20 Questions to help you develop your characters (11 - 20)
Francesco Francesco

20 Questions to help you develop your characters (11 - 20)

The simplest, most common and yet effective way to outline a complex character is with a questionnaire. Try to Google it. No, really. I’ll wait. Done? As you might have noticed, there are millions of pages with lists of questions that vary from 6 to 300 or more; and I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve indulged in a ridiculous number of them.

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20 Questions to help you develop your characters (1 - 10)
Francesco Francesco

20 Questions to help you develop your characters (1 - 10)

The simplest, most common and yet effective way to outline a complex character is with a questionnaire. Try to Google it. No, really. I’ll wait. Done? As you might have noticed, there are millions of pages with lists of questions that vary from 6 to 300 or more; and I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve indulged in a ridiculous number of them.

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The 5 stages of Novel Writing
Francesco Francesco

The 5 stages of Novel Writing

2021 started without a major project. I had time to polish a few short stories and learn more about the craft of writing, yes, but I was yearning for a new novel I could fall in love with.

You could say that, in a sense, I was grieving the absence of a worthwhile big commitment; something that would last for months, or years, and that required tons of research, frustration, euphoria, self-doubt and courage.

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5 Magazines that Have Rejected Me in 2021
Francesco Francesco

5 Magazines that Have Rejected Me in 2021

even if none of the magazines listed below published me, they all kindly replied letting me know that they had at least read my submission. Some of them sent back words of encouragement, some have been a bit more robotic; but they all replied.

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How to Set Writing Goals
Francesco Francesco

How to Set Writing Goals

If you don't have a 50,000 words manuscript saved on your preferred cloud storage service, you have failed NaNoWriMo. You've set a too ambitious writing goal and for some reason, you couldn't deliver. Just like me.

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3 Lessons from Margaret Atwood’s Masterclass
Francesco Francesco

3 Lessons from Margaret Atwood’s Masterclass

Although it can be described as a beginner’s course, listening to her words and looking at her witty face when she makes a joke is worth your time. If you’re a fan, as I am, you can’t miss it.

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