Get to Know Your Characters (Second Date+)

Read Time: 2 minutes We're still talking about character development 🙂 . Last time I wrote that it is beneficial to "ask" your characters typical questions that you might ask on a first date. Things like favorite hobbies or where their name comes from. Obviously, there are deeper questions to be asked in any relationship …

Go on a First Date with Your Characters

I heard recently that as you outline and write your novel you get to know your characters so much that you know, for certain, how they would react in any given circumstance. And that's when I realized that I didn't know my characters well enough! And so I decided to take each of them on …

Writing Powerful Villains

I am making my way through Robert McKee's Story (subtitled Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting) for the second time (it's just so good!) and I wanted to touch on McKee's principle of "the negation of the negation" and how it used to create the most powerful villains. First, when I say "powerful villain" I don't …