Character Development

Most popular posts

Featured image for character outlines with two outlines of people dancing by the beach in red to depict a visual importance that exists naturally in all mediums

Character Outline

Master your character outline by connecting internal dilemmas to plot beats. Learn to challenge false beliefs and drive true transformation....
A character in a broken mirror to visualize the stark nature of depicting internal conflict for a character in narrative

Internal Conflict

Explore how internal conflict drives character transformation and fuels your plot with our guide on dramatizing the psyche's dissonance....
A designer holding up different color tiles to decide on how to design something, visual simile for book cover design schema and process

Book Cover Design

Make your book stand out with professional Book Cover Design. Learn how to use color theory and intrigue to capture...
A page of a book with a hole in it, a visual metaphor for plot holes to suggest an audience looks through one's work to the author when a plot hole is left in

Plot Holes

Master story structure and learn how to fix logical gaps with our guide to plot holes—the "Swiss cheese" of writing...
Featured image for a worldbuilding template for writers, what process of inquiry is necessary in order to build a compelling world that mirror's the author's own inner realms

Your Worldbuilding Template for Fiction

Organize your writing process with this comprehensive worldbuilding template. Define the details of your world as a starting point to...
Tips for writing a novel depicted by the messiness of a workspace — food, coffee, and a place to keep all of those things.

Tips for Writing a Novel

Master these tips for writing a novel by embracing messy first drafts and creative warmups. Learn how to silence your...
Stay Curious
Blog
Alan Watt

Stay Curious

“The curious are always in some danger. If you are curious, you might never come home.” – Jeanette Winterson When my son

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Taking Off the Mask
Blog
Alan Watt

Taking Off the Mask

  “Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.” – Amelia Earhart In Jerry Stahl’s memoir, Permanent Midnight, he shares

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Who is My Protagonist?
Blog
Alan Watt

Who is My Protagonist?

Some of you may be writing ensemble screenplays with multiple storylines and scratching your head wondering who your protagonist is. The key

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The Power of Curiosity
Blog
Alan Watt

The Power of Curiosity

Story creation often begins with an idea or an image that ignites your imagination. You become curious, wanting to know more, to

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Narrative Drive
Blog
Alan Watt

Narrative Drive

“The purpose of narrative is to present us with complexity and ambiguity.”— Scott Turow If you’re rewriting and a point in your

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Recent posts

No Good Guys, No Bad Guys

No Good Guys, No Bad Guys

There are times, as storytellers, when we can be so bull-headed about what we want to express, that we end...

Writing the Reluctant Protagonist

Writing the Reluctant Protagonist

“My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest...

Stay Curious

Stay Curious

“The curious are always in some danger. If you are curious, you might never come home.” – Jeanette Winterson When...

The True Nature of Our Characters

Dramatizing Character

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it...

Taking Off the Mask

Taking Off the Mask

  “Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.” – Amelia Earhart In Jerry Stahl’s memoir, Permanent Midnight,...

Who is My Protagonist?

Who is My Protagonist?

Some of you may be writing ensemble screenplays with multiple storylines and scratching your head wondering who your protagonist is....

Blind Spots in Your Story

Blind Spots in Your Story

It is human to have blind spots, and often convenient to be in denial about certain aspects of ourselves. This...

The Power of Curiosity

The Power of Curiosity

Story creation often begins with an idea or an image that ignites your imagination. You become curious, wanting to know...

Using Your Credo to Create Story Conflict

Using Your Credo to Create Story Conflict

(Image from And Justice for All, 1979) You can’t have story without conflict. As writers, it is important to investigate...

Act One - Maintaining Tension

Act One: Maintaining Tension

“A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the...

Shedding the Idea for Truth in Writing

Shedding the Idea for Truth in Writing

It’s not just first-time novelists or screenwriters that struggle with getting their story from the imagination to the page. Every...

The Protagonist's Experience

The Protagonist’s Experience

Regardless of the medium, your reader is not interested in what your character is feeling. Seriously. In fact, if you...

Our Characters are Malleable

Our Characters are Malleable

“Nothing changes more constantly than the past; for the past that influences our lives does not consist of what happened,...

Narrative Drive

Narrative Drive

“The purpose of narrative is to present us with complexity and ambiguity.”— Scott Turow If you’re rewriting and a point...