***Before I get into my post, I wanted to acknowledge the lives lost on Sunday. My heart breaks for Orlando. For those who aren’t nerds like myself, you might not be aware of the recent issues surrounding the Captain America comic. Apparently Captain America is a double agent. He’s a hydra operative. Hydra are…
Tag: Character Development
Backstory Feeds Frontstory
Whack me upside the head – go ahead. I was putting together a presentation recently for a workshop about writing mysteries and I wanted to make the point that the variety of ideas for mysteries—setting, characters, plots and themes—is endless. I thought it might be insightful and instructive (maybe even interesting) to look at recent…
Are Your Characters Larger than Life?
So what exactly is a “larger than life” character? You hear that term bandied about all the time, especially as one of the attributes agents and editors are looking for in a good story. If you were to take the term literally, you’d be wrong. It fact, larger than life is often misused and assigned…
Finding Your Words Through Passion
By Liesa Malik This is so embarrassing that I hate to see the word in print–BLOCKED. I’ve been blocked. I know that professionals do not allow themselves to succumb to such a silly and amateur problem, but I’ve been stuck in the quagmire of “my writing sucks–I have no ideas–why did I ever want to…
Guest Post – David Boop: The Snowflake Theory of Characters
By David Boop Over the lifespan of your writing career, you’ll hear lots of catchy sayings about the craft. Write what you know. End chapters on a cliffhanger. Never fight a land war with Russia in the winter. The last one may only pertain to alternate history writers, but I’m sure you’ve heard a bunch….