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writing thoughts
Oct. 7th, 2024 09:09 amFirst, my latest novel, the thriller Strawberry Gold, will be out on December 16. In the meantime, I have electronic copies available for people to review – please DM me if you are interested.
Second, over the weekend I had some time to kill and access to a bookstore, so I bought and read C. J. Box’s novel Three-inch Teeth. I was vaguely familiar with Box’s work, having watched the TV series based on his novels. I did not know that this book was #24 in the Joe Pickett series. Reading the book, I learned a couple of things.
First, I saw how to write book #24 of a series and making it readable to somebody who had not read the previous 23. Second, and this is not a spoiler as it’s in the first chapters, but I saw something that will hopefully help me on my latest WIP. Specifically, there are two independent sets of villains in this book. The reader knows this, but the characters don’t, and watching everybody twist around was neat.
Not related to Three-inch Teeth but to my WIP, I had an epiphany. I need to be very clear and explicit, at least in my mind, as to what motivates my characters. Fortunately, I recently became a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO). One of the things we learned in that course was how to build Personas. These are fictional people who buy and use our products. So, in my copious free time, I shall be building personas of my characters.
Second, over the weekend I had some time to kill and access to a bookstore, so I bought and read C. J. Box’s novel Three-inch Teeth. I was vaguely familiar with Box’s work, having watched the TV series based on his novels. I did not know that this book was #24 in the Joe Pickett series. Reading the book, I learned a couple of things.
First, I saw how to write book #24 of a series and making it readable to somebody who had not read the previous 23. Second, and this is not a spoiler as it’s in the first chapters, but I saw something that will hopefully help me on my latest WIP. Specifically, there are two independent sets of villains in this book. The reader knows this, but the characters don’t, and watching everybody twist around was neat.
Not related to Three-inch Teeth but to my WIP, I had an epiphany. I need to be very clear and explicit, at least in my mind, as to what motivates my characters. Fortunately, I recently became a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO). One of the things we learned in that course was how to build Personas. These are fictional people who buy and use our products. So, in my copious free time, I shall be building personas of my characters.
