Characters--Homo Fictus--are the raw material from which stories are created, but who are these entities who populate our stories and how do...

This post is a continuation of yesterday's post BUT in what follows I don't talk about horror stories. Alas. Horror stories are ver...

What makes a story seem real? What gives it verisimilitude? I'm trying out a new idea or perhaps just putting a twist on an old one. I&#...

In a murder mystery the detective is usually the protagonist, but not always. For example, in the TV show  Lucifer  the detective’...

“ Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts .” —Larry L. King, WD Today I’d like to talk about sel...

“ What the creator of character needs is not so much knowledge of motives as keen sensibility; the dramatist need not understand people...

I read one of my old short stories yesterday. It’s one of my favorites but it’s far from my best. At the time I wrote it I knew a little...

The Character Opening The character story opening is my favorite kind of opening, though it’s arguably the trickiest to pull ...

Let’s talk about blind spots. We’re often told that protagonists need to be likable but it’s just as important that they have flaws...

I’m reading “Story,” by Robert McKee and kicking myself for not doing this long ago. I’ve reached the part where McKee talks about th...