How to infuse personality and style into a novel
And create a stunning story
There’s nothing more boring than a book whose voice is dull as ditch water. We’re talking long drawn-out sentences, little action, fancy words you need a dictionary to understand and characters that if you knew them in person, you’d run across the road to avoid.
So, how do you infuse your novel with personality and style in a way that makes it engaging to your reader.
Here are some ways that you can do this…
1.Develop amazing and interesting characters
Your characters should have distinct personalities, their own unique traits and quirks, their own way of looking at their world.
How they dress, what they say, how they say and how they think about things will all add extra flavour to your delicious story.
Don’t just dump everything at the beginning of the book, but drip-feed their distinctive traits throughout the storyline.
2. Use descriptive and vibrant language
Paint a picture in your reader’s mind about who your characters are and where they story is taking place.
Use the five senses to get across what your characters are experiencing and good metaphors and similes (avoid cliches!) will add depth to the piece.
Don’t forget the sixth sense — you can use it to add an element of menace and/or spookiness to the story.
3.What is your Point of View?
Choosing which point of view to tell the story from can really enhance your book.
First person point of view will help you get across the personality of your main character as the entire story is told from their point of view. First person is told from the narrator’s point of view (eg I went to the Post Office).
Third person is all about where the story is told about all the characters, but from the perspective of one character (eg. He went to the Post Office).
And then there’s omniscient, which is when the narrator tells the story of everyone in the book, but knows what they are thinking or feeling (eg He went to the Post Office, but knew that he was making a mistake).
What about Second Person, I hear you cry? Well, this is a Point of View that isn’t normally used. It’s when the narrator tells a story about you, the reader (eg You went to the Post Office). I wouldn’t recommend using this one as it’s a difficult one to master.
4.Great dialogue
How the characters interact with one another is vital to a good story. Authentic and engaging dialogue can really push the story on and is a way of getting across your characters’ personalities.
Experiment with how your characters talk. Think about how they actually speak. Do they have a dialect? Are their words simple or more sophisticated? Do they use slang words? How they speak and what they say can lift a storyline.
Remember, that anything they do say should push the story on and not be there for the sake of it. Unnecessary dialogue, that adds nothing to the narrative, will slow your pace and bore your reader.
5.Relax and let your personality shine through
You can always tell when someone is not comfortable with what they wrote because the language is stiff and dull. Relax and insert some of your own personality into your writing.
By this I mean don’t worry about what people will think of what you wrote, just get it down and in a way that’s meaningful and reflects your personal style. If you’re passionate about your writing, that will shine through.
6.Pay attention to rhythm, flow and pace
Use different sentence lengths, use correct punctuation and grammar, and vary the pace of your writing.
Read your writing aloud. Does it flow correctly? Is there anything that’s stopping that flow? Do you need to shorten the sentence? Remove a couple of words? Find some better ones?
Experiment with using fragments of dialogues and sentences to convey a change in mood, increased tension or excitement.
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