Olivia Hughes (13-year-old protagonist): Olivia, a likeable eighth-grader and TV commercial actress, seems to have it all.

Here’s what I knew, when contemplating the characters, to be true: This happy revelation saved me from serious writer’s cramp…and countless hours of jotting down everyone’s likes, dislikes, favorite food, astrological sign, you name it. I related to most characters either from first-hand experience, or experience in knowing people like them. Not one to embrace change, I dutifully began this same process before writing Zitface. During previous book writing attempts, I compiled pages and pages of character traits, for every character. How did you discover and get to know your protagonist? How about your secondary characters? Your antagonist?ĭiscovering my book’s characters was much easier than I’d anticipated. And maybe, what she finds isn’t so bad after all. What do you do when you’ve lost control of everything in your life? Olivia has to find out the hard way. She goes from being the girl at school everyone wants to be…to Zitface, a girl who is teased, dumped, and even fired. Now all Olivia wants to do is hide, but she can’t. A little pimple turns into a full-blown case of acne, with serious side effects for her career, relationships, and budding romance with J.W., the new guy at school. She just landed a national ad campaign that should get her noticed.īut then her luck runs out.

Thirteen-year-old Olivia Hughes knows what she wants to do with her life-be an actress. Emily Howse is the first-time author of Zitface (Marshall Cavendish, 2011).

Zitface by emily howse