The CIA,Why Write #1033, Characters, Podcasts And Colson Whitehead

 A Table for Fortune by William T Vollmann review – a hugely ambitious 3,000-page portrait of America’s decline (The Guardian) tells America's recent history through the CIA.

Why Do We Sing? by Lauren Elkin (Literary Hub).

In the years since I left the theatre, I have often thought that I chose writing instead of music because among trained singers, everyone sounds good, and one good voice is not often much different from another; rare are performers who are so unique that they are irreplaceable. Increasingly so: it seems that most of the women you hear on Broadway today have, with few exceptions, interchangeable voices. Some time during college I discovered the joy of the blank page, where I could say whatever I wanted, however I wanted to say it, and where there was such freedom that in the end there was no competition, writing took me as I was and didn’t ask for there to be any less of me. I could be judged not only on sound or on form, but on content. Whereas in music, I could only ever be as good as everyone else. I went quiet.  

Here's the Secret to Believable Character Arcs: Change Is an Awakening (Helping Writers Become Authors).

This one has me thinking the most: 

We all know about beginning our stories with a Characteristic Moment that introduces our character to readers. This moment is supposed to illustrate our characters’ starting point within the story. As such, we often want to create a Characteristic Moment that illustrates characters’ initial enslavement to the Lie.

But that’s not quite enough. We also have to make sure we’re illustrating characters’ latent understanding of and desire for the Truth. Sometimes we can do this simultaneously in the same Characteristic Moment; sometimes we need two separate scenes to illustrate both sides of this character.

Other points made: Reveal the Truth Gradually Through the Plot, Give Characters Convincing Reasons to Resist the Truth, Give Characters Strong Reasons to Pursue the Truth, and Make Character Transformation an Awakening. I hope to finish the novella that has been occupying my time these past two weeks on Thursday and to start revising this weekend. I want to keep these in mind as they have application. I am sure they apply to “Love Stinks”, if ever I get back to that.

I have not had time yet to explore this but I still offer to whoever reads these posts: Podcasts Archives - PodCastle.

 

 sch 11/10