Advice Column

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Comment by JT Long on February 8, 2009 at 10:15pm

Great idea. The first secret I learned is that when you have a 6,000 word assignment, it is all right to use some of the words more than once. Knowing that makes the task a little less intimidating.

Comment by James Waters AKA. NineSpeed on February 7, 2009 at 7:11am

Count me in.

Comment by Kirsten on February 4, 2009 at 1:16am

I can only speak about my writing.

For me it is first and foremost about character. I observe people, take bits and pieces from everyone and stick them together and make my characters.

Some come from my past experiences, friends and relatives, chunks taken out of people in movies, day to day activities, blended characters stolen from books old and new.

I'm sure people think I'm spying on them when I'm sitting at the coffee shop glances at them over and over and writing in my journal --and really, I guess I am, hunh?

And I attempt to give each of my characters a distinct voice, passion, emotion and a certain naturalism. I let them relax into their own individualistic personalities, with all their quirks and tics. I try to let my characters breath and help me write the story.

Sometimes I ruminate scenes in my head and carry characters around in my mind for a while before jotting down ideas. After I'm sure about the character(s) I work out the plot, narration, conflict and resolve, or whatever I'm using.

Comment by Blindogg on February 1, 2009 at 3:33pm

I'm in. I think this is exactly what we need around here.

Comment by Johnell McLean on February 1, 2009 at 2:28pm

I have now joined yet another group that I wll probably not be able to spend a lot of time in, but here goes. I may be in need of advice from time to time and I hope some of you could help me when I need it. I will also try to do the same to all of you if I can be of any.