You’re deeply in love with your quirky, witty, somewhat grumpy teenage protagonist. You know their faults, flaws, and strengths by heart, as well as what kind of viscous liquid sugar they drizzle (or don’t) over their coffee. You’re endeared by their crabby sense of humor, their mood swings, and their impatience with grown-ups. In fact,…
Tag: Character Development
All About The Characters
I recently read Sue Miller’s new novel, Monogamy. (A good book. It haunted me for several days, as a compelling novel does.) In the foreword she says the book took six years to write. She thanks the many people who supported her and helped her through that time period. Then she thanks her characters for…
Talking To Your Characters
Have you ever run smack into a writer’s block had no idea where your story is going? If you’re a pantser, the answer is probably, ‘Yes!” Even if you’re a plotter, the answer might be, “Yes, but don’t quote me on that.” It happened to me when I was doing NaNoWriMo 2018. My inspiration had…
Power
Did you get all July Fourthy this year? For me, not so much. It’s hard to feel that star-spangled pride when there’s so much strife, upset, misery, and death. The shine, this year, is off. Don’t worry. I’m not going to turn the RMFW blog into a political platform. But those brutal, long minutes in…
Emotions and Writing
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,…