Character Quirks

This past Saturday at the DFW Ready Writer's monthly meeting, Margo Carmichael spoke about creating characters. Here are a few notes from her talk that hopefully you all can put to some use.

Margo Carmichael, who writes "Spirit-filled suspense that captures the heart," talked about Writing Personality Quirks for our Characters.

Not a counselor, Margo is "just a people person" and finds psychology fascinating. She took it as electives in high school and college, then some counseling courses a few years ago. Based on the theme of the book, Shadow Syndromes, by Ratey and Johnson, we probably all exhibit to some extent the traits of full-blown syndromes. These little traits could add interesting, challenging, even amusing layers to our characters. With this in mind, she shared resources and information about the full-blown syndromes from which to draw.

We treated the subject seriously and respectfully, aware that these syndromes can cause much suffering for the ones with them and their families. So, whether one wants to write about interesting character traits, ordeal with full-blown disorders, and God bless especially those who write from painful experience, the articles and resources we discussed could be helpful. They are posted on Margo's blog, "Margo's Moments," along with some confessions of her own~Writing about Psychological Traits (That Woman Unmasked!) at http://margosmoments.blogspot.com

October meeting with speaker Margo Carmichael

Announcing the October 13 Meeting

Margo Carmichael will speak on giving our characters quirks that make them real.

Join us for a wonderful time of food, fellowship, and learning our craft.

From Margo:

"I will be teaching at next Ready Writers on some psychological quirks that could give our characters extras layers--and challenges--as well as those who live around them. ADHD, Bi-Polar Depression, Depression, Narcissism, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and so on."

Come on the The La Hacienda Ranch Restaurant located on Hwy 121. The restaurant is located on the west side of the freeway between Hall Johnson and Glade.

Meeting begins at 11:00 am, but you can come a little early for fellowship time. We eat lunch together, conduct the business meeting, then have our guest speaker's presentation. Meetings end at 1pm.

Upcoming Meetings:

November - Writer Organization
Deborah Rather (Arlene James)

December - Christmas Party
Lena Nelson Dooley

Keep checking back for all the exciting speakers we'll have appearing next year.

Happy Writing.