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As I begin to stretch my writing muscles, I have done some reading about writing to prepare (procrastinate). I thought maybe I should start with a short story or a shorter work before I dive back into my epic novel. As I did this, I went back and read from a book I purchased back about 20 years ago when I started to write down what the voices in my head were telling me. It’s called, How to Write & Sell Your First Novel by Oscar Collier with Frances Spatz Leighton.

The book was written nearly 24 years ago, so I wanted to skim through it and see if there was any information that is still relevant that can help me light my writing fire. A chapter that drew me previously is the 3rd one in the book titled, Do I Start With the Characters or the Plot? In my…

by Eldred “Bob” Bird

My characters are my children. I create them, nurture them, and help them grow. I also abuse them, annoy them, and torture them. I’m a writer—it’s my job.

If I’ve done my job well, by the end of the story the main character will have gone through the fires of hell and come out the other side a changed, more well-rounded individual. That’s the hope anyway.

But you’ve probably heard it said that for someone to profoundly change, they mustwantto change, and therein lies the rub. People—including our characters—need a reason to step out of their comfort zone and make deep, lasting changes. As writers it’s our job to push our characters out the door and slam it behind them, giving them no choice but to move forward.

So, how do we accomplish this task? We must answer the question our characters ask every…

2020 – The Year Without Writing Inspiration

2021 is a year full of possibilities. I keep telling myself this over and over.

The pandemic caused me to pause my creative writing for a number of months. The reasons for the lull in my literary creativity are many, but I’d like to believe that most of them are under control or behind me at this point.

As I look for inspiration to jumpstart my writing and to ignite the fire to finish my next book, I decided to go back to those things that inspired me in the past.

I thought I would share these inspirational elements with you to help you find inspiration and invite you to share those things that inspire you to write when you have a lull in your creativity.

Here are the things that have worked for me:

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When I’ve had…

As I embark on my next writing venture after a 2020 hiatus, I realized something. The equation of my age plus the stress of 2020 and the length of time since I’ve written a Frank Rozzani book has added up to me forgetting the details of many of my familiar characters. I remember reading a while back about having a character bible, a book of character profiles. The article I read talked about how this is especially important if you write a multiple-book series with the same characters.

At the time, I said to myself, “I’ll never forget these characters. They’re part of me.” Well, as I get older, I’m pretty sure there are actual parts of me that I’ve forgotten.

As I try to write for my tried and true characters, I find myself searching my previous books for things like dates, names, hair and eye color and other…