Tuesday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

DON’T WRITE A DAMSEL-IN-DISTRESS OR A MODERN SUPER-WOMAN: BE ORIGINAL

By: Darcy Pattison

I have a problem with my WIP novel, which is just the outline stage. There’s a specific illness going around and to SHOW, DON’T TELL that the illness is really bad, an important character must become sick.

But then, I have this sick character, Em. And she’s, well, sick.

She’s become a Damsel-in-Distress, who has no active part in the story. She’s a weak love interest, whose only role is to be sick and provide motivation for the main character.

It’s a good motivator. Jake, my main character, really cares for Em, and he’ll do almost anything to find a cure. From that side of things, it’s working. But Em is still just a sick—and-convenient—character.

I’ve given Em some other character problems. She’s adopted and is looking for information on her birth parents. They’ll come into the story and the intersection of these characters will give Em some rosy cheeks of health. Her subplot will be one of discovering who she really is.

But the excitement doesn’t last long enough for her. She has a crisis in her health, which is necessary to get Jake moving. Again, Em becomes a sick, convenient, unappealing and placid character. How do I provide some sort of action around a sickly character?

There are precedents for sick or sickly characters.

. . .

To read the rest of the post, click here:

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

• Audio Books for Idiots Part 1: What You Should Know About ACX (+ A Giveaway) | Jessi Gage…A Time to Love http://ow.ly/UHbnU
• Don’t Write a Damsel-in-Distress OR a Modern Super-Woman: Be Original — Fiction Notes http://ow.ly/UIwqG
• Fiction University: Indie Publishing Paths: What’s Your Distribution Plan? Part One http://ow.ly/UIwyj
• How to Make Your Hero’s Self-Sacrifice Even More Heartbreaking - Helping Writers Become Authors http://ow.ly/UIwYj
• How to Get Blurbs for Your Book & Use Them In Your Marketing http://ow.ly/UIx2u
• Fiction University: Your Book-Signing Cheat Sheet (or: How To Stay Sane While Everyone Seems To Ignore You) http://ow.ly/UIxrh
• Is Your Writing Risky? | Linda S. Clare http://ow.ly/UIxvM
• Does a Newsletter Scare You? Five Ways to Rock It! | ACFW Blog http://ow.ly/UIxCe
• Fiction University: Hooking Your Reader in 3 Easy Steps http://ow.ly/UIxFT
• The 5 Basic Elements of an Author Website http://ow.ly/UIxKr
• The One Thing Every Protagonist Must Have | http://ow.ly/UIyAx Word Count: How Many Words In a Novel? http://ow.ly/UIyI7
•  Writing Better Characters | Writers In The Storm http://ow.ly/UIz9k
• Untitled http://ow.ly/UIzms Ways to title your book. Do you fall victim to title paralysis?

Happy writing and running, Kathy