From the monthly archives:

February 2009

Complexity Simplified

February 27, 2009

So I’m still thinking about characters and what makes a good one.  Or at least a memorable one.  Sometimes I’ll hear people talk about ‘rich, complex characters’.  If you have one of those that’s fine I suppose but it occurs to me that many memorable characters are not complex at all.  Sherlock Holmes, Conan, Indiana [...]

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Write What Sells or Write What Matters?

February 26, 2009

One of my favorite novels is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and one of my favorite parts of that book is the Coda at the end. Bradbury discusses the atrocities editors and readers have committed on his novels. Everything from taking out the “hells” and “damns” to make it more “appropriate” for high school students [...]

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Hello, I Love You?

February 23, 2009

In a recent screenplay I am (finally) in the stages of wrapping up, I had to resolve the relationship of the protagonist (male) and one of the other main characters (female). They started as strangers, became reluctant cohorts, fell out, then reunited against a common issue. By the end of the story they were on [...]

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Character vs Plot

February 17, 2009

Plot is not Story.  Plot is a tool that can help you with your story.  It might help quite a bit.  But it might not.  It might even hurt.  Who remembers learning all the ‘versus’ categories in school?  The Most Dangerous Game…Man vs Man.  The Old Man and the Sea…Man vs Nature.  The Lady or [...]

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Regimented Writing

February 8, 2009

You know how it goes.  Work was crazy so I was really tired when I got home.  I’m just gonna check my e-mail and then I’ll jump all over my novel.  MonsterQuest is on and this time they might get DNA from a real live sasquatch.  Whatever, a day gets away from you, then a [...]

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