps/). The blurb you write here is not intended to be your final book blurb. This one is to give you focus for the editing process. It should help you nail down what you intended to be the essence of your story as you were writing it, including who is your main character and what is it the main character needs to do. Rather than read through your story to see if you wrote everything you thought you wrote (we'll do that later), first create the Blurb worksheet below and fill in the blanks. Exercise: Write Your Blurb If you are creating your notes in your OneNote Novel Editing notebook, follow these steps to complete the exercise:
Once you have thought this out and feel like you have figured out the essence of your story, write it on a sticky note or print it out in 18 point letters so you can refer back to it while working through the rest of your edits. DOWNLOAD: Blurb Worksheet Template Instructions Return to the Table of Contents Go to Day 3 - Outlining (Part 1 - Character Attributes) What is the OneNote Novel Editing Plan? During November's National Novel Writing Month in 2017, over 400,000 writers signed up at www.nanowrimo.org and committed to writing 50,000 words towards a novel. According to the website, more than 58,000 people met their writing goal. Many of these were first-time writers. And I suspect many of them were like me when I finished drafting my first novel. What do I do now? If you have an editor already, that's fantastic! Of course, even if you have an editor, you may still want to work through the exercises I've put together in order to hand off a copy that is as clean as you can get it because that might save your editor time which means that might also save you money. It's important to note that even though I'm providing a work-plan for editing, this doesn't mean I think you can or should forego an editor once you're done. Au contraire! An editor will be able to see things you miss because you are so "close" to your work. They will be able to point out spots that lag, inconsistencies in characters, and find spelling and grammar mistakes that you have overlooked the last 45 times you read through your work. The biggest question for someone who's written a novel for the first time is, where do I begin? It's a lot of words. It can feel incredibly overwhelming to have 50,000 words or more and not have any idea how to begin editing. That's where this OneNote Novel Editing Plan comes in. I'm going to give you strategies to get you moving in the right direction. Where Does Microsoft OneNote Come In? Microsoft OneNote is a completely free premier note-taking application. If you have Microsoft Office, you probably already have OneNote installed. On a PC, look under your Start button in All Programs > Microsoft Office. If you don't have it yet, you can download it from https://www.onenote.com. It will run on any operating system and any device you have, so you can edit anywhere anytime as long as you have access to your Editing Plan notebook and a copy of your novel. I will be showing you how to use Microsoft OneNote to store all your notes and checklists for editing your novel. The "Plan" part of the OneNote Novel Editing Plan includes setting up checklists and worksheets that will get through the editing process one day at a time. It will feel less overwhelming working in chunks than trying to tackle 50,000 words all at once! If you aren't familiar with using OneNote, I have written some posts to demonstrate how easy the application is to use. You can find a short list of instructions that will get you started on my Office Warrior page, the same place you will find the index to all the posts for this OneNote Novel Editing Plan. You will find instructions for each Exercise included with a bit of information about what type of editing you will be attacking each day. You can either follow the instructions included on the page and create the tables and checklists as you go, or you can find a download for each worksheet you are directed to create and add it to your Microsoft OneNote notebook. If you aren't familiar with Microsoft OneNote and how to use page templates, you can find instructions here. Do you have to use OneNote? Absolutely not! I've prepared templates you can download and open in OneNote, but you can do most of these exercises on paper in a notebook or journal, in Scrivener, or in any spreadsheet application o your choice. I've given you enough information in the exercises to set your worksheets up however you'd like. I'm just a huge fan of OneNote and so that's where I'm starting from. How Do I Get Started? I'm so happy you’re still with me! You'll find that most of the activities I present can be completed one at a time. In some cases, where noted, you will want to work on several of the exercises at once so you aren't having to redo steps and waste time. For instance, if you skip right to the grammar and spelling check, then find you have a gigantic plot hole that requires several chapters to be rewritten, you will need to do the whole grammar and spelling check all over again. Each activity has no set time frame for completion. One exercise may take you a few minutes while another one can take days. My first novel took 6 months to edit! After working a full-time job during the week, some nights I didn't have more than a half hour in me, but on weekends, I could usually get a couple hours in each day. (I took off holidays.) Working through all the steps of editing will make you a better writer because it will illuminate the areas where you make the most mistakes or have some weakness and you'll start self-correcting as you write your next novels. If you think you have a solid story without any plot holes, then I'd say go ahead and skip around to pick off the items where you know your story needs help. Your personal OneNote Novel Editing Plan should be created to suit your needs! Will I really get it all done in 30 days? There's a good chance you will not get all the editing done in 30 days, but it really depends on how much work your novel requires. My first novel was a train wreck. It had plot holes, weak character development, and so many more things wrong with it that I nearly gave up on it. In the end, I spent almost a full 6 months editing before I handed it off to beta readers. Then, after my betas gave feedback, I spent a couple more months revising. What is important to remember is that editing is not a race. It's a marathon. Pace yourself. Your journey into editing might take five days or it might take five months. The goal should be to turn your great story into a masterpiece. Don't compare yourself to others! Day 1 - Set Up Your OneNote Notebook and Create Your Editing Checklist starts tomorrow. If you want to see what's coming in future posts, peruse the OneNote Novel Editing Plan's Table of Contents. Anything without a live link is still to come. Days 3 - 7 will be posted all at once on May 3 because the exercises for those days can be done in tandem with each other. This doesn't mean you have to do them all at once, it's just an option since reading through your novel five times could be tedious. Best wishes and happy editing! Return to the Table of Contents Go to Day 1 - Set Up Your OneNote Notebook and Create Your Editing Checklist Welcome to Day 1! The first step in the OneNote Novel Editing Plan is to set up your notebook for storing all your editing notes. If you aren't familiar with Microsoft OneNote, you can take a couple minutes to review the basic instructions I provided on the Office Warrior Connection page. Instructions are written for Microsoft OneNote 2016, but if you have an older version of the software, you will probably find the instructions haven't changed much. If you still have OneNote 2010 or older, consider upgrading OneNote even if you don’t upgrade the rest of Microsoft Office. Microsoft OneNote is a free application and it is a stand-alone version that does not require you to upgrade the rest of your Microsoft Office Suite. By upgrading, you will have new features not including in those older versions. One of my favorite new features is the ability to sort Tables. (Also note, you have until October 13, 2020, before Microsoft Office reaches the end of it's support cycle.) Step 1 - Set up your new notebook Step-by-Step Instructions to create a notebook As mentioned in the Introduction [link], you don't have to set up an electronic notebook to follow along and edit your novel, but if you are the kind of person who likes to work at all hours of the day and night, you might like having the access to your notebook on all your devices. In order to have this sort of accessibility, be sure to save your notebook to your Microsoft account. Consider naming your notebook with the title of your book and the words "Editing Notebook." If my story was called "Argent Glass," I would name my notebook "Argent Glass Editing Notebook." Better yet, create two notebooks. One for your current work in progress, and one to reuse as a template for your next novel. TIP! If you set up two notebooks and are downloading the templates rather than creating them on your own, you can drag and drop a page to one section in one notebook, then drag and drop while holding your Control key to make a duplicate in another section of a different notebook. Step 2 - Set up some Sections Step-by-Step Instructions to create Sections Once you have your editing notebook created, set up some sections. You can create the pages as you go, but it will be nice to have the sections in place for all the pages you will be creating throughout the rest of the month. These are the sections I recommend you create:
Step 3 - Create a To Do List The to-do list below lists all the exercises I have set up for the complete OneNote Novel Editing Plan. You can use the list as a checklist or you can combine the list with a table and make is a task list with a column for notes about what you need to do to complete the exercise and checkboxes to mark items complete.
DOWNLOAD: To Do List Template Instructions How to Use the To Do list In the notes field, you can keep track of the time you spent editing or make notes about what you need to do to finish the exercise. That way, if you get part-way done and need to move on to something else for some reason or need to come back at a later date to finish, you know where you left off. You could even add a hyperlink back to the webpage with the instructions or the links to the other resources in case you need to do more research about completing the task. The check boxes are "checkable." That means you can click on them to put a check mark in the box. If you click on them again, the check will disappear. Since you've now created the checklist, you can click that box and mark that item complete. Return to the Table of Contents Go to Day 2 - Write a Blurb
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