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once you've done all of this Research
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into what your main love interest looks
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like you might want to create like a
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page which just gives you all of their
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main characteristics just so it feels
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really real to you and it's something
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that you can put up on your office wall
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and you know refer to it if you're ever
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needing inspiration I'm going to show
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you what I mean with Post-it
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notes so it's worth just doing this
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exercise just to really make sure you
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know your characters what they look like
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what they like as a person so start with
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the name in my case it's
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Anders remember that the name for me
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I've decided to make him have Swedish
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ancestry so I'm just going to write that
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down
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too I know that he's about 35 I want him
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to be a little bit older than my main
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character Ren so she's about 33
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I know that he's tall and he's Broad and
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that he has blonde hair sort of slightly
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messy with sharp eyebrows and green eyes
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with a floor in
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them I know that Anders works for an
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indie car team so I imagine that when
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he's at work he probably wears a team
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uniform but when my character Ren meets
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him for the first time I picture him
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wearing a check shirt a mustard and
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black check shirt in fact cuz there was
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one image in particular that really
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appealed to me me over a black T-shirt
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with black jeans and desert boots so I'm
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going to write that down because that
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image for me that's the way that I'm
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picturing and is more often than
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not and then in terms of profession and
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hobbies for Anders I know that he works
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for indicar as an engineer but he's also
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really passionate about farming because
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of his family farm that's been passed
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down for generations and also because he
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meets Ren and almost runs her over on
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his motorbike I'm going to make that one
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of his passions too I like the idea of
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him using a trail bike and doing jumps
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and tricks and that being a way that
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might cheer his brother up too with his
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mental health because biking can really
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provide a big sense of freedom and I
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think that might be something that might
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help him and be a nice way for these two
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brothers to bond so I'm going to put
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down that as one of his hobbies and I
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will obviously be doing research on that
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too so I think that's a pretty good idea
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of what Anders is about it's certainly
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enough for me me to really start
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daydreaming about his character and
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imagining him coming to life inside my
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mind and interacting with my character
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Ren so I can stick this on my wall if I
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want to and just refer back to it in
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some ways it just inspires me to just be
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thinking a little bit more about his
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character and the most important thing
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right now is to daydream you do need to
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do these same steps again for your main
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character and any other really main
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characters in the book so let's do that
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now with Ren who's my main character
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so for my main character I really liked
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the name Ren and it sort of fit with how
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I was beginning to picture ha which was
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sort of slighter frame dark brown hair
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and also I liked you know brought about
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this idea that you know maybe her father
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could call her little bird and it could
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be something that you know tied into her
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childhood and you know also I decided to
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make her mother called Robin and you
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know have this being a way for me to be
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able to describe what they both look
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like and
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my character Ren says at the beginning
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of the novel aside from our names and
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the fact that we're both named after
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small birds we have nothing else in
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common and then that gave me a way to
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describe the mother and then describe
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Ren so you know the name might sort of
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be able to work some way like that you
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know you have to be looking for
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different ways of being able to describe
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your character without just saying this
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is what I look like because that can be
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a little bit boring to read so I'm going
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to follow the same steps again okay
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Ren so like this name because it's sort
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of fits with how I'm beginning to
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imagine her which is slight a frame with
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dead straight brown
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hair and remember also that I have this
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nickname for her little bird which might
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tie into her childhood feelings about
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her father and may give her a
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conversation that she can have later
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with Anders which leads to a bit more
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depth and a bit more character
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development I decided to make Ren's
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profession an architect because I hadn't
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written about architecture before and my
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husband is an architect and we've been
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married for nearly 20 years so I know a
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lot about architecture anyway it was
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extremely easy for me to be able to
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interview my husband at any point that I
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needed to and to really get sort of to
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the bottom of the sort of job that Ren
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would do and try to make it as realistic
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as possible because I think architecture
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is a profession that is often glamorized
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and you know made to look like this a
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really incredible profession but knowing
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the realities of how humdrum and boring
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sometimes it can be you know I thought
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that might be quite a nice thing to be
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able to write about and make a really
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real IC so architecture that's what Ren
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does it's also a really nice fit for
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Anders because as I was saying I wanted
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them to be quite similar intellect wise
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it's one of the things that Ren doesn't
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so much have in common with her her
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fiance who was left her for his coworker
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he works as a gardener and landscape
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design and Landscape gardening But
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ultimately he doesn't feel necessarily
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on the same wavelength as Ren in a lot
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of ways so I think thought that was
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quite a nice contradiction between who
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Ren was with and who Ren becomes you
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know attracted
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to one of the things my husband has
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joked about is how Architects always
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wear black he doesn't always wear black
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obviously a lot of Architects don't
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always wear black but I decided to make
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this a feature of Ren's personality that
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she's really attracted to dark sort of
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structured designs and was able to look
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up online clothing brands that do quite
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sort of structured clothing and start
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trying to get a sense of the sort of
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clothes that Ren might wear and I saved
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a lot of these pictures and could refer
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to them later when I wanted to choose an
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outfit for her on a night out or just to
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go over you know and have a swim at the
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lake on the farm next
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door and in terms of Ren's age I wanted
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to be a couple of years younger than
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Anders but still at a point in her life
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where she was hoping to settle down and
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have kids and so it needs to be really
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quite heartbreaking for her to have her
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fiance decide that he's in love with
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somebody else so I wanted her to be
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around the age in her early 30s but I
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decided to make her 33 so there you go
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that's Ren in a nutshell obviously in my
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head she's so much more than these
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descriptions but it's just helpful as a
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building block and if you do this same
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exercise for all of your main characters
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it will just help you before you start
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writing your book to really get a sense
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of who they are and it will make them
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feel so much more alive to you as you
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start developing the
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story so I recommend for your first book
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at least to make sure that the hobbies
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and the careers that your characters do
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are either things that you've done
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yourself or things that interest you
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because if you end up becoming so bogged
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down in research with things that don't
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really interest you then it's really
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going to slow you down and isn't going
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to excite you so definitely choose
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things to interest you because at least
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then research will be fun another
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General tip about your characters is
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just make sure they stay consistent
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throughout don't have them suddenly do
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something that is completely
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uncharacteristic for how you initially
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described them so just keep checking in
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make sure they stay realistic and
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relatable throughout the entire novel
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and again daydreaming is so important
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here like once you have the ideas for
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your characters you just need to keep
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thinking about them and really sort of
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be inspired by things I listen to a lot
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of music when I'm thinking about my
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characters and for example the song the
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nicest thing by Kate Nash really
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inspired me when I was thinking about
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Anders I could really imagine Ren
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falling for the character that's
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described in this Kate Nash song so that
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was a song that inspired me and really
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started bringing Anders to life and
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finally so much of my work happens when
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I'm not sitting down at my laptop so
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really make sure you give yourself
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enough time to just Daydream and really
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build on developing your characters
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along with your idea in the next lesson
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we're going to talk about how to create
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really Vivid realistic settings that
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bring your story to life and we'll also
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talk about the importance of research
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and how wonderful it is if you can go to
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the places that you're writing about
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