Author Archive: Lorraine Zago Rosenthal
Defy Difficult Times by Setting Creative Goals
Our world has had a brutal year. We’ve all struggled to stay positive and productive while stuck inside our homes. We’ve sweated to Peloton workouts, snapped cute Instagram pics of our latest recipes, or binge-watched The Crown and Firefly Lane. Following the travails of Queen Elizabeth in her gilded palace or sympathizing with Tully Hart […]
Creating the Backstory: A Delicate Art
Characters shouldn’t be simple. In a novel, the “good guys” can’t be saints, and the “bad guys” shouldn’t be wooden demons who do nothing but snarl and bite. The most relatable, admirable, and sympathetic characters require personality flaws and moments of weakness, and the less appealing ones should, sometimes, evoke compassion. In reality, humans are […]
I Don’t Hate Norma Bates: How Studying Film and Television Can Make You a Better Writer
To be a good writer, you must be an avid reader. You should study other writers’ work. We’ve all heard this advice—and it’s true. But “reading” and “studying” doesn’t pertain only to books. We can examine stories that come to life on screen and teach so much about setting, character development, pacing, and plot. As […]
The Appeal of Flawed Characters
To effectively create fictional characters, it is necessary to be an observer. Writers study people—their physical appearance, mannerisms, speech patterns, personalities, life experiences, motivations, and resulting actions. A writer can be inspired by a particular individual, or he/she might combine aspects of several people to create one character. As book-readers and TV-and-film viewers, we crave […]
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