Creative Characters, and Story Writing

Today I did my "How to Write a Story" program by Lee Roddy with my mom.  She reads it and I take notes, and then we discuss it.  I, being the crazy author of the household, try and take a LOT of notes.  Here are some of them from the newest chapter, on Creating Characters.

Characters Make A Story!  Characters and Conflict are at the heart of every story.

Characters exist to create an emotional response in readers through conflicts in the story. At least one character must change, (usually the viewpoint character) by either growing or deteriorating by what happens in the story.  The reader must identify with the MC.  *main character*

Other Characters: These should be kept to a minimum so that the focus is always on the conflict between teh MC and the adversary.  Unless a character is important to the story, omit him/her.  *I'm SO bad at this!!  I always have more characters than I need!!*

Character Traits:  Action reveals character.  It has been proven that a person's thinking or beliefs determine how he/she acts.  In other words, action follows belief.  SO if you understand how your characters think, you will know how they should act.  *I think I've got this down....maybe!*

Always keep characters to the minimum number required to tell the story.  Don't make it difficult for the reader to keep characters apart or the reader may not continue to read the narrative.  At least 2 and usually 3 or more characters are needed.  They are:
1. Main Character or Hero/Heroine
2. An Advasary who opposes the MC
3. Other important story people who are necessary for the story's depvelopment.  Always keep these to a minimum so the focus is on the MC and his/her struggles to achieve the goal.

I'm really bad at that.  My mom gave me an AWESOME suggestion!  I reccomend that all my other writer friends try this too.   I'm going to create a Character notebook.  I'll create characters, and give them personality, sketch them, describe them, and all that fun stuff, but save them until I need them, so I don't overwhelm my story with characters.  I'm going to Wal-Mart in a few minutes to go buy a few notebooks to do this!!  I'm really excited!  I come up with great characters all the time, but never get anywhere with them!  :P 

My story is coming along, and I think I will post it.  I just have to edit a bit, and I'm nervous that it's bad!  Alot of you have been writing longer than me, and this is only the second or third story that I've started that might actually amount to something.  Thanks for your encouragement in the poll though....except for E.  *coughevilcough*  ;D

All the notes were from How To Write A Stroy by Lee Roddy program.  It was only the first half of the lesson, I'm doing the rest later.  ;)

I'll post more later....I wanted to post this writing post now though!  :)

Lots of Love,
Jedi~Chick <3