Independent author
One of the biggest differences between my first novel, Killing the Immortals, and this novel draft I’m almost done with, possibly called Separation, (but who the hell knows right now?) is the number of characters. [Read more…] about How to Juggle Lots of Characters
One aspect of writing that’s been more of a challenge for me with the next novel, as opposed to “Killing the Immortals,” has been striking a balance between keeping the suspense taut for the reader, while also giving the reader the details they need. [Read more…] about Suspense vs. Development
Walking out of the movie “War Dogs” last weekend — It’s an entertaining film, for what it’s worth — I kept thinking about how tired I am of the “Concerned wife/girlfriend who exists only to nag her busy, adventurous husband about how dangerous his job is, and to cry about getting lied to” character tropes. You’ve all seen the movie/read the book.
He’s the protagonist. He does all kinds of interesting things, driving the action. She’s sitting at home, probably taking care of the kid. He lies “to protect her.” Eventually, she realizes it and walks about, typically taking the kid to her mom’s house. He begs and pleads. She considers changing her mind, but she leaves. [Read more…] about Flipping Tropes on their Heads
To figure out why you should hire a professional editor for your novel, perhaps we should first look at why you shouldn’t do so. That because, well, it’s not at all cut and dried. Not everybody needs to put forth the effort, legwork and cold, hard cash to hire an editor for their novel. There are good reasons not to, and you might fit that profile. [Read more…] about Why Shouldn’t I Hire an Editor for My Novel?
Recently, I was told that you can tell a lot about an author by the villains they write into their stories. Maybe it does say something about you if your villains are always certain archetypes. It might say something about your past, or what your fears are, or the way your twisted little mind works.
When I heard that, though, what I thought about was, as much as I like the bad guy to win, I don’t really like “bad guys” all that much in my stories. That is to say, “bad guys” and “villains” tend to bore me a bit. I prefer a bit more complexity. At the very least, I’d like my antagonist to have some sort of logical basis for what he’s doing. I’d like him or her to be a sympathetic figure in at least some way. I think I crave moral ambiguity in my stories; I like for it to be totally defensible to root for the antagonist to win. [Read more…] about Do Away with Pesky Villains
I wrote recently about the worst thing you can say about my fiction writing, which would be that I’m letting what I want to happen in the story drive my characters’ actions, rather than my characters’ wants, desires and personality driving what happens in the story. There’s little that frustrates me more in a story than when the author appears to be forcing her characters to behave in a way that seems unnatural in order to move the story forward, and the author doesn’t earn his own plot development. [Read more…] about Earn Your Plot: Be Shyamalan, not Shyamalan