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August 2009
- It’s What Your Characters Do That Defines Them: Characters need to do something to prove themselves worth defining.
- Why Genre Writing Could Kill Your Career: Genres too often lead to clichéd storylines, sub-par writing, and, in the long run, a less discerning and demanding reading public.
- Backstory: The Importance of What Isn’t Told: Particularly during this modern trend of beginning stories in medias res (in the middle of things), a deep and full-bodied backstory is every whit as important as the story itself.
- Choosing Your Character’s Career With Care: What your character does for a living, even if it doesn’t feature prominently in your story, will profoundly affect who he is and how he responds to the world around him.
- Sticking With a Story: If you are willing to stick with a story and resist the urge to let go when the going gets tough, you are likely to discover one of the most important traits of any artist: perseverance.
