In preparation for the 2020 RMFW anthology, I’m doing a series of blog posts on elements of short story craft. Last month I covered the basics of plotting your short story. Now, let’s talk about your characters. If plot is the skeleton of a short story, characters are the muscle. They move the plot forward….
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Want to be published someday? Check out RMFW’s Annual Education Event!
If you are a writer who intends to make money writing novel-length fiction, then mark your calendar, get on the computer, and get booked for RMFW’s Annual Education Event. The event is April 13th in Golden, Colorado. It starts at 8:00 a.m. and runs until 4:00 p.m. Registration includes the workshops AND breakfast AND lunch. The…
Sit some, sweat some, nourish your creativity!
If the only exercise you get is shuffling manuscript pages, poring over research, or hunching over your keyboard, listen up. Right now, without cheating, walk to a mirror with your current posture and look at yourself. Hours of sagging over your computer can do great harm. Ask me. In my early writing days, I was…
Rocky Mountain Writer #159
Mandy Mikulencak & Forgiveness Road Way back in 2009, the book was called This Side of Crazy. It was Mandy Mikulencak’s first attempt at writing a novel and it drew, in all, 96 rejections. So Mandy turned to two other writing projects. First, was Burn Girl and then The Last Suppers, which came out in late…
Why in the world did you give your character that name?
I’m learning names can be tricky. I created a protagonist with the surname of Lawley because he lives by the letter of the law. (However, in order to survive he must bend a few rules.) Character names are often self-explanatory. Think Sleeping Beauty; Bugs Bunny; Old Yeller; Prince Valiant; and Superman, the Man of Steel….