As a couple of my fellow Pennies can tell you, I love to do a deep dive on characters’ feelings and motivations. In fact, one of my favorite things to do while writing and critiquing is to explore and uncover why the characters act the way they do. I’m also a firm believer in that old adage that the easiest way to know what someone is … Continue reading Craft Intensive: Building Backstory
I love character motivation! When done right, it gives stories depth and texture and makes the characters seem like real people. I also hate character motivation! Sometimes I just want to get my characters from point A to point B in my story without having to worry about why. But if you want to write books with characters that people hate to part with, then … Continue reading Untangling Your Characters
Writing Historical Fiction, or, Notes from a Time Traveler For years I was haunted by a dream of a young woman walking through long grass. I couldn’t see her face, but I could hear her breathing hard, because she wore a corset and the hem of her brocade dress was damp and heavy. She carried a letter in her hand as she made her way … Continue reading Writing Historical Fiction, or, Notes from a Time Traveler
It’s been a long, rainy winter-turned-spring here in the Pacific Northwest. And I’m sick of it. Every day when I bundle up in my increasingly leaky raincoat to walk the dog, I try to remind myself that rain today means a glorious green summer. Three months from now. (Humph.) Yeah, I’m cranky. Which might be why I’ve been so delighted to stumble across two books … Continue reading Rooting for the Bad Guys
