#authentic characters

I also LOVE that Tipper and NotTasha are back to writing and knocking it out of the park with their new stories. The trouble is I think that new fandom hasn’t figured out how awesome they are yet.

NotTasha just posted the most amazing pirate fic, a sequel to “Warm, Safe, and Dry” and “Among the Stars” from back in the day. Both stories are brilliant!!! World building, action adventure, Rodney whump!

Tipper is actually writing McShep now and she has the best nervous John and such authentic characters! Go check them out!

Tipper’s AO3 page

NotTasha’s AO3 page

Tazmy’s AO3 page (because I may not be as awesome, but I am back to writing and now podficcing)

As for Basingstoke: Stickers (daughter’s art) below are ones I’m bringing to the con to share with friends and actors.

The Beta Hero: A Non-Stereotypical Male Character

I think, somehow, I am destined to create what I learned only yesterday are beta heroes. I had never, until this week, heard there was such a phenomenon. Now I am so glad I know what he is. You see, several members of my critique group have been telling me that the male protagonist in my current novel is not “strong enough” – that he ought to be more macho, more – and these are mywords now –…

Writing Fiction: To Thine Own Character Be True

I don’t know about anyone else’s process, but I’m a pantser, so when I start writing a new novel, I have a few ideas about where it’s going, but it’s not all planned out by any means. That includes the characters. Generally I will start with a few bullet points of the action, the twists and turns of the story, but the characters often are close to a blank slate at the first. They always evolve as…

Writers Are Ugly Actors

Guest Post by Sophie Jonas-Hill

If writers were better looking, they would be actors. Our skill set is very similar, they have to pre-tend to be a whole heap of different people, and so do we. In a way, we’re even more versatile because we don’t have the dead eye of the camera judging us and prescribing what we can be. We get to be anyone and everyone regardless of gender or ability or skin…

Stop the Presses: How Journalism Helps Authors

When at a loss for something new to write about on the art of writing, the ever-encouraging K.S. Brooks suggested to me that I should discuss the art of research for writers. She’s impressed by the fact I’m, apparently, the last person on earth who still goes to a library to do research (lest you think I’m the only one who patronizes the library, I will point out there are many individuals at my…

The place we live is important in certain ways. I mean some people move around all their lives but they still learn things about an area while they live there. Little things like the best place to get coffee or what the commute time to work is.

The point or question that I am dancing around here is this. The stories I write are fictional fantasy and paranormal based, Yet I still want my characters to feel real, well rounded and rooted in some tangible truths. I have their inner struggles, hopes, dreams, traumas and all that important emotional connection and disconnection that makes a character ...well a character. However my current issue is the little stuff I feel they are still missing.

My current dilemma is that many of my characters live inBoston. I live in southernMaineand really know nothing about living inBostonor any city type of environment. I am not even sure what area ofBostonthey would likely live in. I want to present every normal aspect of the characters lives as authentically as possible. The local diner the character might go to. Would they be likely to walk or take a bus? What was this characters life like growing up here?

I know these things might seem trivial to some people but for me reading a book or watching a television show that is supposedly set inMaineyet not a single person talks acts or dresses even a little bit like the people I know and grew up around it annoys me.