I’ve reflected before on the power of surprise in novels. But I’d like to share a few thoughts now about a certain kind of surprise—perhaps the most heart-wrenching kind, because it’s so relatable. That is, the “good” character who turns out to be bad, or the “bad” one who finally shows himself to be good(ish). The Good Are Bad It’s true, of course, that no human being is fully good or bad, and our fictional personages should reflect that. But … Read More »

The time has finally come to write the dedication page to the story you’ve sweat blood and tears over. Should be easy enough, right? Sometimes it seems that these little blurbs are harder to write than the book itself. Let’s toss around some ideas to help you get this important part of your book written. Who? Who should you dedicate your book to? Well, there are many answers, and they can be a lot of creative fun. You can dedicate … Read More »

One usually approaches this topic as “filling scenes with emotion” although, if you think about it, it’s people who experience emotion. If your characters are feeling it, then they’ll embue the whole scene with it. And, because of the wonderful faculty of compassion, readers will start to twang with the same emotional resonance. Where do you stand? The exact way we, the authors, will go about this depends on what point of view we’ve chosen. Is it omniscient third person? … Read More »

As humans we read signals all the time. If someone flips us the finger, we know that person is angry. If someone throws their arms wide and does a little dance, we know that the person is happy about something. We communicate every day without words. Gestures reveal so much about a character, and about a situation. Reveal is the important term here—reveal/show. It speaks to that old writing adage “show, don’t tell.” When we see certain gestures by characters … Read More »

I just read a charming book, and I’d like to be able to write one. But what exactly is charm? The word comes (from Latin by way of Middle French) from carmen, an incantation, and even today it can mean an enchantment, a magic spell. Yet we often also use it in a different, more secular sense to mean —I  quote the Oxford Dictionary here — “the power or quality of delighting, attracting, or fascinating others.” Although, with all due … Read More »

When it’s time to name the characters in your story, where do you start? If you’re lucky, one or more may have already told you who they are. What about the rest? Some may be secondary characters or ones that are mentioned only once or twice, but they still need names so readers can picture them in their mind and identify with them. Let’s see what we can do about those blank spaces on your character roster. Personality Traits Take … Read More »