There always seems to be a moment in my early drafts when my main characters feel close to coming alive. They are well-made; they have a Want and all the Invincible Channels and a Three-Body Problem and I’ve made sure they are dynamic (change-rich) and are facing an interesting conflict.
The insights and the learning never stop with this series of lectures (at least that’s how I see them). When I’ve revised a manuscript and it improves significantly (or so my editor declares), it’s because I have instinctively applied the principles you teach here, but without knowing what the fuck I’m doing. Your students are lucky.
That hit home! The immigrant parents want to write the characters in many ways. For me it's when I stop to wish for their approval of a character that they'll likely never even read. I think because part of us still wants to fit that "exemplary immigrant offspring/provider" role and subconsciously we don't want to spoil that task we were handed. Not fall out of being extra squeaky clean and god forbid you compromise las remesas.
About the liberties, what I'm finding is that they kinda show up on their own, if you let them.
I guess what I appreciate so much about these posts is that they are so thought provoking without being teachy. It must be the blend of craft AND humanity, that going beyond the „instrumentality“ of „let me tell you how fiction writing works“.
This made me think about depicting characters in a different way than I did before. But I now also wonder if something similar applies to description about things and details about settings as well.
Needed to read this man. On the road to book 2, thinking these characters through, and now I'm reminded to make sure they get some liberty and free-form expression amidst all my other demands. So cool to hear this is how you approached Oscar, especially because his nerdy SF quirks are some of the most memorable things about him. Gracias!
The insights and the learning never stop with this series of lectures (at least that’s how I see them). When I’ve revised a manuscript and it improves significantly (or so my editor declares), it’s because I have instinctively applied the principles you teach here, but without knowing what the fuck I’m doing. Your students are lucky.
That hit home! The immigrant parents want to write the characters in many ways. For me it's when I stop to wish for their approval of a character that they'll likely never even read. I think because part of us still wants to fit that "exemplary immigrant offspring/provider" role and subconsciously we don't want to spoil that task we were handed. Not fall out of being extra squeaky clean and god forbid you compromise las remesas.
About the liberties, what I'm finding is that they kinda show up on their own, if you let them.
Thanks!
I guess what I appreciate so much about these posts is that they are so thought provoking without being teachy. It must be the blend of craft AND humanity, that going beyond the „instrumentality“ of „let me tell you how fiction writing works“.
This made me think about depicting characters in a different way than I did before. But I now also wonder if something similar applies to description about things and details about settings as well.
Needed to read this man. On the road to book 2, thinking these characters through, and now I'm reminded to make sure they get some liberty and free-form expression amidst all my other demands. So cool to hear this is how you approached Oscar, especially because his nerdy SF quirks are some of the most memorable things about him. Gracias!