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Asking “Why?” to Create Rich Characters for Your Novel

For this week’s Throwback Thursday, we’re looking at an excerpt from a previous post titled Why, Why, Why?

I do a lot of manuscript critiques. Hundreds a year. I find the best way to get writers thinking about their plot and characters is to ask a lot of questions. And since I’m a novelist who loves deep, rich characters, I like to challenge my editing clients to push past the ordinary and into the realm of the complex.

For, people are complex. Humans are complicated. They really are. Maybe someone will disagree with me and claim the opposite. That people are simple, easy to figure out.

Well, I’m guessing those who really believe that will probably portray boring, flat characters in their fiction.

I’m hoping, though, that you want to create characters that are complex and sometimes unpredictable who have countless facets to their personalities and seeming contradictions. Why? Because real people are like that, and we writers are supposed to be encapsulating real life in our novels. (Unless you’re deliberately trying not to for some reason). Continue Reading…

Shed Old Publishing Paradigms for Success

For this week’s Throwback Thursday, we’re looking at an excerpt from a previous post titled Grab a Hoe and Let’s Go.

We live in a world that focuses on destinations, not journeys. You go to school to get a degree, then to get a good job, then to rise to a better salary, only to work with the goal of retiring so that someday, when you’re old, you can finally go off and do the things you’ve wanted to do your whole life. Everything around us in society is goal-oriented.

But you may not be alive next month or next year. Do you really want to wait years before you have true joy and feel a deep sense of success in your writing life?

Is it impossible to believe you can have that success this year, the kind of success that is completely fulfilling? I believe we all can, if we shift our view to align with the reality of not just the publishing trends but life in the twenty-first century. Continue Reading…

3 More Ways to Spark Passion in Your Writing

For this week’s Throwback Thursday, we’re looking at an excerpt from a previous post titled Ways Writers Can Spark Creativity.

Writers are always seeking the spark of creativity that will translate into a flame of brilliance as they write their stories. Although much of writing is just hard work and concentration, that doesn’t mean passion for story has to be pushed aside or is inaccessible due to the “nuts and bolts” of crafting a novel or other piece of writing.

Over the past few weeks we’ve been looking at what passion looks like in writing and some of the ways writers can tap into the passion of their story.

Granted, it helps for a writer to be writing on a subject they feel strongly about. It may be a theme the writer wants to explore as a way to share her heart on the subject. Or it may be an exciting “what if” plot that gets her creative juices going envisioning the diverse and intriguing ways characters might react when put in such situations or crucibles. Continue Reading…

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