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Don’t you hate it when you are totally into a character and fully invested in their story and then they do something so different from who they are that it jars you right back to reality? Janice Hardy has great advice on how to avoid this in your writing.
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Are Your Characters Contradicting Themselves?
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy
Back in June, I caught that nasty flu that was going around and spent a few miserable weeks napping and watching a lot of TV. One of my distractions of choice was the show, Bones. It had been a long time since I’d seen the first few seasons, and while it was fun to re-watch them, one thing did annoy me.
The character Temperance “Bones” Brennan is a world-class forensic anthropologist who is very literal-minded and repeatedly says she doesn’t like psychology and doesn’t do motive.
Yet…
She’s a bestselling author who writes mysteries.
Writing is all about characters and why they do what they do. Motive is what’s driving every character to act—especially in a mystery.
Someone who doesn’t understand why people act and how emotional minds work would never be able to write great mysteries.
It’s a TV show, I get it, they wanted to make her famous and awesome on multiple fronts. And for all I know, her books are more procedural and less character, but that’s not how they’re described or referred to in the show itself.
One major aspect of the character, Bones, contradicted the core of who she is—and that bugged me every time they brought it up.
often feel as natural and effortless as laughter. Right after wondering why the book didn’t come with a warning label about drinking milk while reading, you might even imagine that writing comedic material is easy. The truth is that writing great, silly fiction is hard, but it’s a skill you can hone if you’re willing to put in the same kind of effort you’d put into writing great serious fiction. So here are seven serious tips for writing a silly novel.
Would you like to create memorable characters? Of course you would!
Nothing can strike fear in the hearts of writers like editing. But if you’re going to improve your story, a thorough book edit is something that must happen. With the right tools, mindset, and preparation, it doesn’t have to be scary at all!
When I reached the end of my first draft of 
Following up on 
A lot of focus gets put on the core conflict of a novel–the main problem the protagonist has to solve to win. It’s no wonder since that’s the whole point of the book, but sometimes, when we look too hard at the external problems, we miss out on opportunities to let the internal problems muck things up. This is especially true in a character-driven novel, since that inner journey is what’s driving the entire book.If you’ve been struggling with a plot, or you’re looking for ways to deepen an existing plot, try looking at how your protagonist’s internal conflict is driving her external actions.
If you’re not watching the excellent HBO series 
Most writers (myself included) find it difficult to stick to any kind of a writing plan, especially as the year goes by. Well, let’s make a plan right now, before the year starts. No need to wait until January with all that resolution crap. Let’s start right now, in December. If you did the #NaNoWriMo thing, then you’re done starting December 1 and you can breathe a sigh of relief — you can go back to writing All The Things. If you didn’t do NaNo and don’t even know what it is, cool: this post will focus on helping you meet all kinds of different writing goals (books, articles, blog posts, and social media).
A game of billiards begins with the cue ball striking the racked balls, which then scatter across the pool table. After that the players take turns trying to clear the table by pocketing another ball (either stripes or solids), all while keeping the cue ball out of the pockets.
When I work with a writer on their first serious novel manuscript, there are certain aspects they usually get right on instinct alone. There’s the content – a believable story world, characters with solid backgrounds and stuff to do. They usually write fluently too. But there are other, more hidden levels of craft that they usually haven’t noticed in good books, but will make an immense difference to the quality of their work. So here are a few.