Make Them Work for It

I realized yesterday that I hadn’t spoken about the craft of writing for a while when I ran up against something I learned while revising Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero. So, with that timely event, I thought it might prove interesting to talk about characters. Specifically about making your characters work for their victories. One of the mistakes I made when writing Mik Murdoch was I often made things too easy for him. I would throw a problem at him and, knowing how I wanted it to turn out, Mik would get to the resolution with little trouble or effort. I don’t know about you, but when I succeed at something, it is usually through a series of trial-and-error type events. My editor, […]

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Keeping Track of Your Characters

I just had an OMG moment while writing book 2 of Mik Murdoch, currently titled, Mik Murdoch and the Power Within. I have been moving along quite nicely in the writing when I realized something. I had named one of my new, main female protagonists the same as one of my baddies from the first book. That would never do! I mean, it is theoretically possible that two people will have the same name (obviously) but, with all the names in the world, should I be naming two characters the same? Considering that one is a protagonist and the other an antagonist, I would say not. It’s much too confusing for one thing. So I went back to the drawing board […]

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What was I thinking?

The question “What was I thinking?” has crossed my mind several times in the past few weeks. Usually the question is directed at my podcasting projects, but it also applies to my writing. I decided well before NaNoWriMo that I was going to do a Science Fiction/Comedy podcast (note: I didn’t decide I was going to do it well. That part is an on-going battle). It was only a matter of time. As the days became weeks, I decided I would release the first episode just before Christmas. From there I would release an episode near the end of January and every two weeks after that. Oh, and I wouldn’t have the story written in advance (yes, that actually was […]

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