Question: Why enhance your fictional personalities with feelings, viewpoints or oddities? Part of my learning curve in attempting several manuscripts has been an emotional business to say the least, not only for my characters but for myself. On one hand, I give characters too many emotions—they’re a mess. On the other hand, usually my left,…
Real Writers Top 10 I’ve promoted them before and I’ll likely do it again, but the Scriptnotes Podcast (which focuses on screenwriting) is terrific stuff for regular old fiction writers, too. John August and Craig Mazin are writers first and screenwriters second. A wealth of insight. They make it easy to skip the industry stuff,…
After I finish a book I always have two files. One is the final manuscript I will submit. The other is a mishmash of scenes and pieces of scenes that never made it into the book. I usually start off saving this detritus at the end of the file. By the time I’m three-quarters of…
For some time my critique group has made accommodations to stay in touch with members who have moved to distant cities. We’ve used Skype, but have frequently encountered technical difficulties like transmission, sound, or images. As time went by, other members moved to distant locales, and Skype couldn’t accommodate more than one person. Enter the…
I have chronic depression. I was first diagnosed when I was 12 years old. I’ve fought it all my life, every day, to some degree. I’m on medication, and I’ve developed some good coping techniques. Most days are okay. Some are really good. And some are really bad. I’ve been having more bad days lately….