Jim Butcher - FaerieCon East 2013 - Transcript - Traits, Tags, and Character IntroductionsBlog Original Recording Credit: Dennis Young Jim Butcher's Lecture When you're creating this protagonist character, the most common mistake that inspiring writers make is that they are too inhibited, too conservative, too cautious with their character. There's got to be a certain amount of exaggerating involved with your protag. If you don't, you're going to have characters who seem a little bit flat, who seem a little bit uninteresting. Almost all of your characters are going to have one or two of these exaggerated traits. The most important thing you can have about your protagonist, the absolutely most important trait -- and this is important not just for the reader, but for you as a writer -- your protagonist has to be driven to get his goal. Other than that, the really important thing that you do is set up your tags and traits for your protagonist correctly. Tags are words that get associated with a character. There's a number of ways you can introduce your character.
Daily Writing Prompts Writing Prompt 365 The End Write about new beginnings in your life that you eagerly anticipate. These writing prompts were an experiment in cultivating a habit and maintaining it for 365 days straight. Now, at the end of the year, I am concluding this portion of my journey and hope that you enjoyed it with me. With over 900 followers with just over 365 posts, I’m glad that this blog reached out to so many. My hope is that you take time now to reflect on this past year, and use what you have learned to make your life and the lives of others much better. Have a happy and blessed New Year! Filed under creative writing prompts Daily writing prompt daily writing prompts writer's block writing a book writing prompt writing prompt ideas writing prompts Writing Prompt 364 This woman has been watching you from a distance. Filed under writing prompt ideas writer's block writing prompts daily writing prompts Writing Prompt 363 What hobbies were you good at as a child that you stopped doing as an adult?
Emotions Vocabulary The Writing Café 3 common copyright myths that really, REALLY need to die off Creativity Questionnaires Writers Block Don’t Write What You Know - Bret Anthony Johnston Why fiction’s narrative and emotional integrity will always transcend the literal truth Every Wednesday, I teach an introductory fiction workshop at Harvard University, and on the first day of class I pass out a bullet-pointed list of things the students should try hard to avoid. Don’t start a story with an alarm clock going off. Don’t end a story with the whole shebang having been a suicide note. Don’t use flashy dialogue tags like intoned or queried or, God forbid, ejaculated. The idea panics them for two reasons. In the spirit of full disclosure, I should admit I’ve been accused of writing what I know on a good many occasions. The facts are these: I was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, the part of the country where most every word of fiction I’ve published takes place. Instead of thinking of my experiences as structures I wanted to erect in fiction, I started conceiving of them as the scaffolding that would be torn down once the work was complete. Was Toni Morrison a slave?
jimbutcher: Stuff I Been Doin' Okay, for the folks who want to know, here's what I'm up to lately. :) Over the past four months, I've been busy working several different things. First, I've been getting in some quality LARP time on weekends at least once a month. Hooah! It's really cool to not work weekends! Oh, and some writing too: First, our LARP organization is putting together a second rules set, one which hopefully will effectively transcend the stickiest problems of the current system. I've done a trilogy of short stories with linked characters in which Bigfoot is Dresden's client. But that will probably have to wait. Someone have a word with the people who schedule the weather, will you? I'm just about done writing short stories.