I found some old notes I took while attending a writer’s seminar several years ago at the Spanish Fork Memorial building. These are notes of counsel from Anita Stanfield.

Many of her books are best sellers. Romance is her specialty. Anita is on a personal crusade to have romance fiction no longer have a reputation of underdeveloped characters.
Writing is like an emotional roller coaster. The highs can be so high and the lows are very low. Creativity is a very emotional process. She believes that good things happen because good people persist. The natural laws of the universe are that things can be accomplished through perseverance.
Wrote 16 years until she sold her first novel. She was pretty much a full time writer and wrote a great deal. But it is very rare for a writer to have quick success. Editor of journal says that the one thing he sees the common trait to successful writers is that they are willing to pay a price. How much are you willing to give to be a successful writer? Is it for your posterity? Devote energy to the gospel and family keep your priorities but also still do the writing. You shouldn’t depend upon your writing to give you happiness. Family and other things can give you happiness.
She doesn’t watch TV, doesn’t bowl, tennis but to achieve her glad to be a writer then you need to be willing to pay the price.
When you’re not writing, visualize your success. Think of your reasons for wanting to write.
1. Without strong characters a story can go nowhere. A good sample is “Gone with the Wind” It is a classic today because Ret and Scarlet had substance; they had feelings and motives just like real people. They had as much depth as a real person i.e.; Abraham Lincoln. Success is when friends will be thinking of the characters you create as real people.
2. You must know your characters as well as you know your family such as asking a child if they prefer rice or mashed potatoes. Look into the attitudes of your characters so well that you know how they are going to respond to a situation as well so you know a certain family member would respond to a situation.
3. To add depth to her novels she will actually write the story of the character before the book started. She wrote 70 pages on Michael Hamaliton which then gave her a better prospective of what in his past life influences the reactions of the characters in the book. You need the psychological and influences of a characters. Not just surface stuff but what motivates a character. Characters need to be customer made to fit a plot. A character that could be transposed from one world to another most likely has insufficient depth.
Watching people or a video see what their mannerisms are. Language patterns etc.
Allow your characters to grow. When she was writing a revolutionary war captain. He was in love in the country side.
Mother of man wanted to get the girl out of her son’s life. So mother got girl framed for thievery. This explanation came from an image of the writer to her character was throwing his mother’s dishes against the wall. So the author made a history of the characters. Readers will agree with what’s happening because the readers believe the motivation of why the character is doing what they do.
When you allow characters to create themselves, they will be more believable. You need to have characters stay in character. You want your reader to see the character as unpredictable yet still be within believability of the characters. Don’t let the reader learn everything about a character all in the beginning. But let the reader learn getting to know them. Let the tension build as you readers become concerned about a character and thus are interested in the outcome of the story. The choices of a character in one scene will influence the results of future scenes.
Writers need to understand the basics of human nature. Even if you don’t write all the attitudes of the character so that even your few references will make the character believable. The ice berg theory is that you show the top of the character and the reader can perceive so much more than what is said. (Attitudes could be shown in language etc.) Don’t burden your reader with unnecessary details in the story. Resist the temptation to show off your knowledge of a subject. It will show up.
Readers not just writers can give valuable input on a story. Those readers may have experience the situation your story is touching on. Then can give you info if what you’re doing is believable and if not why.
The popularity of the Christmas box is that it touched upon a very common emotion. Parent’s desire to have family now as they may not always have it. Writers can do this, the writer needs to deal common in feeling. If your character is someone that they can relate to then your story can appeal to many.
By using vague descriptions it permits the reader to more relate to the character and readers can put themselves into the story more than a Barbie doll. When providing less detail that is in long descriptions but the writer must connect to a reader’s imagination through sensory stimuli.
Bad people don’t set out to be bad people. They see themselves as good. Grey is believable Villains have virtues and heroes have faults.

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