Once your character is born, she begins her journey into the story. To follow her on the trek we need use the pieces of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual knowledge she shows us to understand her motivation and to learn how she reacts to the story. Our story events should be realistic and unpredictable. She…
People have asked where my characters come from. My response frequently is, “I don’t know. He just showed up one day and said he had a story to tell.” That’s how Michael Archer, the protagonist of my Riverbend series, came to be. The first glimmer of book one, Journey to Riverbend, came, like most of…
As you’ve probably seen and noticed in the last few years, the classic Origin Story has been appearing even more so in books, tv shows, films, and in our culture as a whole. The origin of a character or reality is the foundation of any and all stories; even origins themselves can become a character….
Every story needs a good hero. The flawed one we love to root for. The one who faces a challenge and comes out stronger on the other end. Even a superhero has a weakness. Maybe he’s misunderstood or misjudged in an ordinary world where he just doesn’t fit. Worse, a malevolent creep lurks nearby with…
Big and hairy, green teeth dripping with goo. You get the idea. It’s a villain. No matter what he, she or it looks like, a bad guy’s primary goal is to shut down the good guy. The protagonist needs to make forward motion and for whatever reason, the villain disagrees. In good fiction, the bad…