Author Heather McCorkle

Remaining in the vein of last week's post, we're talking about how to strengthen your character's arc and why it's important. The character arc is the changes your character goes through from the beginning to the end of the novel, how they grow and learn, or change. Take a good look at your manuscript or outline. Is your character arc strong enough to help carry the novel? It should be just as strong as the plot, if not stronger, depending upon your genre. Not every genre will have such a powerful character arc and that's okay, they aren't all supposed to. But if you write character driven fiction like I do, that character better be strong. Think of a novel you read recently that had a really good character arc. How did that character change? What about them did you like in the beginning of the novel and in the end? Readers celebrate with our characters, be it an achievement, revelation, or growth. Without those elements in our characters the reader doesn'...

A new novel is beginning to demand my attention which means I have to do something I dread almost as much as writing a synopsis. What could be that bad you wonder? Outlining. To say I'm not a fan of it would be a gross exaggeration. I hate outlining, it sucks. Why do it then? Why not just let my muse guide me and write? Because my instructor at a writer's retreat I attended forced me to write an outline for a book I'd already finished and it made me see the error of my ways. An outline will point out all inconsistencies, plot holes, and blatant mistakes. I realized that if I write one before I write my novel, it reduces my revision process dramatically. So, though I hate it, I write the outline and my novel is far better for it. A blogging writer friend of mine, Jamie Harrington wrote an adorable post on outlines that changed the way I feel about them. She made outlining fun and~dare I say~easy. Her agent asked her if she outlines her novels. Check out her entertaining a...