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How Do I Know When I’m on the Right Track?
Hi, readers. Welcome back! I love this question: How do you know when you’re on the right track with your novel? There is a massive misconception that any writing is good writing. This simply isn’t true. While any writing will enhance your ability to write, readers are only interested in reading good stories. So, when do you know that you are onto something good? In today’s article, I will try to shed some light on the matter. Let’s start with the misconception that all writing is good. Most things in your refrigerator are also good, but you wouldn’t want to make a ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard salad. Likewise, spaghetti sauce…
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How Many Characters Do I Need?
You need precisely as many as is necessary to tell your story. Unless you count Wilson, Castaway had one. The same can be said for I Am Legend starring Will Smith. On the flip-side, Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace has 559 named characters. What it boils down to is the intent of your novel. In my first book, Rebirth, there are only a handful of characters who find themselves at the mercy of an artificial intelligence somewhere in the midst of space and time. Conversely, my second novel, The Drift has an entire town of characters plus others from another civilization seeking to oppress them for their own gain. There…
