Category: Character

Putting the Fan BACK in Fantasy—Getting Past Ye Same Olde Same Olde

I’m Kim Alexander back to talk about fantasy world-building. This time I’m looking at those writers who make every heroine in their stories a—wait for it—princess. This is different from Chosen One Syndrome, because when it comes down to it, every protagonist is a chosen one; you’ve chosen to write about them. In this installment, I’ll …

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The Art of Story Seduction—From Spark to Romance, Climax to Commitment

What makes the difference between a meh novel and one we fall head over heels in love with regardless of genre? Good question and it sure would make our job easier if there existed one answer. Though there isn’t one answer there’s a list of pretty good answers, thus for this post and the sake …

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The Write Stuff: Creating Strong, Authentic Female Characters

It’s Squatter’s Rights Wednesday, which means it’s me, Cait Reynolds, coming to you with special guest blogger Lisa Hall-Wilson. It’s a good thing I have a co-blogger today, because I’m on day 14 of a cold and feel like lukewarm coffee – just ugh and barely effective. Denny Basenji doesn’t like it when I sneeze, so …

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Back to School – New W.A.N.A. Classes for September!

It’s back to school for everyone – not just kids. Vacation’s over. Fun’s over…or maybe the fun is just beginning. This fall, W.A.N.A. is back with new classes, new instructors, and lots of exciting announcements coming up. Bookmark W.A.N.A. and make sure to subscribe to my blog to stay up-to-date with all the news! Don’t forget …

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Six Simple Reasons Our Story Sucks & How to Fix It

Why is it so many new novels are—to be blunt—crap? How can we find an author we love with one book, then all the love goes away with the next? What’s going wrong? What’s missing? Where did everything go wrong? How can we learn and do better? First and foremost, to be an author it’s …

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