I AM WRITING

If you’re a fiction writer, you might not want to hear this. And I don’t blame you. It can be hard to hear. Because what we  want  is for our fiction to stand on it’s own. What we want is to believe that if we’re good enough, we don’t have to do any of that icky marketing stuff. But it’s not true. Not for you. Not for me. Not for Stephen King or J.K. Rowling or anyone. Finding your audience is your responsibility. Trust me when I tell you that your publisher won’t do that for you. They’ll support you as best they can, but it is your job to let readers know about your book. And since you’re you’re good at the whole stringing words together thing, one of your best available tools is blogging. Writing a blog (on your own website, on a free WordPress blog, right here on Medium, wherever) is a way for you to build a bridge between yourself and your readers. Let’s assume I’ve convinced you that if you’re a fiction writer, you need to blog. Your instinct might be...

This is one of my favorite exercises for developing solid characters. It came from one of my MFA professors. Think of virtue and vice on a continuum. Like Aristotle did. To humanize both your protagonist and your antagonist, it’s important to understand where they’re coming from and how they got to where they are. For your hero — think about their biggest virtue. Maybe they’re just very nice. Or maybe they’re brave. Or noble. Or honest. What happens when you take ‘nice’ too far? You get a doormat, right? You get someone whose vice is that they can’t stand up for themselves. A bravery? Taken too far, bravery becomes recklessness. Nobility taken too far becomes arrogance. Honest leads to cruelty. Your hero’s failing is probably connected pretty closely to the thing that makes them most heroic. For your villain — turn it around. If your villain is cruel, maybe the root of that cruelty lies in honesty. Or maybe there’s someone that they’re nice to (ma...