Candace Robinson

Get Organized. Get Writing.

~ The Spinning Pen ~ 6 Comments
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Quick poll.

How many of you when you roll out of bed in the morning find your house and writing project in perfect order?

There’s a rich aroma of rainforest coffee wafting through the quiet and dark house as you sit down to your clean desk and boot up your laptop. You pull up your documents and immediately your fingers start flying over the keyboard. No hunting around for your charger, no searching for that character chart you filled out yesterday, or your hand drawn map—it’s all there and ready to go.

If “that’ll be the day…” is your response, this post is for you.

Getting organized is often the bane of a writer’s existence. But it doesn’t have to be. Here are a few helpful tips I’ve picked up along the bumpy writer’s road.
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A Protagonist Worth Reckoning With

~ The Spinning Pen ~ 5 Comments

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Let’s do one of those little exercises you might expect to do at a psychologist’s office. Don’t worry, we won’t go too far back into your childhood or keep asking you “why do you think that is?”. I want you to think back to someone you’ve been attracted to at one point in your life.

Why were you attracted to begin with? Was it her status in the corporate world, his personality, the way she made you laugh, or his aura of mystery?

Someone worth spending time with pulls you in. They’re interesting.

For different reasons, albeit, but if s/he doesn’t interest you, that person is doomed to the inescapable dreaded pit we call the friend zone.  Readers have a similar relationship with the protagonist in a book.

Sure magical lands, mythical creatures, or witty dialog can intrigue us, but story ultimately centers on people. If the protagonist can’t pull you in, it’s time to say “bye bye Felisha”.

So what to do about the predicament of your protagonist?

How do you prove to your reader your protagonist is worth reading about? First things first…
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4 Simple Ways to Create Memorable Characters

~ The Spinning Pen ~ 6 Comments

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Characters

They have a way of weaseling their way into our hearts.

After the years have passed and the details blurred, the thing that remains is our relationship with people.

That’s the magic in reading a book. We spend time getting to know characters and in turn, they let us into their lives.

Creating lovable characters is no easy task. There’s no set formula. There are, however, tools that can help. Here are four tools you can use to develop your characters.
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