What every character needs
Happy Writing Advice Wednesday,
Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to explore this week...
3 Ideas From Me
I.
"Every character should want something. Especially your secondary characters. Don’t populate your story with cardboard cut-outs who exist only to serve your main character: it’s unrealistic and leads to boring stories.
Everyone should want something. And the desires and goals of your secondary characters should reflect or hinder the desires of your protagonist to add greater depth to her story as well."
II.
"If you’ve edited your first book for many years, and it’s still not where you’d like it to be, don’t despair. This is the perfect sign to move onto writing a new book. The growth you will experience from moving to your second book (provided you’ve done several drafts of the first one) will be staggering. For example, my first book took 360 days to write the initial draft. My second took just 60 days. And, unlike the first, it got published."
III.
"Better to write with intense focus and zero distractions for 30 minutes than to spend 2 hours flicking between your word doc, twitter, and chatting to other people. You can do a lot in 30 minutes. And you can also not get much done in 2 hours. Focus matters."
2 Quotes From Others
I.
"Even when no one is listening (or reading, or watching), every outing is a bravura performance, because you as the creator are happy. Perhaps even ecstatic." – Stephen King, On Writing.
^ Click here to tweet this quote.
II.
"Since I can't go back in time, what if I imagine myself as older? I'm 100 years old, looking back with the same choice. I can jump back into 45 year old Chris (today), and do it all over again.
Think about the difference in mindset. I can wake up exhausted, and sigh as I look at all the things I have to get done today. I can remember that I had more energy than I was 20.
Or I can pretend like I just shed five decades, and now have a second chance. One of them results in mediocre output. The other helps me set records." – Chris Fox.
1 Question For You
If you are planning to write a series: how would you write this in one book? If you’re planning to write a stand-alone, how would you write this as a trilogy?
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Jed Herne