Characters take on their own personalities as you write, and they make decisions for you. My sister-in-law gave me the book Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown, which has been a great resource on human emotions. Many writers use The Emotion Thesaurus, a writer’s guide to character expression. If you develop the characters before you begin writing their story, give them purpose and desire, false beliefs, or, in the case of one of my characters, a reason to exact revenge, then the reader is engaged.
Vincenzo, a budding architect in THE ARCONE, lost his mother and father in his youth. He believed that to be great, you had to have the strength of family behind you. So, to be a great architect, he had to have a family. That’s why he fell quickly and fully for Lilli Russo. Vincenzo wanted her, her family, and her Jewish community in the Florentine Ghetto to be his. If family equals success, he’d be a great architect.
Stay tuned to hear about Vincenzo’s wife, Lilli, next week.
