I’ve started a new segment where I’ve asked a variety of authors to answer a few questions that I pose. Of course, I love a twist. All answers had to be no more than two sentences. Brevity presents a greater challenge. For me the process was delightful as well as insightful. I love that authors…
Tag: character development
Author Shorts Question 2: Naming characters
I’ve started a new segment where I’ve asked a variety of authors to answer a few questions that I pose. Of course, I love a twist. All answers had to be no more than two sentences. Brevity presents a greater challenge. For me the process was delightful as well as insightful. I love that authors…
Writing about mental illness without being exploitative
In my novel Red Haze, I have a number of characters who are experiencing extreme situations and have extreme reactions. At its base, the novel is a murder mystery with a paranormal twist. But for the formula to work, the characters needed to react to trauma appropriately: anguish, rage, delusion. These emotions make every muscle…
Author Shorts Question 1: Characterization
I’ve started a new segment where I’ve asked a variety of authors to answer a few questions that I pose. Of course, I love a twist. All answers had to be no more than two sentences. Brevity presents a greater challenge. For me the process was delightful as well as insightful. I love that authors…
The power of representation
Whether I have one reader or 100,000 readers, I take the power of representation seriously. As authors, we have the opportunity to create characters, who in the best of circumstances can introduce readers to someone unlike a person they’ve ever met in real life, and in the worst case scenario, we create characters who reveal…
On Writing Strong Female Characters
Everyday we’re bombarded with images, videos, and texts telling us how to be and who to be. The worst part: many of them contradict. Especially for women. Case in point: I was recently reading a great novel: suspenseful and well written…a best-seller, in fact. I almost couldn’t finish it, though, because the only lead female…
Character and scenery — a brief thought
Something to think about when writing: striking a balance between description of place — to put the reader there — and developing the character who interacts in that place. How does the character feel about the scenery, how does it affect the character? “Scenery is fine — but human nature is finer.” —John Keats
So who is your character again? PART 2
Last week I posed the question, “So who is your character again?” Much of the article focused on raising questions to ask as a writer while developing a character. This post will focus on answering those questions. In general, a writer should know more about a character than ever appears in the book or story….
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