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The Orange County Chapter of Romance Writers of America was fortunate to host the vivacious Cherry Adair. During the group’s monthly meeting. In true Cherry fashion, she came in guns blazing, ready to teach and inspire.
As an award-winning, best-selling author of contemporary romance, Cherry has a wealth of knowledge and years of experience to pull from. The morning session was spent focusing on backstory. She shared her personal templates and practices, and explained how important it is to know where your characters come from in order to understand the choices they make in their story. She was careful to emphasize not over-sharing the backstory, but rather dropping it in and seeding the story in a natural, unobtrusive way.
During the afternoon session, Cherry shared with us her secrets for fleshing out 3D characters. The backstory definitely plays a roll in this, but Cherry didn’t stop there. She explained how she gives every character a birthday and uses their astrological signs as a way to inspire characteristics and qualities about them. Oftentimes, those qualities won’t match her idea for what she wanted the character to be like, which forces her to create a reason for the character to end up the way she intended.
When the conference center finally chased us out, Cherry offered to spend extra time with anyone who needed more guidance or had questions. A lucky few ended up huddling in the back of the bar at Cherry’s hotel, soaking up her wit and charm, and finding inspiration to sit down and write!
Cherry Adair is a tireless mentor to the writing masses. She gives freely of her time and has a genuine desire to see others succeed. She is currently running an exciting new contest for writers called Finish the Damn Book! The prizes are tailored toward helping a new author delve into getting published. See her website for more details: http://www.cherryadair.com.
Dozens of OCC RWA members attended Cherry Adair’s day-long workshop on Brea, California.