I am so excited to share this week's episode as each of these conversations was so much fun to record. Edan has been on the show before, but I wanted to have her back to talk about her love of writing difficult characters within the framework of her latest novel, Woman No. 17. Edan delights in creating tension by revealing her character's flaws for the reader's view and puts these characters in situations sure to highlight these flaws and bring them to a head. So many books create tension through plot and action, but the suspense in Edan's books is just as much about pushing flawed characters to their edge, all the while leaving us asking "Oh my god, what will they do now??"
Jim Butcher has written so many novels that I wouldn't be shocked to learn that he doesn't sleep at all. He admitted that he has trouble keeping track of the exact details of former books after having revised them numerous times, so he relies on his fanbase Wiki to keep track, a detail I found both charming and extremely practical. In addition, we dove into the beauty of throwing your characters into sticky situations and the necessity to write scenes so things go from bad to worse. This chat helped me feel much braver about putting my character into tough spots to see how she will navigate rocky territory.
I hope both these conversations inspire you to investigate the less savory corners of your story and take your books into riskier places. May we all send our characters down a dark alley, metaphorically, after taking both of these writers' advice!
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#97 :: Co-Writing a Book | Emily Thompson and Kathleen Shannon
#96 :: Starting a Writing Career after 40 | Kit De Waal
#95 :: Translation and the Mystery of Swedish Crime Novels | Henning Koch + Lars Kepler
#94 :: The Story of the 19th Amendment | Elaine Weiss
#93 :: The Magic of the Absurd | Lord Birthday
#92 :: How to Thrill Your Reader | Ben Percy
#91 :: Writing About Iran | Jasmin Darznik
#90 :: Succeeding Slowly | Jojo Moyes
#89 Danielle Lazarin Talks Back about Back Talk
#88 I Wrote it Anyway
#87 Paula Priamos Turns Suspense Inside Out
#86 Chloe Benjamin on the Immortalists
#85 Cecil Castellucci on Writing for Young People
#84 Joanna Penn on building a full-time writing life.
#83 Anu Partanen on the Nordic Theory of Writing
#82 Mark Frauenfelder on Broad-Spectrum Enthusiasm
#81 Malu Halasa on redefining American Fiction
#80 Sandra Scofield gets you to the Last Draft
#79 David Rocklin on finding a novel in a photograph.
#78 Lisa Cron on Writing from the Why
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