Tag: characters

Discovery, Surprise, and Fun When Writing

I am neither a plotter nor a pantser when I write my books, yet I do both. Plotters blueprint their stories with outlines; pantsers don’t. Authors who don’t outline, “walk with their characters and listen to what they have to say,” to paraphrase William Faulkner. As a mostly-writes-short-stories author, I don’t outline my plots but … Continue reading Discovery, Surprise, and Fun When Writing

Write More Stories

I posted the second book of the Ridgewood Chronicles Trespassing: A Vree Erickson YA Novella on my My Books page. No sooner had I finished than I heard an objection from Lenny Stevens, one of my characters. His objection is about me changing Vree’s point of view in her stories from third person to first. … Continue reading Write More Stories

Ridgewood Living

When I was at college years ago, I studied playwriting. I learned about stage and theater, the differences between three-act, four-act, and five-act play structure, and Aristotle’s Rising Action, Climax, and Denouement. I took what I learned to become a better writer when writing my books. While I wrote, I imagined my characters on stage … Continue reading Ridgewood Living

Ridgewood Beginnings

I was 13 when I created a fictional rural town that became Ridgewood, Pennsylvania. I was an eighth-grade high school student who owned a portable Remington typewriter. That instrument and my imagination allowed me to escape from the ordinary world. I’m not saying my life was boring or difficult, but like the child who turns … Continue reading Ridgewood Beginnings

2011.12.13 Writing: Fictional Characters

Thank you for joining me today for another post from the past with reflections about writing and my life as a writer. If you’re a writer of fiction, you likely subscribe to the newsstand magazines that publish articles on how to write better fiction. Lately, I’ve seen articles that claim story characters react more to … Continue reading 2011.12.13 Writing: Fictional Characters

2011.5.16 Writing: Short Stories

When I write a story, I sometimes try to tell too much of it at the start. I know who my main characters are, and I know I must introduce them right away. That’s the number one rule of storytelling. But in my haste to get all the major players on stage, I tend to … Continue reading 2011.5.16 Writing: Short Stories

2011.3.8 Writing: Round and Flat Characters

I write fiction and create people, places, and things to populate my fictional worlds. Among the people I and all fiction writers create are the major characters and the minor ones. Major characters lead the story events. The best major characters are complex, emotional, and have many layers of different feelings. Their complexities and emotions … Continue reading 2011.3.8 Writing: Round and Flat Characters