The Creative Writer's Toolbelt

This episode is an interview with artist and children’s writer and illustrator, Claire Keane. Until 2013 Claire was based at Disney studios where she worked as a visual development artist. She contributed to two animated feature films, "Frozen" which was released last year, and "Tangled", which she worked on with her father, the animator Glen Keane. I invited Claire on to the show because of her interest in character development and story and sincerity and integrity in art. We had a great conversation, I hope you enjoy it.

We've started on the process of building a story from the ground up, and we're going to kick off with plot. In this episode we look at three aspects of plot: the shape of the story, the engine of the plot, and the danger of cliches

It's time to start planning that story, but with so many aspects to creative writing and the creative process being such a subjective and mysterious thing, how do you plan? In this episode we explore the dimensions to a story and how to balance the discipline of structure with the flexibility to harness imagination

Back to first principles. We're asking a couple of fundamental questions in this episode as the foundation for going on to look at a whole range of aspects to creative writing over the weeks and months to come. These will include: plot, character, theme, genre,setting, style, and viewpoint.

The HARVARD model is a systematic process for developing the personae of your characters. It's different from other character generators in two ways: first, it encourages you, the writer, to show how the character's personality manifests itself, and how they interact with others; and second it acknowledges the way in which character and plot should work together to produce your story.

In one of our occasional interviews on the Writer's Toolbelt, I talk to award winning SciFi and fantasy author Derek Kunsken about showing and telling, outlining, characterisation, and being found out by your writers group.

So how good are your characters? Can you tell? Here are three tests that you can use to work out how effective your characters are. You can also use these tests to help you develop your characters further.

Great books can have ordinary characters plunged into extraordinary situations - but they can also have extraordinary characters who create their own extraordinary situations! Who are these characters? What are they like, and how can we, as writers create them? These characters have what Harry Bingham in his book "How to Write" calls - characters with edge.

It's what your character does, rather than what you say about them, that defines them for the reader. In this episode Andrew talks about how action defines character and gives examples for both heros and villains

Continuing our series on characterisation, in this episode we look at character motivation and why the motivation for the characters in our writing must be: evident to the reader, reasonable and understandable, and must drive the plot.