One of the most difficult things for most writers is finding their target audience. Assuming you've managed the basics - finishing a book, selling/ publishing it, packaging it to appeal to your target audience - how do you hook a new reader and keep them reading? One of the key things to consider is writing compelling, narratively likeable characters. (This doesn't mean they need to be conventionally likeable of course!) In this episode Jules and Madeleine get in the weeds on what makes a character compelling, how to design a character from the ground up and how to apply these tactics to side characters. As well as the authors' own work, this week's line up includes A Court of Thorns and Roses, Wuthering Heights and many more.
Title music: Ecstasy by Smiling Cynic
Episode 254: Blood on the Snow - The Darker Christmas Stories
Episode 253: The Good Neighbours - Festive Faeries and Winter Elves
Episode 252: Why is There Never a Happy Ending? - and Other Questions Writers Get Asked
Episode 251 To Queer or not to Queer - Including LGBTQ+ Characters in Speculative Fiction
Episode 250: The Usual Suspects - Cast Calling for your Novel
Episode 249 - The Goddess' Chariot - Myths and Folktales of the Moon
Episode 248: All the Feels - Emotion and Characterisation in Speculative Fiction
Episode 247: Sweet, Awkward and Tongue-tied - The Unromantic Hero in Speculative Fiction
Episode 246 - Casting Long Shadows - How Horror Influences Other Genres
Episode 245: Old Gods & Ancient Stones - What Folk Horror has to say to a Modern Audience
Ep 244 - Of Fates and Phantoms - The Anatomy of the Ghost Story
Episode 243: The Mother of Science Fiction - The Life of Mary Shelley
Episode 242 - Chairs, Dolls & Diamonds - Cursed Objects in Fact and Fiction
Episode 241 - Vampires, Incubae and Goblin Kings - The Daemon Lover in Myth and Speculative Fiction
Episode 240: Paging Dr Love - What the Romance Genre can Teach Us about Writing
Episode 239: Unpopular Opinion Time (part 2) - The Dragon's Hot Takes on Speculative Issues
Episode 238: Unpopular Opinion Time (part 1) - The Dragons' Hot Takes on Speculative Issues
Episode 237: Sowing Prejudice - Accuracy and Research in Writing
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 236: News from the Word Mines - What No-one tells Newbies about Writing and Publishing
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 235: The Alchemy of Forever - Immortality in Speculative Fiction
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