I’ve been writing for some time now. I’ve been around. I went to Hamline University and completed my M.F.A. in Writing for Children and Young Adults. I contemplated character, wrote essays on character, read a zillion and one character-driven books and asked myself endlessly – what makes a good character? Is it all in the name? The voice? In some dark secret that he/she is carrying from page one to the bitter end? Is the extreme characteristic – the BEST, the WORST, the MOST POWERFUL, the WEAKEST… Maybe it’s a talent that only he/she possesses. Maybe he/she is an outsider – thinks differently than everyone else in the book. Is he/she the hero? The only hope? The last of a line? The first?

Characters are important. No doubt about that. Especially if you want to sell a book.

Believe me – I write a ton of books that do not have character driven plots (much to my agent’s chagrin – Sorry, Sean) — BUT I have been thinking about writing a book with a real, honest-to-goodness character-driven plot. The NAME of said character will be prominently displayed in the TITLE. It will happen.

So, with character in mind – it’s not surprising that when I heard Jill Davis of HarperCollins speak at a recent event – and she said that a strong character will be able to be printed on pajamas – or bed sheets – I took note. That makes sense – right?

When I think about my books to date – I would say Frankie the truck from my book BIG RIG could be awesome pajamas. Also, I would vote for Fred (the bear from my book BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!) as a charming sheet set.

So if I have done this – why is it so hard to do this when I sit down to write? The main thing I am going to focus on is giving a character in the book an actual NAME. You roll the eyes (I see you) – but seriously – I write a lot of sense of place poetry. There might be dogs, cats, fish, children – but they do not always have NAMES. Plus, when I read to the young folks, I tend to pick books that give kids an overall feeling – such as I LOVE SPIDERS by John Parker or ALL THE WORLD by Liz Garton. These are fantastic, poetic, lovely books for twos and threes — and they do not have named CHARACTERS. Still, they would make nice pajamas – or maybe wallpaper.

What have we learned here? That editors would very much like a character to sell, and we, the authors would also like a character to sell. We also know that kids like characters (because they like pajamas with Curious George or Spiderman on them). So, with you as my witness – I am going to TRY to write some seriously character driven books – but I will very likely keep writing those other books too. Because they are important and all fun to read too. Even if they don’t translate EXACTLY to a twin comforter set. hee hee hee …

So, you’re sitting there knocking your head against the table. You’ve been there for two hours and all you’ve managed to get on the page is ADD SOMETHING GOOD RIGHT HERE AT THE END OF CHAPTER 2 – or –  FIGURE OUT WHAT IT IS THAT THIS CHARACTER WANTS …

You’re frustrated. Your laundry is a mile high and you really should be at the grocery store right now or your family will end up with breakfast for dinner (again). But still, you sit there. And after some time … the words flow. Maybe not perfectly. But at least it’s something. Later you ask yourself WHY. Why do you spend so much time with what feels like so little to show for it (some days). This is why:

So, back to work. Families are waiting for your book.