Welcome to My Blog/Newsletter
Why subscribe?
To read about another writer’s journey through writing, revising, querying, and learning
To see photos of my dogs 😉
To read about specific craft issues from the point of view of a book coach/experienced writer who wants to help other writers improve their craft
A Different Kind of Character Study
People are fascinating. Why do they do the things they do? I can make up all sorts of motivations and back stories for my fictional characters, but is it believable? Sometimes that’s hard to judge.Lately, I’ve been reading books outside of my typical fun zone, and accidentally discovered another way to study characters.
Characters with Compelling Perspectives
Adult contemporary fiction is not a category I naturally gravitate toward, but this is an example of why reading in many genres and age groups, not just the ones you want to write in, can help you fill your creative well and learn more about the market.
Interviewing Your Characters Yields Juicy Material for Your Novel
I’ve been interviewing my characters as I work on a new middle-grade mystery novel. I started with my villains because I knew less about them than I did about my protagonist, an 11-year-old girl. After seeing how much I discovered about my villains, I decided to use the same approach with Jazz.
Get to Know Your Characters from the Inside
Since I didn’t know my antagonists as well as my protagonist, I decided to interview them. It’s a technique I’ve suggested to several of my book coaching clients too. One client interviewed her antagonist, a non-human character that I couldn’t get a good feel for in her manuscript. The interview she did with him was so powerful. He’s a dark, selfish, narcissistic piece of work.