Creating Memorable Characters That Readers Can Cheer and Celebrate: Ernesto Cisneros

 

Ernesto Cisneros is the nationally acclaimed author of Efrén Divided. Ernesto shares how to create memorable characters that readers can cheer for and celebrate!

Ernesto begins the presentation with thinking about your circle of your friends. Who are your friends, best friends, acquaintances? What are their positive/negative quirks about them? Do they put ketchup on all their food? Do they never tie their shoe laces? 

 

Ernesto reminds the participants that you can mesh the quirks and characteristics of different people throughout your childhood! You can take something as simple as a name and then develop the personality from other references. 

We all have quirks, these quirks make characters memorable. When you're thinking of a scene, Ernesto shares the importance of making the scene exciting, confusing, or dramatic. For example, when your characters are in the kitchen washing dishes, incorporate a leaky faucet, or something the audience will remember about the character. 

When it comes to creating other characters within the story, Ernesto draws from unfavorable experiences. Think of the people you didn't get along with in school. Why didn't you like them? Brainstorm their traits. Maybe they teased you, maybe they hogged the ball at recess. This can be a character that is disliked in a book. 

Here are three takeaways to creating memorable characters: 

• Avoid stereotypes 
• Write from the heart
• Remember your childhood

Ernesto Cisneros is the nationally acclaimed author of Efrén Divided. He was born and raised in Santa Ana, California, where he still teaches.  As an author, he believes in providing today’s youth with an honest depiction of characters with whom they can identify. Efrén Divided is an Indies Introduce/Next Pick, Amazon Top MG of 2020 So Far list, and is a ProjectLit Selection, and winner of the 2020 Poppy Award in MG, 2 International Latino Book Awards, as well as the prestigious 2021 Pura Belpré Medal and an SCBWI Crystal Kite Award in 2021. 

Instagram: cisne.writes 

Twitter: @Author_Cisneros 

Website: www.ernestocisneros.com

Missed this workshop? Check out the video archives here. https://www.scbwi.org/event-summer-conference-2022/video-archive/

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Lisa Wheeler: Creating Picture Book Characters

Lisa Wheeler is the award-winning author of over 35 children’s books including Even Monsters Need to Sleep and the popular Dino-Sports series. Lisa's book, The Christmas Boot, is the 2017 SCBWI Golden Kite Award winner for Picture Book Text. Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum is the 2017 Michigan Reads! One Book, One State Children’s Book Program recipient. Her other awards include The Michigan Mitten, Texas Bluebonnet, and the Theodore Geisel Honor given by the American Library Association. Check out Lisa’s website at: www.lisawheelerbooks.com

Packed house for Lisa Wheeler's session at the SCBWI Summer Conference.

Lisa breaks down what she sees some of the important ingredients that form a picture book character:

dialogue, the author's voice, description (or, more importantly, minimalism with description); the character's name (make sure not to pick a name so limiting that nothing else can be remembered or said about him); internal monologue; the character's relationship to secondary characters; his ability to solve his own problems.

She cautions authors to allow the illustrator to interpret details about your character instead of providing descriptive passages. "You don't know what you're going to get from the illustrator -- and that's fine." She shared how Molly Idle illustrated their forthcoming book People Don't Bite People by not once illustrating a person biting another person. Lisa says she could never have envisioned her book that way -- that's part of the magic of the partnership between author and illustrator.

From People Don't Bite People by Lisa Wheeler, Illustrated by Molly Idle

Writing intensive: Lisa Yee on bullies and antagonists

Lisa Yee, the hilarious and wonderful author of 10 novels for kids and young adults, made me cry during her session on bullies and antagonists.

But it wasn't on purpose.

She was just talking about the story she wrote for the DEAR BULLY anthology due out next month.

Her entry perfectly illustrated the importance of creating dimensional bullies: characters who have wants and needs, and who have reasons for harming those around them--getting as specific as identifying the day our antagonist was hurt badly enough to want to hurt others.

So, yes. Tears. But also lots of laughs as she walked us through the paces.

Lisa Yee

We started off with a rather thrilling promise: "We're going to tap into your evil side," she said.

And then we identified our favorite literary villains. Lord Voldemort, we love to hate you. The British press, meanwhile, really loves to hate Satan. They identified him--and not Camilla Parker Bowles (kidding! she's real!)--as literature's foulest villain. Which, when you think about it, seems kind of stereotypey.

We moved on to some key definitions:

A bully is a person who uses strength or power to harm or intimidate those who are weaker.

"Bully" started out as a good thing, she mentioned. Over the years, the definition morphed and it changed.

A villain is a person guilty of capable of crime or wickedness.

That word, she said, is French. A villain worked in the fields in a time when everyone wanted to be a knight. When bad things happened, they blamed the farm people. “A villain did that.” Mon dieu!

An antagonist, who could be a bully or a bad guy, is a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something.

"Your antagonist in your story is going to be working against your protagonist," she said.

She shared with us seven story archetypes we writers use, from "man vs. himself" to "man vs. society," and we came up with examples of stories that fit each archetype.

Then she walked us through a couple of writing exercises: one in which we outlined a variety of characteristics we'd need to know about our antagonists (everything from their age, outward appearance, self-perception, wants and needs, as long as one word that best described them). We used that as the basis for a revealing paragraph about our antagonist.

My favorite part, and not just because I played a teen thief, was doing a Q&A with participants to figure out the characters' backstory and motivations. We then wrote a murder scene from three points of view--a third person, and first person from both the teen thief and her rich-lady murder victim. The effect was stunning. By having well developed characters with clear motivations, we ended up with richer writing that was more nuanced and compelling.

Lisa Yee
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Peepy looks scared because some participants did not survive Lisa's class.

Libba Bray: Hello, My Name is...:Getting Past the First Date with Your Characters

Today Libba is going to talk about the mediocre because she believes that’s where attention is not paid to character.

Characters aren’t memorable if they give us what we expect and are just status quo.

Her number one pet peeve is when she’s reading and she feeling like the author is giving her some BS (you know what I mean).

“In the universal is the particular.”

How do we get to that place where we are writing memorable characters?

-You read! Read as far and wide as you possibly can.

-Allow yourself to play. Be the characters.

-Think of your characters like nesting dolls. It’s fun to open each layer.

-Know what your character wants. If you get stuck, that’s the engine that propels it all.

-Write from the outside in, relating to writing about other times or other cultures. Research is important and fun.

It’s always important to remember that people are people.

It’s fun (and can be helpful) to have a playlist for a book, and also for a specific character. Music often helps Libba find the character.

Libba keeps a spiral notebook with her always. It’s astonishing how much goes into the pre-thinking. She also sometimes interviews her characters.

It’s also helpful to monologue it. As a free write, Libba might write a letter. Or think about what a character would say over a PA. Or give a graduation speech. It can help get the juices flowing.

Acting is excellent training for writing.

Keep in mind, that characters often lie.