Writer Unboxed

From the Mailbox

Writer Unboxed on May 31 2009 | Filed under: CRAFT, From the Mailbox

Valued contributor Sophie Masson sent us this message, introducing a site called Richard Harland’s Writing Tips: Thought this would be of interest to readers of Writer Unboxed. Richard Harland, who compiles it, is a very good writer–and a friend of mine! It’s a great free service he’s doing.. Richard Harland: “So far, I’m a middling-successful [...]

Interview with Jules Watson, Part 2

Juliet Marillier on May 29 2009 | Filed under: Interviews

This interview was conducted by fantasy author, and valued WU contributor, Juliet Marillier. Jules Watson’s new novel, The Swan Maiden, has been described by Rosalind Miles as ‘mystic and poetical.’ Last week I spoke to Jules about bridging the genres of historical fiction, fantasy and romance. I started this week’s questions by asking her the [...]

Snippets

Kathleen Bolton on May 28 2009 | Filed under: Business

News and views from around the intertubes: Book Business has published a great article on the top 50 women in the book publishing industry and how they’ve become the driving force in today’s market. From multimillion-dollar acquisitions to multimillion-dollar best-sellers, powerful women stand at every pivotal, decision-making point in the book publishing process. Book Business’ [...]

Drawing Characters from Real Life

Barbara O'Neal on May 27 2009 | Filed under: CRAFT, Uncategorized

One of the best sources of fresh, original, authentic character development comes from the seas of real life. As a young journalism student, one of my favorite tasks was to be assigned a feature on a professor or a student with an intriguing history or pursuit. I loved interviewing them, taking notes on whatever details [...]

Guest blogger Karin Tabke on bad boys

Guest on May 26 2009 | Filed under: CRAFT

Today’s guest blogger is the always awesome Karin Tabke. Though she’s best known for authoring romance novels featuring buff contemporary cops, Karin has recently burst onto the historical romance scene, writing books about buff medieval knights. (You see the common thread: sizzle.) Thanks for being here, Karin! (Therese, by the way, is being all controversial [...]

Getting the most from secondary characters in 3 steps

Kathleen Bolton on May 25 2009 | Filed under: CRAFT

Character month is wrapping up, and Therese and I answer your questions. Becky Levine asks: I’d love to see a discussion about the idea that secondary characters reflect (in some way) an aspect of the hero–how you juggle/balance that with making each of them independent/interesting characters in their own right. Great question, Becky. Who hasn’t [...]

How to make readers cry, in six steps

Therese Walsh on May 25 2009 | Filed under: CRAFT, Uncategorized

Kath and I are teaming up to answer the last two questions posed to WU on characterization; I’ll tackle one now, and Kath will be on later to answer the final question. The first comes from Vic, who suggested this topic after Plot month (February) came to an end. How do you go about making [...]

Interview with Jules Watson, Part 1

Juliet Marillier on May 22 2009 | Filed under: Interviews

This interview was conducted by fantasy author, and valued WU contributor, Juliet Marillier. Australian-born novelist Jules Watson established a reputation as an exciting new writer of Celtic historical fiction with her Dalriada Trilogy, set amidst the conflict between Picts, Romans and Gaels in what is now north-western Scotland. Her latest novel, The Swan Maiden, was [...]

Channeling Characters

Ray Rhamey on May 21 2009 | Filed under: CRAFT

Character week continues on WU . . . I’m a pantser; I write the story to discover what it is—and who it’s about. For example, in the opening scene of my first novel I had a couple of punks assault a young woman in order to show my protagonist’s prowess in dealing with violence. That [...]

Supernatural characters in fantasy

Sophie Masson on May 20 2009 | Filed under: CRAFT

The exploration of the Otherworld and its supernatural inhabitants is one of the most exciting aspects of fantasy for many readers and writers. It is a world that is linked inextricably with the human world—sometimes positively, sometimes negatively–but also that has its own rationales, and just like ours, it is populated with a multitude of [...]

Answering Questions on Characterization

Therese Walsh on May 19 2009 | Filed under: CRAFT

First off, Happy Birthday to Ray Rhamey! Some of you asked questions about characterization at the end of April, and I’m going to try to answer a few today. Here goes. LJCohen asked: If you are writing in multi POV, and one of your POV characters is the antagonist, are there tricks to really inhabit [...]