Developing great characters is the most difficult part of writing, in my mind, and is one of those things that both agents and publishers latch onto quickly. It is inconsistent, though, and I have had agents say "Your characters are weak," and "At least the characters are really strong," all about the same characters!
So, ignoring agents entirely, here are my thoughts on not how you write about your characters, but how you find them in the first place.
One drawback of working on a series of books in a make-believe world is that I find myself constantly trying to think up names for places and characters.
Really, I could use anything, but something inside tells me that I need to think it through a little more than that.
I have decided to clean up and release the OneNote notebook template I use for planning Novels.
OneNote is perfect for this kind of work and is now free - how kind. This is the March 2020 version.
As a bloke, unless I decide to write a book exclusively about men, I have to write female characters. But sometimes men are criticized for not really understanding what a woman is, let alone being able to get to the depths of the character.
Is this fair? Can a man write a convincing female lead?
Trying to get dialogue perfect in any kind of writing can be hard work and is something I often fight with, even though I love doing it.
In my mind, dialogue should be natural and flow, which probably means it is not natural at all. What a conundrum!
Careful use of HTML in book descriptions on Amazon KDP can really make your book stand out. Here is a simple guide plus a FREE online editor to make life a little simpler.
Unless you are creating a surrealistic world with floating rocks and see through mountains, the chances are that your fantasy world resembles our own in many ways. It has oxygen, is in the "sweet spot" around the local star and people attempt to eat three meals a day.
Writing DIrt has included lots of interesting research about our own world, which has taken me by surprise.
