Category Archives: character development in fiction

On Control

I love control.  If everyone—including my dog—would only do what I tell them, it would put the fun back in dysfunctional and (my) life would go so much more smoothly.  Let’s include objects too, so my computer would stop being a butthead.  Ditto my iphone 5s, and Siri, who clearly has a learning problem.  Oh, it… Continue Reading

Writing About The Elderly

Hannah, my chocolate Lab, a main character in Where The Trail Grows Faint, will be thirteen next month.  Our forays into the woods have changed, although she still shows me that she wants to go by following me to the door in the late afternoon when I get up from working to head out for a walk.  She waits… Continue Reading

On Zusak, Gadhafi and Surprise

An unexpected ludicrous moment, a twist into tragedy, a flash of tenderness:  surprise by a character is a crucial element of a riveting story.  Speaking yesterday at the College of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio, Marcus  Zusak discussed this as well as describing how he wrote multiple drafts of The Book Thief, trying out different narrators as he worked to understand… Continue Reading

Pin It on Pinterest