Setting & Character development.

 Dear Reader,

The works of great fiction are filled with all of these details that can be distilled down to a simple set of rules.

1. Great characters must have more than the goal of the plot to motivate them. They need to have depth and multiple dimensions of interest. If that is not in place, they're little more than a painted puppet being moved across a screen. This can be entertaining but it won't really draw your reader in.

2. Great characters interact with their setting as if it were real, because to them it is. You can't conveniently ignore the major problems that you developed in the setting chapters before. Nor can you ignore the major benefits that you set up chapters before. These things need to carry forward because they will have a continuing impact upon the character. Even an interaction with a throw away side character can have major implications for your main character's development.

3. Settings must be more than a mere backdrop for the story. They need to be complex and have dimensional qualities that are going to pull your reader into the story. A simple tree can be ignored but a mighty oak gets a little more attention. Describe your settings as if you are walking through them yourself. The details that you note are going to be the ones that your readers would likely note as well. Don't forget the five senses as you are describing your setting. Many people stick to visual descriptions but you can provider greater realism in your story the more you incorporate other elements of sensory input.

If you follow these three rules, your character will develop and become more real to your reader as the book goes on. This sense of the character being real is what will make your book more memorable and special to your readers. And, there is one last rule that is very important. There are no rules on how to write your own special book. Do what works best for you. Focus on building your own voice. While these three rules can be helpful, they are a guideline not a hard and fast rule of writing like that i before e except when ... oh, you know that one already.