Comments on: Creating Multi-Dimensional Characters—Everybody Lies

By: A Hodgepodge of Bits & Pieces for Mid-May 2013 |

A Hodgepodge of Bits & Pieces for Mid-May 2013 | — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 22:41:06 +0000

[…] lying can be a virtue according to Kristen Lamb’s post on “Creating Multi-Dimensional Characters #2—Everybody Lies“, and she’s absolutely right. It’s the lying that occurs everywhere within a […]

By: Carradee

Carradee — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 23:03:52 +0000

This is part of the fun I’m having with my Chronicles of Marsdenfel. Each novel has a different narrator, and though each narrator knows some of the same people, they trust different ones. As a result, each novel is another piece of the incomplete picture to who particular characters are.

I’m enjoying it. ^_^

By: Paige

Paige — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 13:39:34 +0000

Thanks with regard to providing such fantastic posting.

By: A Hodgepodge of Bits & Pieces for Mid-May 2013 | KD DID IT Takes on Books

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:17:14 +0000

By: pamelacreese

pamelacreese — Fri, 10 May 2013 21:20:57 +0000

Wonderful article and totally apt examples. Just taught a workshop on this aspect of character development and will def refer my group to your posts
(really do hope you pull all your lovely advice into a book one day soon)

By: julitownsend

julitownsend — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:25:20 +0000

Reblogged this on Inspiration to Publication and commented: This is a great article. I love it when I read some writing advice, something I wasn't earlier aware of, and discover I did it right. What a good feeling. In Absent Children, Jessamy feels false guilt, but she keeps it secret. In my work in progress, The Mother in Me, Crystal is scared, but puts on a false front of being tough. She also lies to protect herself. Do your characters tell lies, have secrets? What are they?

By: lythya

lythya — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:09:55 +0000

Wonderful post. I’ve aalready rewritten my first chapter once (which is online, btw, it’s so horrible to edit something that’s already out) but this inspires me to do it yet again. There were quite a few things that I was too explicit about, but I think everything will work better if I hide up the lead’s relationship with her mother – the only thing she is really touchy about.

By: Janet K Brown (@janetkbrowntx)

Janet K Brown (@janetkbrowntx) — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:18:30 +0000

Good advice. Resisting the urge to tell the secret is the hard part, but I agree, worth the anticipation. I think of vacations. Looking forward to it is 1/2 the fun.

By: andrewknighton

andrewknighton — Mon, 06 May 2013 19:29:31 +0000

My all time favourite novel is The Great Gatsby, a story that revolves around a character whose life is a lie. Deception and its consequences are the engine that drive that story, and yet it never occurs to me to have characters lie. I think because what I’m creating is already untrue, in that it’s fiction, it doesn’t occur to me to take things further, into another layer of untruth. That and an over-reliance on dialogue for exposition, which is hard to do with lies.

By: julitownsend

julitownsend — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:37:26 +0000

Love this post. This type of analysis of story structure is not something I do easily – probably why I have trouble pitching. AS I read this, I tried to think about my characters to see if I’ve done it right, and realised they do have secrets, tell lies and carry false guilt, so you’ve made me happy. Thank you.
I’ll reblog if I can work out how.