Manage Character Names
When I wrote short stories, I used to laboriously go through baby name books for just the “right” name. I’d search the entire alphabet for that gender, writing down names I liked until I had a list of...
View ArticleInvincible Characters in Urban Fantasy
Have you noticed the trend of invincible women characters in urban fantasy? In the last book I read, the character was beaten up, thrown off a cliff, and fatally stabbed (some details changed to...
View Article5 Resources for Naming Your Characters
Baby Names.com: The site displays names in lists that are easy to scan, plus you can sort by orgin of name. Handy if you’re writing fantasy, and you want to stay in the same name family for...
View ArticlePutting Characters in Perspective
When I did my second novel, I had four main characters, and I gave them all equal weight in the story. They ended up jostling each other for dominance in the story. I ended up going back to the...
View ArticleCompetent Characters
A competent character is something I like to see when I read a book. The character’s going to face some high stakes issues, and he can’t afford to be a pinball bouncing from crisis to crisis, not...
View ArticleCharacterizing a Queen
I ran across a discussion recently (sorry, could not find it again) that mentioned how royalty is often presented in books. The king or queen is often corrupt, arrogant, or haughty. This was...
View ArticleHow Many Women Characters Are in Your Book?
March is Women’s History Month, though I actually don’t like these types of events. They exist because history and even present doesn’t always recognize people outside of a select group. I remember...
View ArticlePicking names for story characters
When I first started writing, I used to labor over finding just the “right” character name. What defined “right”? Not a clue. I’d geta baby name book — you know how hard it is buying one of those?...
View ArticleNot Fixing it on the Revision
One of the “rules” I’ve seen around is not to edit or revise as your write. It leaves writers to race through the draft and deal with a more worse problem: I’ll fix it on the revision. Last week, I...
View ArticleKeeping track of characters
As I work on novels, it’s sometimes hard for me to remember all the character names, and in some cases, the spelling of them. Especially early in the process while I’m developing the characters. So I...
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