Tag: Character Development

• Let’s Write PTSD

  

  Updated in 2022 I touched a slight bit on PTSD in the Let’s Write Fear post, but I figure this is a complex emotional state and needs more detail. This is a post about how traumatic events might influence characters, which means traumatic events will be mentioned. Not in detail, but they’re there. Please don’t […]

  Yolandie Horak

  August 18, 2020

  Writing

  Anxiety, Character Development, Emotions, Let’s Write, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, Resources, Stuff for Writers, Writer, Writer’s Life, Writers’ Resources, Writing, Writing Advice, Writing Emotions, Writing Life, Writing PTSD

• Major Character Death

  

  I’ve recently read a few books where major characters died–and I’m talking viewpoint or main cast characters–only to be resurrected. Then, you know, they all live happily ever after. When this dead-but-resurrected-thing happened the first time, I was annoyed but okay. My mood elevated to disgruntled by the second time, then shot into the orbit […]

  Yolandie Horak

  July 25, 2019

  Writing

  Character Development, Character Tropes, Characters, Major Character Death, Opinions, Readers, Stuff For Readers, Stuff for Writers, tropes, Tropes we hate, Tropes we love, Writer’s Life, Writers’ Resources

• My Favourite Character Trope: The Lovable Rogue

  

  The way to hook this reader is easy. Write a character who is always dressed to impress, has the wildest charm and self-confidence, flirts with everyone, says things the protagonist thinks but would never utter, and is willing to take the quickest route to get the job done–even if that means doing morally questionable things. […]

  Yolandie Horak

  June 25, 2019

  Writing

  Character Development, Character Tropes, Characters, tropes, Tropes we hate, Tropes we love, Writer, Writer’s Life, Writing, Writing Community, Writing Journey

• Strong Female Characters

  

  There’s this thing all around the internet. Advice paired with a general outcry–write strong female characters. I’ve had multiple conversations about this in the last few weeks, and I thought we could continue chatting about it here. People want Strong Female Characters (from here on SFC) to the point where they come down really hard […]

  Yolandie Horak

  February 6, 2019

  Writing

  Character Development, Characters, Resources, Strong Characters, Strong Female Characters, Stuff for Writers, Writer, Writer’s Life, Writers’ Resources, Writing

• Writing, as Taught by Kids’ TV Shows

  

  A year or so ago, I read a writing exercise idea on a blog that changed the way I view watching TV. The blogger in question would make notes of, then dissect the episode she was watching. She’d figure out which plot points worked, which didn’t, where the dialogue fell flat, where it rocked, and […]

  Yolandie Horak

  June 28, 2017

  Writing

  Better Dialogue, Better Writing, Character Development, Creativity, Foreshadowing, Learning Something New, My Little Pony, Series, Suits, TV, Typeface, Writer, Writer’s Life, Writing, Writing Advice