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Build a Core for your Main Characters
Your character is more than sex, age, and physical attributes. The core of your character is what makes the audience get involved and care about what happens in the story. Getting to the core of your...
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Don’t Try to Break the Pony, Work through the Story: An interview with...
TSB: Tim, thank you for taking the time to share your experience with other writers. How did you come up with the idea for Cooper’s War which became Cooper’s Promise? TJS: It’s somewhat convoluted. I...
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Character Questionnaire
Character Questionnaire 1. How does your character think of their father? What do they hate and love about him? What influence – literal or imagined – did the father have? 2. Their mother? How do...
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Logical Fallacies: Tricks to Complicating the Plot
These days it is rare for students of creative writing to examine the methods of logical discourse. But, often when creating a plot line for a story you can get stuck with just the right plot twist to...
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Character weakness adds interest: 8 easy choices for character development
When characters have weaknesses they are more interesting. Will the protagonist succumb to his desire for alcohol? When you are developing characters for a story make certain you assign at least...
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Fictional characters in a fictional world: Thoughts from Umberto Eco.
Today I’m having an Umberto Eco day—my mind is going in many directions. I’m reading Confessions of a Young Novelist. I’m having strong approach/avoidance about writing the blog. I vowed to myself to...
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Subplot takeover: Mapping the plot beforehand helps
I am currently reading a book with a multiple plot format with many characters accomplishing different goals all headed toward the same objective. It doesn’t matter what book, or who the famous and...
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Deep into character; be a character for a day
I have read scripts from beginning writers that start out with crackerjack characters. I get settled in to read the rest of the story and then…nothing. The characters turn flat and the story turns...
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Two Exercises to help with Dialogue
If you read scripts by other writers, you will often find the same flaws that industry readers find. One of the shortcomings is flat dialogue. Boring dialogue is one of a script’s elements that will...
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What makes a character strong?
When I say strong, I mean a character who grabs your attention during the story and is memorable afterwards. He or she may or may not have a strong “character.” Think of your five favorite films. Take...
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