The Trendsetter

Other than a great plot, the characters are the ones who are responsible to move the plot forward. In my previous entry Where do you get ideas for your characters, I suggested to looks at your friends and list them down to find out if they can become potential characters. They’re one of the best sources as characters. Now, that you have your characters ready to get into action, you need to create them in such away that they are credible or believable.

The question is how do you make your characters believable? When I started writing fiction, I asked myself the same question. Since one of my primary interests when majoring in psychology is personality, I had learned how personality develops from birth to adulthood. Armed with this knowledge, I used Personality Psychology to guide me to create credible and believable characters.
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I have previously discussed how coincidence can be used to make or break your plot. Now, I will continue to write about developing your plot by having your characters face conflict. Conflict is the center of the plot that moves the main characters forward in the story.

I define conflict in fiction as problem(s) faced by the main characters (or other significant characters) that forces them to seek solutions. As a writer, how do you build conflict for your main characters? One way is through adversarial dialogue. Sol Stein in his best seller, How to Grow a Novel: The Most Common Mistakes Writers Make and How to Overcome Them states:

The conflict is often verbal, not high drama, sometimes even mundane.

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If you are just starting to write your first fictional piece, you know your story requires a plot in order for your characters to move forward. The plot is a story with all the challenges and difficulties faced by your main characters and how they overcome them.

I remember my journalist friend, who is also a poet, had criticized the plot in one of my young adult novels titled “Jejaka Idaman” (Idol Man). He said there were too many coincidences in it and he didn’t like it for this reason. The plot begins with the main character, Angie, who is challenged by her three closest friends to find the man of her dreams - the type of man she used to read in novels to be tall, dark and handsome. Angie tried to be realistic about it and told her friends she will never find such a man as described as tall, dark and handsome in their country since those descriptions only fit the Western man. Her friends still challenged her to find him.
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Do you enjoy blogging? Or has it become like a burden since you are so busy with your other priorities that your focus on creating high quality content gets difficult? If you are in this predicament, you are not alone. Blogging comes with responsibility and you should be aware of it from the very start.

I am a newbie when it comes to blogging, yet I already feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of owning a blog. I write everyday and I strive for high quality content.

So what do you do? How are you going to make sure that you are able to produce the best content possible and at the same time tended to your other priorities?
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If you have been in business for years, I am sure you have a lot of experience dealing with all types of people around you. One of them is what I call a “friend in business”.

When I first started my handmade bags business, people who barely knew me got very friendly and were attracted to me like moths attracted to a light. Being a first time entrepreneur, I found this exciting and I thought these people shared and cared about what I am passionate about. They encouraged and motivated me in every step of the way. But as every expert business owner advises, ‘you don’t have to go too far to find your own enemy’. Your so called ‘friend in business’ can easily turn into the worst enemy there can be. And it has happened to me.
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