Do Some Character Shopping
Places like Wal-Mart (as well as thousands of other good places to people-watch) are endless fountains of ideas for characters. So, the next time you’re stuck looking for ideas for new characters or the ones you have lack dimension, then just get in the car and do some character shopping.
Lessons Learned From Another Rejection
The other day I got an e-mail rejection back from a publisher who was doing an anthology of stories all centered around a common theme. I’d submitted my story a while ago and recently received an e-mail saying that my story had made the short list. So how did I go from the short list [...]
Mourning the Loss of Identity
I didn’t want to work in a cubicle building stuffy, boring computer software all day long…I wanted-needed- to build, create, let my mind free and imagine worlds and people and events that stimulated my imagination.
Learning the Chords
We can’t create a page turner without knowledge of plot and structure. We can’t make readers cry without knowledge of characters and character bonding. We can’t make readers so immersed by our fictional world that they ignore the pot of boiling water and the pets with full bladders begging to be let out unless we have a mastery of plot, structure, characters, description, setting, dialogue, and every other tool in the box.
Are our bookshelves going the way of the CD case and should we worry?
We’re not looking at an extinction here. Everything evolves, including the art of storytelling. Writers can either put themselves on or ahead of this evolutionary change or they can be left behind. There will never cease to be a market for storytelling, the only thing that changes is the medium through which the story is told.