Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone! We are sure having a white one here. Sleet and ice yesterday (the 22^nd), followed by heavy snow, high winds, and drifting. The county doesn’t come through on weekends, but fortunately, there's a neighboring farmer who graciously plows our dead-end road. I need to shop for groceries today, for all of the holiday meals over the next few days. There will be a mid-day Christmas Eve dinner, a Scandinavian buffet for the evening before church, and then the big dinner on Christmas Day. How I love the scents of pine, and cinnamon, and fresh-baked Scandinavian pastries, and bustle of having relatives here! What are your traditions?

I've been posting about craft topics, here; centering on characterization thus far. Do you have particularly helpful references for planning believable characters, and the psychology of their interactions with each other? Here are some favorites from my shelves:

TYPE TALK BOOK, by Otto Kroeger and Janet Thuesen

LIFE TYPES by Sandra Hirsh and Jean Kummerow

ENNEAGRAM BOOKS--a cute and easy one is THE ENNEAGRAM MADE EASY, by Renee Baron & Elizabeth Wagele

THE COMPLETE WRITER'S GUIDE TO HEROES & HEROINES, by Tami Cowden, Caro LaFever, Sue Viders

And though I don’t believe in horoscopes, some of the horoscope-based books on personality can have some interesting descriptions of the various personality type and how they interact with each other. A couple on my shelves are SUN SIGN PERSONALITY GUIDE, by Robin MacNaughton and THE PERSONALITY COMPASS, by Diane Turner and Thelma Greco

I've used the first two, TYPE TALK and LIFE TYPES, quite a few times over the years, to work on building layers that are deeper, more complex, more real. And, while setting these characters up, I make up a simple chart with all these details, so I can be reminded of the multiple facets to use while writing the book. Everyone is the hero in his own life. Everyone should have goals and motivation and conflicts that hold them back and that conflict with those of other characters. Weave those conflicts through the story to create a stronger, more compelling read!