Tag: character

Getting Into Character

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If you didn’t see on Facebook, I have finally come to a place where I feel satisfied with my plot summary and outline for Colors to Stars and I’m diving into the writing portion, feet first.

summary complete

My experience with The Creative Way by Ted Dekker has been emmensely impactful, even in these beginning stages, and I can tell already that it is going to make a huge difference on this project. Beware: it is going to be a departure from what I’ve written and published so far, but I’m excited to grow as a storyteller.

So far, I have only written the first scene – 1,110 words – and a possible prologue with my villain – 469 words. That’s 1,579 words total. But I can already tell the difference it is making, not only in my writing, but in me.Read More »

Creating Character Arcs

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After finishing two non-fiction books on creative writing – How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy and Characters and Perspectives, which I talked about in this blog post – I moved on to my next book, which I recieved for Christmas.

I was very excited to recieve not one, but three creative writing books:

  • Creative Character Arcs by K. M. Weiland
  • Beginnings, Middles, & Ends by Nancy Kress
  • Song Maps by Simon Hawkins

The first one I decided to read is the one I was most excited about: Creative Character Arcs: The Masterful Author’s Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development. I had read excellent reviews about this book, suggesting it was a #1 resource for writers, and it was filing in a gap that I really care about in my writing: character development.

Some of my favorite books are solely because of the character development, the number one being Jumperby Steven Gould. I love the way that the character grows and changes and his balance between coming of age and figuring out his super powers. The angle of anti-terrorism is so interesting, especially the way he tries to balance revenge with morals, and his relationship with the F.B.I. is so interesting. I love it, it fascinates me, and I really want to reflect genuine character development in my writing.

This book seems to be the answer, and I’m certainly adding her companion novel Structuring Your Story to my Must Read List. But, let me get to the book.Read More »

Story in Songs

just.erin.phillips1 Comment

I’ve mentioned music and how important it is for my writing process before (here and here) and thought I would do a quick little insight into some of the top tracks for my current story [working title: Colors to Stars]. While the Spotify playlist has 90 songs and over 6 hours of delightful music to inspire, there are select ones that really stand out as representing the story.

In terms of tone, “Until We Go Down” by Ruelle makes my imagination go wild with ideas.Read More »