In Chapter 8 of Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, Donald Maass spends a lot of time on the idea of why we do what we do. Not just the big things, but the little ones too. He says it’s because we care. Without feeling like what we do matters, there’s no sense in getting out…
Gambling was a part of life in the Regency Era. Card games abounded: faro, whist, hazard. Fortunes were won and lost on a nightly basis in the clubs, gaming hells, and card rooms of London. But I don’t want to talk about those kinds of stakes today. Moving forward again in Writing the Breakout Novel…
And with this post, I’m diving back into Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass. I didn’t completely abandon it over the last week, but I haven’t had big chunks of time to work without distractions, so this exercise has taken longer than usual. I think the title of this exercise is a little…
Just like a piece of music won’t sound good if it’s played at all the same volume, writing needs to ebb and flow in its power and intensity as well. This isn’t always about the plot and intrigue, but sometimes it’s about your characters. Are they always running full tilt toward those windmills you have…
Working along in the Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass, now that I’ve supposedly gotten a good grip on who my characters are and what they want, the next exercise is to figure out how to make them larger than life and discover the one thing they’d never say, never do, or never…
I’m sure everyone is going to be sick of the Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass by the time I’m done, but I’m finding it useful to think about these topics from outside the point of view of thinking only about my characters and I hope it provides someone else some insight along…
Today’s exercise that I’m working on from the Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maasshas to deal with choosing defining qualities. What makes your characters who they are and not someone else? While you may take the easy route ( I seem to do so often enough! ) and choose an archetype that represents…
I got the Workbook that goes with Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. I read the main book a while ago, and I haven’t had a chance to read much beyond the first chapter of the workbook yet, but what I’m seeing looks like a lengthy, but worthwhile endeavor. The first exercise asks, “Who…