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Welcome to my blog! Please join me as I journey towards finding an agent for my first young adult novel. Between writing, endless snapping of photos, sleep deprivation, taking care of two adorable little girls, and oh yes, the laundry, I'm sure it's going to be a bit crazy on the way to the awaited publication.

I'm open to any tips, critique, or random musings about the things I write or the photos I take, so feel free to email me or comment below.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Character Mapping

Have you done a Character Map yet? The picture over to the left is a map of my own characters I've been playing with over the last couple of days. While editing, I found some major flaws with plots and characters and realized that I should perhaps stop procrastinating and do one.

I am so very glad I did!

This was the first attempt at character mapping and let me tell you, it's great being able to see your lovelies all at the same time while pinpointing just who exactly they are and what/who they are to each other. I've had to yank apart family members, throw in some brand new ones and kill off some others. If you remember one of my past posts about shrinking your manuscript to get the "Big" picture, this had the same effect for me.

I honestly don't know why I waited until I wrote the book to do this! Would have saved me quite a few headaches for sure (and characters). The map helped me see which relationships I need to work on building as well as who needs more development throughout the story.

If you haven't done a character map yet, I highly recommend doing one. You can scribble it out with pen and paper or create your own from scratch like I did with the one above. There are tons of free character mapping templates on the internet if you prefer to have one semi-mapped out for you.

My next step, plot mapping... (maybe I should have done this too before the whole manuscript was written. :)

So tell me, do you have a character map?
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15 comments:

  1. Avery MarshSeptember 19, 2011 at 10:55 AM

    Neato. I've never done a character map for my characters, but yours inspires me to give it a shot. Anything to try to make sense of the convoluted mess that is my current WIP. ;)

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  2. Jenny S. MorrisSeptember 19, 2011 at 12:47 PM

    Oh, I should do this for my new project. Yours looks awesome.

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  3. Cortney PearsonSeptember 19, 2011 at 2:31 PM

    I've never done a character map, but I can see how it would be very helpful! I do plot map, though--not with bubbles that are so cute like yours, but I just go through the elements that I know I need to have and parallel them to my story to see what's missing. Thanks for the great tip, I need to map my characters now!

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  4. AnonymousSeptember 19, 2011 at 4:32 PM

    I haven't done this yet, but I think it's a great idea.

    Hugs!!!

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  5. Alleged AuthorSeptember 19, 2011 at 4:48 PM

    Character mapping is awesome. I have my students complete a character map all the time. Great post!

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  6. Annalise GreenSeptember 19, 2011 at 5:10 PM

    Amazing! That's really interesting. I want to try it. What program did you use? Just Paint or something fancier?

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  7. Alynza SmithSeptember 19, 2011 at 5:13 PM

    Thanks guys! It really does help with getting a different perspective on characters.

    @Annalise - Just simple Microsoft word with text boxes. :)

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  8. Maria PapadopoulouSeptember 20, 2011 at 3:16 AM

    I don't-in fact I have never thought of it till today! I think it is best to start with the supporting characters, then proceed with the leading ones.

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  9. Maria PapadopoulouSeptember 20, 2011 at 3:18 AM

    My link on my name does not work for some reason like it usually does...for those who want to reach me though, here is my twitter id: @sunsetsunrise1

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  10. Alynza SmithSeptember 20, 2011 at 4:59 AM

    Thanks Maria! The best thing about character mapping is you can create it to fit you & your story. :) I love it.

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  11. CrystalSeptember 20, 2011 at 6:54 AM

    I have never done character mapping before! I'm going to give it a try. Thanks for the info!

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  12. Alynza SmithSeptember 20, 2011 at 3:38 PM

    Your welcome Crystal :)

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  13. J.B. ChicoineSeptember 21, 2011 at 7:45 AM

    I've never done a character map--probably because I don't usually have a large cast. Nevertheless, I do so like charts and graphs and I like the looks of the one you have--now, do do a Google search for Character Maps! :)

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  14. F.E. SewellSeptember 21, 2011 at 3:58 PM

    I've never done a character map like yours. I always do a sort of outline thingy, but I like what you've done. I might try that out on my WIP!

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  15. AnonymousJanuary 31, 2013 at 7:05 AM

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    comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn't appear. Grrrr... well I'm not writing all
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    ReplyDelete

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