Romancing Your Story
Developing the Leading Man and his Lady
The man and woman who will fall in love in your romance story are your most important characters. Therefore,…
September 23, 2021-
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Guest PostsWays to Create Emotionally Intelligent Characters
As much fun building characters in a fiction story is, the process is equally challenging. Trying to create memorable…
July 26, 2021 -
Romancing Your Story
Walk on By: Secondary Characters
Secondary characters are the seasoning in your story soup. Who can be secondary characters, or sidekicks? Often, they’re the…
May 23, 2021 -
Writing for YAWriting a First Novel: Creating Characters
In past blog posts, I’ve written about choosing a genre, story premise, and GMC. A key element of any…
April 27, 2021 -
Becoming an Author5 Acting Books Every Writer Should Read
If you are a writer who is serious about pursuing publication, perhaps you have a couple of writing craft…
April 9, 2021 -
Fantasy-Sci-FiNavigating the Social Media minefield as a Speculative Fiction author
It’s a complicated time to be an author trying to build your platform on social media. It’s a weird…
February 7, 2021 -
Fantasy-Sci-Fi
How Genre Impacts Your Character Development
Sometimes it’s easy to think character development looks similar across genres. And for the reader, it usually does. Even…
September 7, 2020 -
Mystery/Thriller/SuspenseIdentity Crisis
Let’s talk villains. One of my favorite topics! The creeper. The serial killer. The diabolical mastermind. The psychotic killer.…
August 17, 2020 -
History in the MakingThe History of Your Characters
When we think of “historical”, we think the story is set in a historical time period, and many of…
July 20, 2020 -
Courting the MuseHow Personality Quizzes Can Help You With Character Development
Have you ever taken the MBTI? Short for Myers Briggs Type Indicator, this classic personality test promises to divine…
July 13, 2020 -
Becoming an Author
Acting Techniques to Deepen Your Writing – Part 1: Characterization
Over the years, I’ve studied the craft of both writing and acting, and I’ve been amazed at how the…
June 18, 2020 -
Fantasy-Sci-Fi
Tropes: How to Make Them Credible, Not Cliché
You could probably name tropes from your favorite books and movies without hardly thinking about it. There’s the Reluctant…
May 7, 2020 -
Romancing Your Story
How Do You Write Characters of the Opposite Gender Realistically?
This was a question I saw in the Twitter writing community and realized it is a challenge, especially in…
March 23, 2020 -
Fantasy-Sci-Fi
The Tightrope We Must Walk
Your main character stands on the edge of a cliff, a five hundred foot drop to jagged rocks below.…
December 7, 2019 -
Mystery/Thriller/Suspense
Creating Believeable Villains
What are the trademarks of a villain? Do they have dark, piercing eyes, a snarly grin, crooked-yellowed teeth, knobby…
February 17, 2019 -
The Picky PenHow to Edit Your Character
We’re heading into a New Year. Perhaps you’ve finished a novel during Nanowrimo. Maybe you’re plotting a new story…
December 22, 2018 -
Guest PostsWriting with Family
Writing a book is a process. It began as a school assignment for my granddaughter when she was in…
September 17, 2018 -
Romancing Your Story
Crafting the Hero – Part VI
Nobody’s perfect, right? True. Neither can your romantic hero – or your heroine, for that matter – be perfect.…
July 23, 2018 -
Talking CharacterBuilding Characters: Start with What You Know
If you’ve ever been involved in building a house or a major remodeling project, you understand how overwhelming it…
July 20, 2018 -
Talking Character
Your Character’s Backstory—Use It Wisely
Every fictional character has an entire life’s worth of backstory that happened prior to the opening of your novel.…
June 20, 2018 -
Writing Conference2018 Character Intensive Writing Conference
Steven James here. As a working novelist over the last decade I’ve heard over and over from editors and…
June 14, 2018 -
Talking Character
Keeping a Character File
Do you have a method for capturing the bits and pieces you use to create memorable, complex characters? If…
May 20, 2018 -
Talking Character
How Characters Evolve in a Series by Lisa E. Betz
Why do we love a good series? Because we love the characters and the kinds of situations they get…
March 20, 2018 -
Talking Character
Writing Historical Characters
Sometimes fiction authors write about real people. Especially those who write historical fiction. Real historical characters can add a…
February 20, 2018 -
Talking Character
How to Create Great Character Bios by Lisa Betz
A character bio is a collection of information that delineates and describes a fictional character. It is a tool…
December 20, 2017
