A Simple Method for Creating Greater Conflict and Better Characters

This past Saturday I went to the Rose City Romance Writers monthly meeting in Portland with two of my local writing buddies. It was a great day and we had lots of fun.

There was a mini workshop during the meeting on "Five Simple Ways to Identify and Increase Character Conflict." It was really very informative, constructive and as simple as promised. It was basically doing a Glasser analysis for characters. I found it so useful, thought I'd pass it on. You can get more information and the worksheets at www.JudithAshleyRomance.com

Not only is a great method to help create more conflict and tension, it's also useful for finding common ground between characters, motivations and just generally getting to know your characters better. Also a great tool for creating depth in the story, plot and characters.

Francine Howarth is hosting the Indie-Author Tag Party on February 4th & 5th. Go HERE to sign up.

his blogfest is just a simple fun game of playing tag on Amazon to up your profile and that of your book/s.

You'll not only meet other Indie authors along the way, ones you've probably never met before, you can guarantee readers and writers who are on the cusp of going Indie will all be watching from the sidelines and taking note of books that catch their eye and its link!   

So what do you have to do?  

The Rules!?  I hate that word and prefer "Criteria required" for entry to the tag-party:

     

First off: how tagging works

a)      be prepared to tag all those who join the tag-party = fair play

b)      basically follow tag-players’ links to Amazon

c)      scroll to tag and add appropriate tags

Secondly what to do on your own blog: 

d)      post details of your Amazon link to your blog on 4-5^th Feb.

e)      copy-paste the banner (from my sidebar) to your blog's sidebar  

f)        lastly: sign-up

Stephen Tremp's--Breakthrough Blogs--new novel, Opening is out!

“A scientific breakthrough of such magnitude it could radically alter the future of humanity—for better or worse—is in the wrong hands.”


Available from Smashwords and Amazon.

Ciara Knight has a new release coming out:

The Curse of Gremdon

In a world where marriage is forbidden, sex is only granted to male warriors, and the outer realm is full of murderous creatures, Arianna fights to protect the life of her only living relative, her brother.

Tardon, an elite warrior, is granted anything he desires by the Elders, but finds little joy in the voluptuous women presented to him. Born for the bloodlust found only in battle, complicated emotions emerge when he discovers his equal in the alluring warrior, Arianna.

Charged by the Elders with saving the castle from attack, Tardon and Arianna risk the curse when they traverse the vast outer realm to retrieve serum from the Tree of Life. If successful, the Elders have promised Tardon the right to marry and Arianna the cure for her brother’s death fever. Will their love carry them through or will the discovery of a great deception be their ultimate demise? See Ciara's blog for more details.

And a new release from Li of Flash Fiction:

“Small Doses” is a collection of flash fiction built around medical themes. They are not clinical accounts, nor are they to be used as any sort of factual reference; they are pure fiction. However, several are based on existing, documented conditions. There are tales of love, loss and betrayal which examine health and illness from varying points of view; a man who is dying to sleep, a hand with a mind of its own, and an efficient if somewhat unemotional caretaker. Whether the maladies are real or imagined, they have one thing in common: the struggle which we, as humans, endure as ultimately mortal beings.

Currently available at Amazon and other outlets. See Li's site for more links. 

Have you made any great discoveries this week? On the website's blog this week: How I Miss the Observatory / tomorrow: Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair -- www.mpaxauthor.com