Hannah Whatley

@dragon-snapper I’ll join you for the next hour.

Thanks @kate-flournoy and @dekreel! Good advice. 😀 Theme… that’s what I was missing. Thanks Kate! @Dekreel, those are some good things to consider! Thanks!

@kate-flournoy I can’t wait to see you (and @emma-flournoy and the rest of the family) tonight! 😀

@dragon-snapper I believe lesson three of the course addresses this subject. Have you looked at that yet?

@shannon I remembered one more thing that’s helped me flesh out characters.

It’s the concept of yearning.

Yearning is different from a goal. A goal is generally viewed in an external light. For instance, the MC of my WIP has a goal of saving the world. His yearning, however, is to live a life that achieves greatness. This is much deeper and…[Read more]

@Dekreel ooh, that’s an unusually flattering representation of me waking up. It usually involves rolling over at least five times and eventually tumbling off the bed tangled in my fleecy blanket (with static hair flying all over the place) and then crawling my way still half asleep to my closet while splitting my ears with yawning and trying not…[Read more]

@Dragon-Snapper congratulations on branching out. 😉

They’ve covered a lot… the only thing new I have to add is pretty small. You mentioned that you’re tired of writing snarky characters and want to try something different, but had no idea how to go about it…

Why do you like snarky characters in the first place? Is it because they come easy…[Read more]

@Kina-Lamb well, that’s pretty sound as far as I can see. 🙂 The only step I might add between the two is figuring out the theme, but I’ve not done non-fiction before, so I can’t say for certain how majorly that would figure in.

In your place, I would just ask myself, What lesson does this story teach me? To have courage? To persevere? To be kind…[Read more]

@shannon Okay, I’m back.

First of all, I really like what everyone’s said so far.

I’ve never heard anyone else articulate the way I develop characters, but I think we all do it without noticing it. My big focus, at least for step one, is to hone in on the feel of a character.

You know how when a person comes to mind you get this certain…[Read more]

@dragon-snapper Well, it isn’t easy. I try to write down story ideas whenever I get them so that when I’m done with one novel I can have a basic idea of what the next one’s going to be about.

But, obviously, you want a plot now. Well, I do have one suggestion. One of the best sources of inspiration for me is to read other novels. I don’t just…[Read more]

@overcomer I think there are two reasons to know your target audience.

First, so you don’t write the wrong book. For instance, if I know I want to write for seminal-Christians aged 30-45 who are in the military, that will keep me from writing a children’s fairy tale. Knowing your target audience also helps you maintain a core unity between all…[Read more]

@Dekreel @That_Writer_Girl_99 @Dragon-snapper @Ethryndal @Daeus @Audrey-caylin @Jane-maree @Shannon @Sam-Kowal wow, thanks so much guys, all of you. Just getting the general feedback and feeling out opinion about the existing title helped me get so much more perspective.

@Jane-Maree, believe it or not, I had actually already considered Destroyer,…[Read more]

Raspberry breath… Haha. 😛

@shannon I’ll probably be back, but for now, KP does have a really good character questionnaire. A lot of questionnaires are dumb, but this one digs into the core of what matters. Check it out in our resource library. It may or may not work for you, but I suspect it will spark at least some inspiration.

@kate-flournoy I agree that Victorious works. You can always use subtitles too if the title seems to plain to you.

However, it’s worth looking into new titles.

And now I’ve spent ten minutes trying to think of something and I’m coming up with nothing. 😛

@ingridrd It sounds like a good story! The one thing I’d recommend is cutting. 😉

It doesn’t need to sound like this, but this is to get your gears turning and point out what I think isn’t necessary. Remember, the point of a synopsis is not to explain a story, it is to sell the story. Information is only important when it is necessary. The only…[Read more]

Thanks, @lady-iliara 😀

Hey, @rachelle! Haven’t seen you around in a long time.

@winter-rose Thanks. 😀

@supermonkey42

I hope you don’t mind free publicity

*crickets* *crickets* What kind of question is that? 😛

Seriously, thanks though. It means a lot to hear you liked the characters because I struggled through a big characterization problem shortly before I wrote this story.