Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
Nothing elevates the quintessential protagonist like the perfect sidekick. These secondary characters help showcase the protagonist’s positive and negative traits by contrasting them against the sidekick’s own traits. The bond between these two characters is often a vulnerable relationship. Our good friends always know our darkest history, the secrets we never share with outsiders. At …
Continue reading “Casting Call: 7 Sidekick Archetypes”
Today we kick off the weekend with a Friday inspiration post. During these posts each of us takes turns selecting something that inspires us, and we hope offers inspiration to other writers. I’m showcasing one of my favorite nature writers, John Muir (1838 – 1914) Writer, naturalist, political activist, and Co-founder of the Sierra Club, …
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As part of my ongoing posts on understanding character archetypes, here are my next three examples to study. Last week’s entry was for the Hero, the Leader and the Mentor, for those catching up, it might help to read that post first. The next three characters are predominantly used for the protagonist in a story; …
Continue reading “Casting Call: 3 More Great Character Archetypes”
As I mentioned in my last post, The Dos and Don’t of Character Chemistry, I love to write stories with huge casts. As a historian, coming up with characters is easy for me, I always start the process with real historical figures, twisting and combining traits from different ones until my characters take shape. Unfortunately, …
Continue reading “Casting Call: 3 Fictional Character Archetypes”
We’ve all had this experience, we hear about a new book, movie or TV show and it resonates with us. We know we’re going to love it. We count down the days to the release. During the waiting agony, we talk the ears off anyone who stands still long enough, eagerness dripping from every gushing …
Continue reading “Character Chemistry: 6 Dos and Don’ts for Getting a Group Together.”
Every family has some honored traditions at this time of year, and for many, pulling out dusty copies of a favorite holiday film numbers among them. In my house, we watch that movie snuggled up under blankets, with big bowls of popcorn and mugs of frothy hot chocolate. My kids will likely choose It’s a …
Continue reading “It IS a Wonderful Life!”
The other day I started thinking about my writing. Questioning the books I admire, and the writers who have influenced me. As with most writers, the experiences that shaped me came from many different people and places, including many of my old teachers. Oddly, some of my best mentors were not English or literature teachers …
Continue reading “What I Learned About Writing From Cookies: A True Story!”
Once upon a time authors didn’t have to think much about their genre, or their reader demographics. They just wrote stories and never worried about the book finding a slot in a high traffic section of the bookstore. Some of my writer friends still feel this way; they don’t care about genre labels one way …
Continue reading “Do We Really Need Genre Labels?”
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) takes place every November. As most of you know, the goal is to compose a first draft of your novel, roughly 50,000 words during the 30 days. It works out to be a doable 1,667 words a day, but only if you sit down and write that chunk every day. …
Continue reading “Lessons From The NaNoWriMo Trenches”
As I mentioned in my last post, Pace, Friend or Foe, one great way to drive a novel’s pace and keep people reading, is to end your chapters with a cliffhanger. Most people are familiar with the cliffhanger at the end of a novel (encouraging you to buy the next book in the series) or …
Continue reading “8 Ways to End a Chapter With a Cliffhanger”