Tag Archives: empathy

VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE

HOW TO CREATE A CIRCUMSTANTIAL VILLAIN

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Yesterday we talked about a Slippery Villain. Today we are going to look at the Circumstantial Villain. She’s the one who would not be a villain under most other situations, but it just so happens that the events that have taken place are the right conditions for her villainy to emerge.

This is the type of villain that we each embody in ourselves. Most of us are probably nice people who work hard to treat people as we want to be treated. But, under certain conditions, that niceness would go away, if only for a moment. Continue reading →

GO JUMP OFF A BRIDGE

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HOW TO TAKE RISKS

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Writing is the realm to take risks, and by that I don’t mean being risqué. Risk taking is what will separate the writers from the authors, the hobbyists from the novelists.

But what does risk taking look like on paper? I mean, the bounds of writing are endless, so how do you know if you are really taking a risk?

The first step in taking a risk is understanding when there’s a risk to be taken. Continue reading →

ASK YOURSELF

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HOW TO ASK YOURSELF THE RIGHT QUESTIONS FOR YOUR SCENE

Sarai

The beeping wouldn’t stop. Every few seconds the IV reminded us that we were in a hospital. I sat on the chair with my head hanging between my legs, staring at the tiled floor, silently demanding the nurses to come. Next to me, in the bed, lay my wife. She wasn’t saying much, and neither was I. We’d been through this before. But what about this time was going to so be different from the last?

I have a confession to make. I have not written a blog in two weeks. I’ve just had a few of them in the queue, and I’ve responded to messages. But, my wife and I welcomed the arrival of our second daughter on June 26th. Her name is Sarai Rachel. Continue reading →

EXPLOSIVE BEGINNING

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HOW TO KEEP YOUR CHARACTERS UNDER FIRE

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I’m bubbling up with insight from another James Frey book, How to Write a Damn Good Novel II. It’s amazing the tips that he has, and if you want some deeper understanding about novel-writing, I’d suggest buying both of his books. They’re easy reads, and they’re as suspenseful as a novel, in my opinion.

He uses the term, “Light the Fuse.” The idea is that your characters have to start your novel in a dramatic situation, a tough circumstance. It’s the bomb that’s about to blow if your characters don’t escape. Continue reading →

EVIL FEELINGS

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HOW TO GIVE EMOTIONS TO THE DEAD

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Empathy deserves justice. Recently we touched on the idea of building empathy for a character. This will, by far, be your most powerful tool for writing. You have to make sure that the reader can connect with the situations that you put your characters through, and the reader must somehow be coerced to pull for your characters within those situations.

Think about it. With empathy, we can make you pull for any character, no matter how sinister he is. The Professional is about guy who wants to protect a little girl, and he just happens to be demolition expert. Well, the writers actually get you to pull for him even though he’s a child molester. Continue reading →