Breathing Life into Words: Crafting Compelling Characters that Endure by Nanine Case

​The characters in my books In Search of the Cannibal King and Cannibal King were not simply born from my pen—though it was my description that breathed life into them. Each character emerged from the story, shaped by their culture and society into the multi-dimensional and colorful people they became. I dressed them in words, but they introduced themselves.

​Take, for example, Joyce Walton, the 78-year-old who, despite her reluctance to share her father’s diaries, uncovered a long-buried secret when she mentioned his missionary trunk in the basement of the family’s old home. Even before I heard the trembling voice on the other end of the line, pausing between sentences with a fearful “Oh, dear,” I began to envision the complex personality behind those words.

As the author of a story filled with diverse, multi-dimensional characters from various societies and walks of life, it was my responsibility to present them as authentically as possible. My goal was to connect with you, the reader, on a deep level, so that you might find yourself immersed in a scene, seeing the world through the eyes of either the villain or the heroine.

When you read a book and feel equal passion for the characters as you do for the story itself, the author has succeeded in giving those multi-dimensional personalities their due—adding just enough salt and pepper to spice them up!

As an unknown writer once said, “A book is knowledge shared.” Another said, “A story told is a story that's never forgotten, but a memory of what was past and what will be." Both are true…yet the rest is subjective, as every reader’s experience of a story is unique.

Here’s what one reviewer said after reading Cannibal King, “I miss its characters, and they stay with me now, alive in my mind, days after finishing the book. This is such a feat for this talented author! Her outstanding writing made every little detail of the tribes’ villages and customs come alive in my mind’s eye, as if I were on the Marquesas Islands, too.”

​What that reader conveyed to me was that I had achieved what I set out to do—make the characters live on.

Until next time, happy adventuring!

Nanine

If you want to explore with me, start with In Search of the Cannibal King, which my publisher is offering FREE for a limited time.

​If you want to dive right into the fast-action historical adventure of John Rumell, head right to the Cannibal King!

START YOUR ADVENTURE NOW!

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