Friday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

IS YOUR MAIN CHARACTER YOU? HOW TO TELL – AND HOW TO WIDEN YOUR CHARACTER REPERTOIRE 

By: Nail Your Novel

As Oscar Wilde didn’t say: ‘Be yourself, everyone else is taken’. (No really, he didn’t.)

In our early novels, we’re more likely to see our main characters as proxies for ourselves. But there comes a stage where we learn more versatility, and to create new hearts, souls and minds to carry our stories. This was one of the interesting findings of a project organised by a team of researchers at Durham University and reported here in The Guardian.

Authors who took part in the survey were asked how they experience their main characters while writing. Those with many books reported that in their early work they saw the main character as a proxy for themselves. Sometimes it was simply wish fulfilment. Sometimes it was a deeper working, perhaps of a problem they couldn’t express in the real world, or an issue they had left undone. It was only in later books that they were aware they were creating individuals who had their own distinct hopes, dreams, values and reactions.

Does it matter?

. . .

Read the full article HERE!

~*~

If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

1. Claude Nougat's Blog : Today's Publishing Nightmare: Drowning in Indie e-Books... and The Way Out http://ow.ly/B4Y1H
2. Five Things to Avoid for a Pristine Query Letter - Write Nonfiction NOW! http://ow.ly/B4Y5Q
3. The Kill Zone: Avoiding the Tar Pits of Fiction http://ow.ly/B4Ylo
4. Want to Write Better Dialogue? Break the Rules http://ow.ly/B4Yv8
5. Ebook Services Professionals http://ow.ly/B4Yzf  Directory
6. Janet Fitch's 10 rules for writers | Jacket Copy | Los Angeles Times http://ow.ly/B4YCY
7. The Pros And Cons Of Exclusivity with Amazon KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited | The Creative Penn http://ow.ly/B4YJZ
8. How to Avoid Cliches (or The 4 Things You MUST Know Before Starting A Novel) |  @melissagmcphail http://ow.ly/B4YS5
9. Author Marketing 101: The Verdict On Kindle Unlimited http://ow.ly/B4Z2s
10. The Strong Female Character: I Do Not Think That Means What Some People Think It Means | MOON IN GEMINI http://ow.ly/B50oj
11. Fiction University: On Tonight's Episode: Fixing Episodic Chapters http://ow.ly/B51gf
12. Find the style that fits the story – Jose Saramago’s Blindness | Nail Your Novel http://ow.ly/B51mq
13. Seriously Write: The Agent I Never Asked For! by Susan Tuttle http://ow.ly/B57X8
14. Is Foursquare a Waste of Time? - Plus Infographic http://ow.ly/B588K
15. 3 reasons why the novel is more imortant than ever, On the Saturday Evening blogPost, edition #17 http://ow.ly/B6lSK
16. How to Become a Twitter Influencer: Science and Practice | Social Media Examiner http://ow.ly/B6mdu
17. Prose&Cons: Why Science Fiction and Fantasy Matters http://ow.ly/B6m5O
18. The Key Element of 21st Century Persuasion - Copyblogger http://ow.ly/B6miK
19. Facebook Theme Week: Organic or Paid? : @ProBlogger http://ow.ly/B6mMa
20. Twitter Changes Web Font, Adds ‘Tweet To’ Button and Color Options to Profiles - AllTwitter http://ow.ly/B6C0z
21. Is It the Golden Age for Journalism? - Jane Friedman http://ow.ly/B6Cd4
22. “Conflicts Aren’t all About the Punches" via @Janice_Hardy http://t.co/KSzntgZNpJ #WUCraft
23. Is your main character you? How to tell – and how to widen your character repertoire | Nail Your Novel http://ow.ly/B6RhK
24. Susan Kaye Quinn, Speculative Fiction Author: The Nightmare of Updating Backmatter - SOLVED http://ow.ly/B6Ry6

Happy writing and running, Kathy