I have frequently come across a hybrid beast in the historical fiction woods that calls itself a biographical novel. That is, it is essentially the story of a real person’s life, but it has been, to one extent or another, fictionalized. Permit me—not as a history professional but as a reader — to scream aloud in pain. So what’s the problem? Is it historicity? My problem is not the reality-vs-fiction line. Very few authors openly deform a person’s known life. … Read More »

More than once, I’ve read a book that I considered pretty good, but the villain was so cartoonish and two dimensional that it ruined it for me. Disclaimer: books are only as good as their characters for this reader. Nothing, but nothing, can make up for shallow characters. And a cardboard villain is a deal-breaker. The principle is always that fictional characters, no matter how quirky or exceptional, should be true to life. You should be able to recognize them … Read More »

We all know that it’s better to show your protagonist’s (or any other personage’s) character than to tell the reader about it. That way, we’re “watching the movie,” not having someone review it for us. The main way to do this, of course, is to build the character’s personality into his or her actions. If they’re shy, show them hesitating to speak out. If they’re super-emotional, show them weeping at something touching. But because any one character is imbedded in … Read More »

The dictionary defines pathetic fallacy as the attribution of human feelings and responses to inanimate things or animals, especially in art and literature.  It’s not so much a fallacy or falsehood as it is a figure of speech — otherwise all fiction could be called a lie (!), and we know fiction is often the bearer of deep truths. Nor is it a pitiable trait in literature: pathetic means here dealing with emotions, and as a reader, I say the … Read More »

I have a friend who recently admitted shamefacedly to our writers’ group that she has been writing—and selling—Regency romances under an assumed name. We know her as a person committed to the highest standards of authorship, aspiring to real literary fiction, constantly refining and perfecting her style. And so our immediate reaction was to console, with a kind of world-weary fatalism. Gotta pay the bills, friend. Because those carefully crafted manuscripts had not sold. But wait. Is there something wrong … Read More »

Books on writing often tell the author to find inspiration for stories in the world around her, in the everyday events of her own life. Read a juicy story on the net about a crime? There’s your next mystery! Got a friend who, widowed, rediscovers her high school sweetheart on Facebook and marries him before she goes in for cancer surgery? (I actually do.) The seed for a romance! But all the events of our lives take place today. What … Read More »