I used to watch the decorating shows on HGTV. One of the principles I learned was “If you can’t hide it, make it a feature.” An ugly, useless old chimney would cost too much to tear down. So they painted it suitably, filled the fireplace with candles, and mounted the flat screen TV on it. Sometimes our stories include awkward facts that a mass audience won’t understand and believe right away. I recently read a novel that featured a set … Read More »

Our main characters need to be people our readers can relate to, admire, or even aspire to be like. On the other hand, if we go too far we risk creating a Mary Sue or Marty Stu. Mary and Marty are unrealistically gifted, universally loved, movie star handsome or beautiful, amazingly talented, wonderfully wealthy, unbelievably lucky, the stuff of daydreams. To be believable, even the most relatable character needs to have some personal flaws, some things they aren’t good at, … Read More »

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, suggests that practice is more meaningful than underlying talent. He theorizes that it takes about 10,000 hours of doing something—deliberately, not casually—to become good at it. Other thinkers have since attacked that idea, but in general outline it certainly makes sense. The more time I spend playing a game or baking pies, the more opportunity I have to find out for myself what is the best way to do it. When it comes to … Read More »

Old sayings notwithstanding, people do in fact judge a book by its cover when deciding whether to buy it. They try out the title to see if it sparks an interest. They glance at the cover art, and if it doesn’t interest them, they move on. If the title and cover art draw them in, they may turn to the back and read the blurb. If the blurb interests them, they may open the book. If what they read interests … Read More »

I’ve heard of readers becoming upset when a character they like dies in a story. In a tragedy, characters will die and oftentimes suffer, too. I’m glad Shakespeare didn’t hesitate to let his characters kill each other. Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich made a deep impression on me years ago, and I still remember it. Ivan kind of had to die for that to be true. Tragic stories are serious, and often intense, and frequently end in the death … Read More »

Agency is “the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power . . .” Agency is something adults have, usually. Some level of authority, capability, assertion, action, or overt influence. Traditionally, it has been male fictional characters who just naturally have agency. They make decisions that affect the plot and the lives of the other characters. They take independent action and accept the consequences. The writing world is in the process of normalizing agency in female characters. The traditional … Read More »