Like any writer who is passionately and desperately addicted to the act of writing, I love devouring good resources on any aspect of writing, be it fiction or non-fiction. Author K.M. Weiland, whose blog (Wordplay) I discovered while I was going through WritetoDone’s list of Top 10 Blogs for Writers. I can’t say I fell in l love with all of the blogs while some appealed more to me than the others. Weiland’s blog was one of my favorites.
Here’s what I liked about Weiland’s blog:
- It is on blogger, so it goes to prove that you can actually have a well-structured, monetized blog even on a free platform. Yes, a hosted blog has its advantages (but also its disadvantages) and her blog looks informative, concise and it possesses all the right widgets. It actually inspired me to take a second look and revitalize my blogger blogs.
P.S. This is not to say she doesn’t own her domain name and run a website under it. You can check her website at kmweiland.com
- She offers articles and video. And with her video, she also offers the video transcript so she appeals to different types of readers at the same time. So you can learn a lot about blogging just hanging around her website and observing.
- You can browse through her blog posts and pretty much find good tips on whatever problem you are trying to tackle. Instead of generalizing, she has gone to the trouble of giving pros and cons, and examples of good results. One my favorite posts is Most Common Mistakes Series: Are Your Flashbacks Flashy or Flabby? as I am working on a novel with a great deal of flashbacks. Most writers advice against flashbacks, suggesting that only a selected few can actually pull it off.
Well, that is just picking the easy route and generalizing. And guess what, I got the guidance I needed from Weiland’s post without feeling depressed about my choices for my story.
Here’s what I liked about the e-book
– When she talks about creating unforgettable characters, she doesn’t just talk about novels, but she also gives examples from movies. As a movie fan, this makes the advice more memorable to me.
As a writer, I appreciated the fact that she used different examples from different story media- this makes her writing down-to-hearth, diverse and fun.
– Just because she talked about Jason Bourne, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t quote from William Shakespeare. Or Graham Greene. Or Joyce Carol Oates. You get the idea.
– She has included fun and challenging writing prompts that will help not only with our characters, but our plots and future stories as well.
– She has given examples of truly great characters, and the reasons for why we love and remember them. If you have seen/read the work mentioned, you want to go back to it. If you haven’t, you’ve just found something substantial to study. And it makes you visualize.
– You will find at least a couple of useful tips, regardless of what you write, and how your mind works.
– It includes a comprehensive set of questions for you to ask your character.
– It talks about the relationship between theme and character and it also gives guidelines on picking the characters’ names and jobs.
and more.
If I had paid for this book, I definitely wouldn’t have regretted it. This pdf will stay on my laptop, and will be referred to as I keep creating fiction.
I’m off to interviewing my characters now. How’s your character creation going?
