Legendary, by Donald Maass

From: http://writerunboxed.com/2018/01/03/legendary/#more-51527 Recently, a young agent on my staff requested a really good manuscript.  She wanted to represent it.  Naturally, so did a number of other sharp-eyed agents and thus my young colleague found herself in a so-called beauty contest, a familiar competitive event in our profession. To back up my young colleague’s bid, I arranged a phone call with the equally young, appallingly talented young writer of the manuscript in question.  I told… Read More

25 Things A Great Character Needs, by Chuck Wendig

From: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/01/13/25-things-a-great-character-needs See the original post for the more colorful, uncensored version. 1. A Personality This seems rather obvious, sure — in a way it’s like saying, “What makes a really good tree is that it has an essential treeness” — but just the same, it bears mentioning. Because some characters read like cardboard. They’re like white crayon on white paper. Sure, the characters run around and they do **** and say **** but… Read More

Novel characters: 15 top character creation tips

From: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/novel-characters-15-tips Great novel characters share common features: Distinct, authentic voices, character development, clear goals and motivations, strengths and flaws. Here are 15 of our top character creation tips gathered from some of the best writing blogs and websites: 1: Give your novel characters clear motivations that drive your story Writing characters who spring to life off the page is partly about giving characters clear motivations. Over at Terrible Minds, Chuck Wendig sums this up eloquently:… Read More