writing
What Is a #CharacterStory (and the 2 Laws of Character Action)
I found this photo on Flickr. Entitled “The Problem with Character-Driven Stories,” the photo had an amusing story to go along with it. As the story goes, there was a writer who was auditioning characters for her next novel. Characters lined up all the way out the writer’s waiting room and around the corner. And [...]
Monday Morning #CharacterStory Writing Prompts 2011/06/13
A photo: see the top of this post. (Click for a larger view.) A personality type: ESFJ. A need: the need for security. A quirk: Names his many tropical fish all after characters from his favorite novel. Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. [...]
On Plagiarists and “Real Writers”
Holly Lisle in her writing tips newsletter today wrote about plagiarism and being a “real writer.” I put “real writer” in quotes not for sarcastic effect. I put those words in quotes because those are the words Holly herself used, and I agree with them completely. She talks about some would-be aspiring authors, as it [...]
How to Write: Show and Tell
“Show; don’t tell.” Writers take great pride in passing on this standard advice. But what does it mean to “show” instead of “tell”? What does “show don’t tell” look like? And is that a hard-and-fast rule or just a rule of thumb? Are there any situations in which you should “tell,” not “show”? If you’ve [...]
Monday Morning #CharacterStory Writing Prompts 2011/06/06
A photo: top of this post, which the artist has entitled, “Please Don’t Go.” (Click for a larger view.) Of the photo he says, “This was a shot I took during Alyssa Barajas’ production of a music video for the song ‘Please Don’t Go’ by Barcelona. It was an amazing night, so many emotions and [...]
The Novelist’s New Clothes?
They say that novelists write millions of manuscripts each year. I’m not sure what the exact number is. But I might believe any number between 1,000,000 and 25,000,000. Of these millions, less than 100,000 will make it to print. That’s when the real fun starts. Of those, only a fraction will end up on the [...]
Monday Morning #CharacterStory Writing Prompts 2011/05/30
It’s Memorial Day (here in the US). That’s not a story prompt, just a note. Here are today’s story prompts. Use one or all of them to inspire a story. A photo: top of this post, part of a group of photos the artist has entitled, “Mis 25: Pasando la franja etaria.” (Click for a [...]
Character Needs: The Need for Autonomy
Finishing out these posts on character needs, extracted from Character Fiction 101: How to Write Fictional Characters and Character Stories. Today, a basic need that provides motivation for many powerful stories, the need for autonomy. Each of us needs to feel in control over his own life and his own choices, a measure of independence [...]
How to Write Those Darn Character Arcs
I’ll fess up and say I’ve avoided teaching about character, because, well, it’s complicated. And everyone has their own process. So I have to ask myself: How do I write character? Because I do write it. But how? What’s my internal process? Let’s start with the main character. The process is basically the same for [...]
How To Write Felt Need
One thing I try to figure out before starting a new book is my main character’s felt need. What do I mean by felt need? Some people might call it the character’s motivation, but I think it goes deeper than that. For instance, a character may be motivated to do his father’s bidding because if [...]