Philosophy Friday

GOOD VIEW













GOOD NEWS
My son is back in school so now I can get my afternoon naps back

Now that I've gotten some sleep, the migraine headaches I've been fighting are gone

Now that the migraines are gone, I've broken through my latest bout of writers block by resetting my personal deadline to a more attainable date

Now that I've given myself a break, I was able to write 10 pages


GOOD ADVICE
"Take a premise and then go a few steps further. Raise stakes. Layer in character conflicts. Build a setting that's unusual. Plot more tightly. More ingredients. More original elements. It's fine to start with an idea that's been done, but then twist it. Show it from a different, surprising character's point of view. Then have other things happen to your character. Give the character other important goals. Put in an unusual romance. Add a mystery. Add huge complications.

Create antagonists who don't want your protagonist to succeed because it ruins their own goals and maybe they're sneaky about anonymously trying to sabotage them or maybe they come right out and boldly try to stop them. Give your protagonist a more unusual life: an unusual occupation or ties to a particular setting or secret. Add intensifiers: A handicap or time limit so your characters need to succeed even more on every level.

Invent. Create. Don't stop layering too soon. Don't stop developing the story before it's enthralling and complex and completely unpredictable. " -literary agent Rachel Vater, of Lowernstein-Yost