You cave a caricature, not a character.ĭid the characters change and develop as you wrote the book and if so how did that happen? What is it that makes her keep pushing through all the difficulties you sling at her? Why does she so badly want to achieve her goal? Without motivation, true, deep motivation, you have nothing. You have to know your character’s motivation. What is the one crucial consideration without which it’s impossible to create a believable character? And every one of my characters has something of me in them. I think they develop organically through the writing process. One thing I will never do is sit down and try to list every part of a character’s history, preferences, etc. You might not know all those intricacies when you start, so be prepared to weave them in during your rewriting process. They have their own personality, hopes and dreams, and idiosyncrasies. I think that character who feel live are complex.

What do you consider key steps to take wh en bringing a character to life? With Erin (the protagonist in Strong Medicine) I had such a clear picture of who she is and where she comes from that I could tell her story almost like it was my own. I add some defining physical characteristics, and then I move on to the next character. When planning a character I open a new sheet in my Scrivener file for that person and outline all the factors I mentioned above. They also need to change and grow over the arc of the story. They must have a great strength, a great flaw, a dream, and something that motivates them to take action in the face of terrible adversity. I think every major character must have certain aspects to their personality in order for them to become real in my mind, and hopefully the minds of my readers. I'll definitely be recommending this one to all my crime/thriller junkie bookish friends.How do you go about developing a character? I loved the use the local lingo and the endearing flaws of the characters, they were easy to connect with from the get-go. And if I can live in, and learn from, a story, then I'm happy to have read it. I have to admit that I did not enjoy enduring the feelings it brought to the surface, but I did appreciate the research and felt wholly educated in a part of my own country's tapestry of traditions as a result. While the reading was hard to bear emotionally, it could only be that because it is so well written. If the kidnapping of a child isn't bad enough, add to that the sinister killing for muti and you have every parent out there imagining their worst nightmare. Strong Medicine explores a crime that stems from a deeply superstitious branch of South Africa's diverse nation: muti killings - and it's a page turning crime- thriller - family- drama of note.īut be warned: Strong Medicine is a very hard to book to read for a mother.

Strong Medicine by Angela Meadon