Creating Strong Characters—Some Typical Challenges

Guest Post by Jack SmithWrite and Revise for Publication

To write a publishable novel, you must cover a lot of bases.  This means handling a number of fictional elements seamlessly.  Chief among these is creating a strong protagonist, one that is believable as well as compelling.

It’s one thing to speak of a strong character in the abstract, another to create one in a novel.  If you’re like most writers, you continuously face any number of challenges, and since each novel is different, each set of challenges is different.

There are, of course, some standard character issues every writer eventually faces.

And so let’s mull over some of these . . .Continue reading

Conflict and Series Characters

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraigOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I was driving carpool from the middle school last week when a couple of radio hosts started talking about Facebook and vacation stories.

One of the hosts said he really hated Facebook because people always put up beautiful vacation pictures of their lovely families and everyone looked as if they were incredibly happy and having an amazing time.

The radio host went on to point out that no one wants to hear a happy vacation story—that these friends of his should just keep their experiences to themselves.  People only want to hear a story about a vacation that starts out great…and then something horrible happens.Continue reading

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

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Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 23,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Pre-NaNoWriMo Tips http://ow.ly/DhEce @ava_jae

NaNoWriMo: Planning Your Novel’s Middle:  http://ow.ly/DhE4p @janice_hardy

How free book promos, a pen name, and audiobooks have worked out for one hybrid writer:  http://ow.ly/DC2A1  @jimhbs

3 Steps to Pre-Plot for NaNoWriMo:  http://ow.ly/DhDwp @plotwhisperer

What Halloween Can Teach Us About Character Development: http://ow.ly/DAItB @jessicastrawser               Continue reading

Writing Our Region—Without Overdoing It

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraigcart04

If you live in the Southern US or have spent much time here, you’ll know that even something like a short trip to the grocery store can mean many conversations with strangers.

Whenever I’m in the store (which is, really, nearly every day considering I keep forgetting to put things on my lists), I know that items in my shopping buggy, the length of the checkout line, something I’m wearing, or any other random thing may engender comment.

A woman waiting in line with me the other day smiled and said, “Well, your groceries all looked super-healthy until I saw those Doritos.” Continue reading

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Blog

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 23,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Query question: submission guidelines that are off-putting:  http://ow.ly/CUuj8 @Janet_Reid

5 Ways to make Characters “Click” with Readers:  http://ow.ly/CUuja

10 Tips For Taking Notes at a Writer’s Conference:  http://ow.ly/CUuje @JarvisWrites               Continue reading

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