Rebeca Schiller

Becky Levine has an interesting post on tension, and she writes of setting goals for the characters. She says:

We make it clear what they want, or–at the very least–what they’ve assumed will happen. And we create obstacles. Big obstacles that arc over the scene, and mini-obstacles that hit the characters like scatter-shot, all through the scene. Some of those obstacles come from other characters, some from the environment, and some from the character actually going for the goal. An obstacle can be challenging, painful, irritating or laugh-out loud funny.

One of the main criticisms, apart from not making one of the characters as well-developed as the MC, is that it lacks tension. Most of the tension comes with the MC struggling with her doubts, but how do I extend that so it creates more head-knocking with the other characters? This week’s exercise is to

This morning while checking email I came across one from a writer on the Writing List of the Internet Writing Workshop. The subject header read: An Apology. This is what it said:

Dear members,
I want to apologize for giving bad advice. I think I told someone to stop writing and I want to apologize for that. I have no idea why I would say (write) such a thing to anyone, when it would break my heart to hear (read) such a thing.
I would like to tell that person I am sorry. I do not remember who it was or what they wrote. I want to apologize. I agree with someone else who wrote “usually a writer simply needs encouragement and where can they turn to for that, if not a writers group”.
I apologize, once again for giving such heartbreaking and negative advice. I can only hope you will