This week is about application of what we are learning. I’m going to take the eight character types we discussed the last few weeks and apply it to one book: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I picked this story to show that, though these roles seem to be geared Read more…
The last pair of characters I’m going to discuss at this time is the love interest and the temptress. These may seem straightforward, especially in the romance genre, but they are more complicated than they appear. They can also be present in any genre. The love interest and the temptress Read more…
Next on the list of character types are the sidekick and the henchman. There can be one or more of each of these characters. Though they don’t play a huge part in the overall story, they are important characters who help build up internal conflict for your protagonist. While the Read more…
Now that we have discussed the most important characters in a story, let’s move down on the tier of character types. These next ones are powerful side characters that either help or hinder your main characters. They aren’t powerful enough to end the conflict between good and evil (that’s your Read more…
For the next few weeks I’m going to focus on the main character types found in stories. As with everything in life, if you have one thing you also have its opposite. Therefore, I’m presenting these character types in pairs to show both sides of the coin, so to speak. Read more…
Dependent clauses are useful when telling a story. It can help vary your sentence structure and enable you to form more complex sentences to convey more meaning. Though they are a useful tool, they often get misused. I would like to share two ways I see this done the most: Read more…
There is no such thing as a good story with no conflict in it. While we like to have conflict-free lives, we must have conflict in our books in order to keep the reader’s attention. This, my fellow writers, is where the Try/Fail cycle comes into play. Try/Fail Cycle Over Read more…
As one of the biggest culprits of inflating a word count, repetition is something everyone does that writers have to teach themselves to avoid. If you listen to people talk, they will repeat themselves numerous times even if they don’t have a memory problem. It’s natural for us to say Read more…
Giving thanks for what we have is a good exercise, especially for writers. In a world where things can change on a dime, you have to be good at focusing on the positive. I’m doing something a little different this week. I want to give thanks for the authors that Read more…
A major part of being a good writer is reading. If you’re a new writer and you haven’t spent the majority of your life devouring books, you are behind the ball. You should be constantly reading other fiction books. Specifically, but not exclusively, books in your genre. I heard it Read more…