Recommended Podcast for Writers: The Kissy Bits

I have told you about my favourite already, but there are more podcasts for writers which deserve your attention.

One of these is The Kissy Bits. It’s about romance writing. If you are not a romance writer, Kiki still offers lots of advice for everyone who needs to write a love scene every once in a while.

In Ungnade gefallen

Fallen from grace

Writing prompts (3)

As of August 8, I’ve decided to provide an English version of the writing prompt of the day on my writing prompt blog.

I will post a new writing prompt every day until the end of the year. If you choose to use a prompt, please leave a comment. You don’t have to post your piece, but I’m always happy about more people joining, so do say hello and let me know what you think about the blog.

In the original user guide, I stipulated that after 11 minutes you had to stop writing, no matter if you are done or not. Since there is no means of control, though, you may write as long as you like. I had to limit the exercise for my own sake, though. There will always be 11 minutes in my day which can be occupied by writing. It was my method of making me write something every day. And so far, I have.

Technorati tags: writing prompts

Planning NaNoWriMo (1)

It’s true, you are not allowed to write anything that will go into your novel before November 1. It is no problem, though, to make plans for your story, and those plans can be as rough or as detailed as you need them to be.

My experience is that I work best with a rough plan. Two points are essential, though: main character(s) and beginning and end of the story. In other words: I’ll have to know where my characters are at the beginning of the story and where they will be at the end. How they get from B to E is pretty much up to them, their character traits, wishes, motivation etc. So for me it is essential to know the characters intimately. If I don’t know how they are going to react in a certain situation, the story will not come together.

So here is my take on character development. This is what works for me; you may find my method beneficial, but there is no guarantee you will. So think of this as guidelines which can help you develop your own method.

• Get to know your characters:
  • Ask them questions (whatever crosses your mind, maybe in the form of an interview; you can also use a character sheet).
  • Put them in a difficult every day situation and see how they handle it.
  • Find out what their biggest wishes and their biggest fears are and what they will do to fulfill them and to avoid them respectively. This is crucial because it will shape their motivation, and their motivation will determine the way they react in the moment of crisis.

• A word of warning:
  Think of your characters as real people, including all the little flaws that make a human human None of us are perfect, and neither should your characters be. A character that does not make mistakes and that is able to deal with everything you throw at her or him immediately will not make your readers identify with your character. Readers want conflict, they want to see a character struggle and rise to the challenge you have created for her or him. Don’t deny your readers this pleasure if you want them to return for your next story.

Technorati tags: writing, nanowrimo