Creative Writing Secrets for You!

Want to improve your fiction writing skills so your novels will impress agents, publishers and readers alike? If you do, the best possible way is to aim for master-class characterisation, and P4 is a creative writing resource than can help you do just that.

Good characterisation is the hidden secret of most successful novelists. As Henry James – master of both character and plot – once put it: "character IS plot." If you KNOW your characters then they LIVE; and if they live, they practically create plot sequences on their own. The result is 'organic' writing and convincing realism. Read on to discover how you can achieve that elusive quality of realism in your own novels – by creating really memorable ‘characters’ based upon real psychological models.

Whilst the physical aspects of a character are, of course, important, it is vital to recognize that ‘character’ is about much more than physical aspects. While a ‘limp’ or a ‘blink’, a ‘posh’ or a ‘rough’ accent, might help ‘identify’ a character, such things do not make that character seem any more real than a pantomime dame. It is the mental aspect of a person that makes them what they are: how they think, rationalize, prioritize and behave. It is the internal, rather than the external, that breaths life into fictional characters; without this element they are simply members of a ‘cast-list’: a motley collection of ‘cardboard characters’ better suited to nursery rhymes. Readers just won’t care about them – or your novel!

It takes most authors many years to achieve an inherent ability to get into their characters’ heads – to ‘internalize’ on their behalf – and this is the author’s ‘growing time’. Fortunately, this no longer need be the case with this creative writing resource. The ‘quick-fix’ is to use the Synergise P4 Personality Mapping tool, a breakthrough method which enables any novelist – experienced or not – to quickly home-in on detailed and consistent psychological character behaviours for all their principal characters.

There are countless books on characterisation, and at least some of these come up with a collection of stereotyped personalities to give authors a start. Most do not cover all human types yet, even then, the bulk of data that results is hard to get to grips with and random access is clearly error-prone. Hurried decisions about character traits that are inconsistently combined with respect to real life can lead to characters lacking realism or having completely wrong traits to realistically live up to their plot roles. ‘P4’, on the other hand, is a creative writing resource that utilizes a breakthrough new method and a protected graphical interface that enables high-level behavioural traits to be quickly and intuitively refined into detailed and psychologically-consistent character profiles ideally tailored to every plot need.

The process of character definition starts from a ‘map’ of the entire human psyche that pictorially represents a few basic fundamental character traits. These are smoothly and logically refined into 16 ‘normal’ and 16 ‘disorder’ types that stem from a detailed analysis and simplification of the 'Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders' handbook produced for mental health professionals by the American Psychiatric Foundation. But don’t be worried if this sounds deep: P4 presents the personality types in straightforward, non-technical language that is easy to understand. It even includes the internalized and warped thought-patterns of disorder conditions. Because the foundation of the P4 character profiles is a bedrock of accepted psychology for normal and disorder conditions, the character traits given by P4 are sound and consistent. The tool allows you to cherry-pick traits while ensuring they are complementary for your chosen psychological type. This is what guarantees your characters will always be realistic. And because the psychological types used are accepted to describe all of humanity, you can regard this as a definitive collection of all humankind. If you create realistic characters then you create memorable characters. Create memorable characters and you become an unforgettable author!

Imagine the difference it would make to the quality of your fiction writing if you knew your characters in depth, right from the start of writing your novel. Most writers gradually get to know their characters and build-in their characteristics and traits as they are called upon by the developing plot. In real people, however, certain traits go together, behaviour patterns are linked, and randomly bunching these together as plot develops is likely to create characters that don't ring true. P4 gets over this problem because it gives you the low-down on all natural character profiles.

From the P4 novelist's tutorial you will learn:

• To avoid the error of creating psychologically inconsistent characters that do not ring true-to-life

• The secret of breathing life into your fictional characters — through detailed analysis of principal characters or superficial analysis of supporting characters

• How your characters might realistically draw sparks off each other in conflict situations

• How early knowledge of character types saves you time because you do not have to rewrite early chapters in order to deepen character knowledge that was gained later in the writing process

• How your characters' backgrounds could have affected their present behaviour

• To express the inner thoughts of your characters

• How to analyse how characters might differ between relaxed and stressed conditions

• How to use 'role models' so you can continually test that you are getting it right with regard to the behaviour of your characters

• How to rescue those 'cardboard characters' you were so worried about.

The heart of P4 is a browser-based tool you can use online or offline. After learning how to use the tool by reading the tutorial, you will be able to quickly get from basic character needs, as befitting your plot, to detailed character profiles which can be finely-tuned to create psychologically sound characters you quickly get to know.

Principal features of the tool are:

• Intuitive personality map from which you gain fast and easy access to detailed character profiles

• 4 basic temperaments that help define supporting characters

• 32 more detailed 'Normal' and 'Disorder' personality profiles that define your principal characters in psychological depth

• Tailored character descriptions on character profile printouts

• Personality maps you can print to provide an overall pictorial representation of your principal characters as a constant reminder of their characteristics and to help guide you on their interactions

• Information on physical body types

• Astrological equivalent personality types.

• P4 is far more than a ‘fast-track’ to success, or a ‘quick-fix’; it is a durable tool that will become an invaluable asset to your writing armoury.

P4 is a unique, powerful, sophisticated, yet easy-to-use tool that will enhance the skills of any novelist for a lifetime of writing. It is easy and intuitive to use, and a novelists’ tutorial with worked examples profiling well-known personalities will help you to harness its powers within a few hours. You can use it online, or you can download a copy to use offline, wherever your laptop takes you. Why isn’t it covered by a book? Quite simply, because it is the power of hypertext – the ability to ‘drill-down’ to deeper level of information – that is the key to the ease of use of this product. A book could explain the method, but only an interactive process could make P4 an invaluable ‘tool’ you will find a pleasure to use and which you will always want available on your computer to use for all your fiction projects. Operation is rather like navigating a fast and informative website. It’s also great fun!

One of the greatest causes of rejection by publishers and agents is lack of realism in a novel’s characters. Use P4 to ensure characterization problems never again hold you back in your career as a novelist. If you want to be a successful novelist, or already are but still struggle over characterization, then don’t waste any more time pondering on the subject or waiting for your subconscious to bring you the answers. Instead, get them under your conscious control. Raise the bar. Get right inside your characters’ heads from Chapter 1 and make them all LIVE. Buy the definitive characterization tool NOW… and lift your fiction to a higher level – right away! P4 gets you from plot requirements to ideally-suited character profiles — fast!

Now it's decision time! Do you want to improve your creative writing skills and get to know your fictional characters as well as real people? PLEASE CHOOSE YOUR NEXT STEP BELOW ...

FAST-TRACK Buy a single user license and you could be up-and-running within 5 minutes and using P4 within a day or two to turbo-charge your fiction writing! It will get you off to a flying start with new novels and help deepen characters in works-in-progress. (if you want to share your discovery right away with your writing group)

BACK-TRACK OK, so you're not ready to buy and would prefer to think about it? So before you leave this page, please just consider this. If you now click on to somewhere else without doing anything about this, what are the chances you might later be kicking yourself when you realize you passed up a golden opportunity to improve the quality of your fiction and increase your chances of writing a bestseller? And all for the sake of GBP28 (under US$56)! Isn't your future worth more than that? To ensure against this scenario — it's just too easy to 'click-and-regret' — please save this page NOW as one of your browser 'favorites'. At least you'll then be able to get back here when you've had a chance to think a little more about it!