Back in the 80s, Mary Tyler Moore and Robert Preston starred in an HBO rom-com that has mostly faded into history. In it the main character – a writer named Mike Finnegan – has to begin again. He’s assigned to write the advice column for his newspaper (remember them?) and learns that people have to…
Tag: motivation
Deep POV Lesson 11 – MRUs
MRUs? Huh? An MRU is a Motivation Reaction Unit. It’s a term coined by the inestimable Dwight Swain, and it’s a magic key to keep your reader immersed deep in the story. It may not be DEEP POV, but it’s closely related. So, I’ll just give you a taste and send you off to Google…
Write like…
Write like your best friend just called to say she read the first fifty pages of your latest/greatest and she thinks it’s your best work yet. Write like tomorrow’s schedule is breaking rocks with a sledgehammer. Dawn to dusk. Write like you don’t care. Write like you understand, deep down, how much fun it is…
Character Building with the Enneagram
A few weeks ago, I attended a workshop on the Enneagram, a method for analyzing personalities. Although the Enneagram is intended to help you understand yourself and the people around you, it also makes a great character-building tool for writers. Here are a few steps to get started using it. 1. Determine your character’s primary…
Create Better Characters in Six Easy Steps
Readers may be intrigued by a good plot. But if your characters are interesting, readers will remember them long after they close the book. It can be tough to create fully fleshed-out, three-dimensional characters. But it’s much easier when you use the PERSON acronym: P is for Personality E is for Experiences R is for…