The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin My rating: 5 of 5 stars When I first started this book, the use of second-person as a narrative surprised me, but as the story wove its way through the characters’ lives, I found a fascinating use of third person and second person that gave the narrative a gorgeous… Continue reading Review of The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisen
Tag: Characters
Characterization: The Template
I have a fairly robust character template that I keep regularly updated as I progress through my novels. Character aren’t static, and they do change over time, so I have a section in my template that covers character growth. I try to dig deeply into the psyche of my characters as well as their past… Continue reading Characterization: The Template
A Primer on Writing Trans Characters
Introduction A question I’m commonly asked is: how does one write a trans character? I also get asked this question in regards to writing gay, lesbian, or bisexual characters, and/or how to write a person of color. There is a lot of overlap in these questions since a person can have a variety of skin… Continue reading A Primer on Writing Trans Characters
Not Breaking Viewpoint
I listened to this podcast from Writing Excuses the other day, and found it fascinating: World building without breaking viewpoint. I often think about how I can explain bits about my world without breaking the viewpoint of my characters. First, if I’m writing in first person or very close third, it’s a lot harder to… Continue reading Not Breaking Viewpoint
The Birth of a Story
On Wednesday nights, I play Guild Wars 2 with a dear friend of mine. As we play, our conversation may shift from the game to deep topics about our lives, our writing projects, our thoughts on reality and why things are the way they are. One night I spoke to her about my Audir and… Continue reading The Birth of a Story
Snow White and Cinderella
One of the reasons I found myself diving into the reinvention of fairy tales is simply because the modern takes on them are too stale. They don’t dig into a lot of the more disturbing thematic elements of the original fairy tales. Now, my purpose isn’t to dig into the more violent aspects that riddle… Continue reading Snow White and Cinderella
National Novel Writing Month: Begins Tomorrow at Midnight
Pens ready to go fellow writers? One would hope for tomorrow at midnight, NaNoWriMo begins. I’ll be attending the regional kick-off to see if that helps inspire me to tackle as many words as possible for the first few hours of November. I tend to write in sprints rather than daily word counts, but to… Continue reading National Novel Writing Month: Begins Tomorrow at Midnight
NaNoWriMo Notes: Characters
Characters are the core of the story. Without them, you really don’t have much of a story or really anything to write. It’s why I take a lot of care in my character building. I want to understand the character the best I can before I start the story itself. Once I know my characters,… Continue reading NaNoWriMo Notes: Characters
Preparing for NaNoWriMo
October tends to be the month of preparation for me when it comes to National Novel Writing Month. However, I never go into too much depth when I plot. Mostly because all I need is the main idea of the plot since the finer details of how the plot is implemented depends on the characters… Continue reading Preparing for NaNoWriMo
A Single Story
I recent TED Talk I found really spoke to me. Chimamanda Adichie is from Nigeria, and she speaks about the danger of a single story, where she relates how a single story of Africa has caused grave harm and a critical misunderstanding about the huge diversity of people and cultures within Africa. There are many… Continue reading A Single Story
Reshaping Reality 