Alan Rinzler posted a great article about character development, using a technique from James Scott Bell’s The Art of War for Writers, called voice journaling. His article inspired me to practice with the characters I’m writing about. I figured that I would start off with the easiest character first, since I already know a lot [...] Read more »
The Girl Who Played with Fire: Better Than the First
If you haven’t read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo yet, don’t worry. Larsson gives the reader good, short summaries of what happened to Salander and Blomkvist in this sequel. That said, I recommend that you read Tattoo first so that you can get a better idea of who these characters are so that you [...] Read more »
Scrapping NaNoWriMo This Year
I started this year’s contest with the best intentions, but it just didn’t happen. Every time I launched my word processor, my mind would immediately focus on the rewrite of Shades of Evil, even as I stared at the words of the outline I started the weekend before the start date. My progress on that [...] Read more »
NaNoWriMo: Just Around the Corner
About two weeks ago, it occurred to me that this year’s NaNoWriMo is starting soon. To get myself in the spirit, I poked around and found these posts. Must-Have Tools for NaNoWriMo from Learn to Write Fiction NaNoWriMo: How I Create Characters Benjamin Solah has got some great posts on how he prepares for NaNoWriMo, [...] Read more »
Writing Progress: Shades of Evil
The rewrite is going very well so far. I’ve just finished the second chapter and plan on starting the third sometime this week. So far, I’ve established (re-established, if you read Prosperity) that Amanda is clairvoyant and that people often get squeamish over the subject, depending upon their religious beliefs. I’ve also established what she [...] Read more »
How to Draw a Basic Mind Map of Your Characters
Knowing the Basics About My Characters Before I start writing my stories, I have to know the basic attributes of my characters: Who are they? Where did they come from? What event brought them into this story? What are their attitudes and why? How will they solve the problem in this story? Will they grow [...] Read more »
Experimenting with the Mind Map Technique
Introduction Mind mapping is a brainstorming technique that has been around for decades. I first heard about the concept in high school, when one of my teachers asked us to draw up a mind map of a chapter in our text book. He didn’t explain it very well, and therefore most of us blew it [...] Read more »
Writing Progress: Back to the Drawing Board
After careful consideration, I’ve decided to scrap the draft of Shades of Evil that I’ve been working on. I made the same mistake that I did with Prosperity by crowding the plot with too many characters. There are also some inconsistencies that I felt needed attention before I can continue. Yesterday, I spent the better [...] Read more »
Book Review: Barefoot
This was the third book that was chosen since I joined a book club in April. What’s funny is that all of the women, with the exception of myself and my friend who invited me, love romance. I’ve tried to read romance novels in the past, but I can’t get past the sugary, flowery descriptions [...] Read more »
God’s Last Twilight Published
In 1918, polite women didn’t walk into saloons to discuss ousting political figures. They didn’t have illicit affairs with a married man, much less a preacher. Myra Kelly did both these things. While she didn’t succeed in getting self-proclaimed mayor, Seamus O’Flannery ousted from office, she did help Theodore Sonnet win the battle over the [...] Read more »
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