So far, I’ve talked about antagonists and monsters and the differences between them, but merely mentioning these two aspects of the villain spectrum leaves a hole in the middle – one that begs to be filled by some of the best villains in fiction. Disney’s old Maleficent, The Joker, Patrick Bateman, Lestat, pretty much any … More Writing Villains: The Hybrid
In a previous post, I discussed how monsters are different than other kinds of antagonists or villains. Today, I want to talk about the most common of villains: the antagonist. Simply put, the antagonist it the character or characters who’s motives act in opposition to the main character (protagonist). To create actual plot and tension, these … More Writing Villains: Antagonists
The following is an excerpt from a post I wrote back in May, 2013: Developing Characters Part One: Getting to know you Our characters are people – people we’re giving free rent to in our heads, sometimes for years. And they ought to be worth that time to create, to find the right one for the … More NaNoWriMo Prep: Creating Characters Worth Writing
I remember the first time one of my characters came out of the closet. I was 17, working hard on one of my first non-academic works of fiction, what was supposed to be a coming-of-age love story between two college students. I had been working for months, but it seemed like no matter what I … More National Coming Out Day Special: When Your Character Comes Out of the Closet
For Part One of Developing Characters, go here. I'm sorry for the delay on part two, I've been learning a new Day Job and that's been a bit of a time suck. But anyway, now we have our characters, we need to have our characters do something–there is a story they're involved in, a story … More Developing Characters Part Two: Conflict and Plot
There's nothing better than a good character; the kind of person you wish you could dive into the pages and buy them a drink, just to spend more time with them. A good character can save the times a plot needs to become tedious, and it can save the writer a lot of work when … More Developing Characters Part One: Getting to know you
Written by irowboat I was going to respond this comment from dawnstarpony, but it ran considerably long, and PartlyPixie made me turn it into a post. dawnstarpony asked: Do you consider character planning/-izing/character personality sheets as outlining and wasting time? I’ve encountered two general populations of writers when it comes to characters: Those who are … More Guest Post: Your character may be a mugger if…
Reality is a subjective thing, especially to us writers. We see things multiple ways. We sit on an old stone bridge and look down at a length of pipe sunken to the bottom of an icy stream, and in a blink we see a sword, golden and forgotten, lost, waiting for a hero to come … More Living Multiple Realities
Day 9: 11,355 of 50,000 words I suppose I should update about what I’ve decided to do about my little dilemma this month. It started out with a story that seemed to take a defined shape early. Good character, decent back story, lots of room for mystery and things to go wrong. But it just … More A Meeting of Two Birds and a Stone
2,008 of 50,000 words The first day is usually the worst day for me. I might be saying that because this is the first day, and I spent a long time deciding what to write. Ask me again at day fifteen, and I might say that the middle is the worst day because I’m getting … More Day One
Concerning History in the Atlantic World, 1680-1740
The long haul of the spectrum
one woman's thoughts about life on the spectrum
Japanese pop culture through a feminist lens
The official blog of Michelle Tuckett, word ninja. 