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Quick Skills: Make your Hero/Heroine unique

How do you make your hero or heroine unique? Have you ever written a hero or heroine and thought…oh, they seem just like the last character I created? It’s easy to do – you can only pick so many creative combinations for your character…UNLESS… …Unless you go about character creation from the inside out. I’ve talked at length about finding an identity for your character unique to him, and then building the “outside” to match that inside identity. However, I have a quick trick to help make him even more unique. To make him stand out on the page without going over the top. Yes, we’re going to start with identity again, but this time we’re going to focus in on his greatest fear. We’ve asked him about his dark […]

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Conversations: Walking your Hero onto the page

“Today, you write,” I said to Sally as she plunked down her bag. She appeared frazzled today, her blonde hair pulled back into a frizzy ponytail, and she wasn’t wearing makeup. “Good, because I need some writing therapy,” she said as she sat down on the chair.  “After week with the kids home from school, it’s time to escape.  In fact, I might have already started.”  She handed me four pages of her manuscript.  “It’s the first scene.” I scanned it.  “No, it’s not,” I said.  “It’s a smattering if the first scene and a lot of backstory,”  I handed it back to her. “But it’s a great start.  And you’ve done what I would have suggested you do – sit down and start writing that first scene.  I expected […]

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plotting, act 2, novel writing, susan may warren, my book therapy

Quick Skills: Act 2 Plotting

Act 2 plotting in 5 easy questions! I always get the Chapter Seven Blues.  I know it’s inevitable, but I seem to forget that it happens, and often I’ll find myself down in the kitchen, moping (and looking for chocolate) and my husband will say… “You’re at Chapter 7, aren’t you?” I’ll turn, stare at him, and nod. “How did you know that?” “Because the excitement of the story has gotten you through chapter 3, and Act 1, and the momentum carried you into chapters 4-6, but now the steam has died in the middle of Act 2, and you’re down here hunting for inspiration.”  (This is usually accompanied by him taking the bag of chocolate chips out of my hand.) He’s dead right.  I’m smack in the middle of the […]

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Quick skills: Character and Plotting

I’ve heard it said that the harder a book is to write, the easier it is to read. I’m not sure I agree. Yes, a book should cost the author pieces of their heart, but I’ve found that the more tangled my plot, the more complicated my character, the less popular my stories.  As I’ve grown as an author and learned how to create simple yet powerful storylines and characters, the popularity of my books has also grown. As I’ve streamlined the process of plotting and characterization, the writing process has become easier, also.  Sure, it’s still hard work, and still costs me pieces of my heart as I write emotion onto the page, but I know where I’m going and the plot is less tangled as I get there. The […]

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