Dynamic Setting
“The setting is like a character.” It’s a strange phrase, when you think about it, but it’s one I hear increasingly often in workshop. And so lately I’ve been wondering what people really mean by this, for setting to be “like…
Category: Character
Naming Your Characters and Your Book
My oldest brothers are twins. One of them is named after my father, the first and middle names swapped because my father decided he did not want a junior. James is named after the song, “Sweet Baby James.” Because my…
YA Wednesday: YA Authors: Please Stop Doing These Things, Why We Need More Positive Girls Portrayal in Books, Unrealistic Happenings In YA Books
I’m struggling with my novel in progress. The plot has literally become a shapeshifter, morphing from one genre to another on a daily basis. I just realized my antagonist and protagonist are named Ryan and Brian and half the other…
Comic relief
As the wheels of our plane hit the tarmac, the woman sitting next to me lost her grip on the powered-down cell phone she’d been clinging to throughout the flight. It landed with a soft thunk on the thin carpet…
When Personality Gets in the Way of Character
Like many writers, I’m quite introverted. I like quiet. I like a room of my own, a state of low stimulus equilibrium. I’m a listener more than a talker; a watcher more than a doer; risk averse, rather than a…
YA Wednesday: Write A Successful 1st Draft (Without Stabbing Yourself In The Eye With a Spork), The Greatest Lesson I Learned in Writing This Year, Tropes to Avoid, Diverse Books to Look Forward to in 2017
The New Years resolution at the top of my list is to finish The Black Sea, my novel in progress. And not just to finish it but to wrap it up in two to three months. Admittedly some of my…