Category: Staff Articles

Writing advice and insights from the staff of Indies Unlimited.

Welcome to Indies Unlimited!

chimp at typewriter
File photo of me trying to blog before my wife took pity and helped me.

[This is a golden oldie—the very first post on Indies Unlimited.]

Welcome one and all to Indies Unlimited, a blog for independent authors and independent readers.

The people have spoken. Nearly one percent of my Facebook fans (as well as some guy I met at a diner) all felt very strongly that I should start a blog – or at least they didn’t strongly object.

This fits well with my plans of total world domination. So now I set forth, following in the footsteps of other rich and famous bloggers like what’s-his-name and that one lady – you know the ones I mean, right? Never mind then.

Anyway, to throw you off the scent of my evil plan, this blog won’t really be about me. I want to keep you distracted by providing the very best entertainment that (no) money can buy. Here, you will find interviews with authors, reviewers and other industry bigwigs. I will continue the photo caption contests here as just a fun exercise to get your creative juices flowing. You’ll also see links, articles, reviews, memorable quotes and all kinds of things to divert and amuse you while I go through your pockets looking for loose change.

For now, it’s a one-man-show, but as soon as I stock up on duct tape and chloroform, I’ll be adding some co-bloggers. In the mean-time go ahead and snoop around. Do come back soon though.

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Character Description – Psychological

Everyone should have one.

On Tuesday, we looked at physical character description. But there is a much more important aspect to character development…our weird, quirky brains and the weird, quirky things they make us do. Now, I admit, I am biased. My fiction is very character-based, and I think depth of character is more important than almost anything. That’s me. You may disagree. That is your right. I must warn you, however, that disagreeing with me will only start you down the path toward a lifetime bereft of joy and full of despair. Because I will find you. Trust me on that.

Now, when you are making a character, you want them to seem real. You also want them to stand out from the other characters. I’ve read a lot of books where the author feels it necessary to outline every single stupid thing a character thinks. Or maybe the author goes too far into trying to tell you what kind of person the character is. But it doesn’t have to be hard. In fact it is quite easy. Continue reading “Character Description – Psychological”

No one is entitled to anything….

Okay, I’m stealing the snark queen crown from KS for a bit. Pardon my ranting….

Once upon a time I was the supervisor for a department of a retail computer electronics company which shall remain nameless. One day one of my employees – we’ll call him Dick – came to me in a bit of a snit. It seemed that another employee, John, wasn’t sharing his tools. Well, John was a great employee. In the Army Reserve at the time, he kept his work space neat and clean, his tools maintained and in place. As a consequence, he had the best tools in the department and he usually shared them. He had only one rule – return it the way you found it. Dick had broken that rule. Well, actually he’d broken the tool, and it wasn’t the first time. So John banned him from borrowing his tools. Dick, feeling he’d been treated unfairly, decided to help himself to John’s tools. At which point John went to him and politely asked for the tools back. Military trained, he used please, explained why Dick couldn’t use his tools, and then said thank you. I knew this, because as supervisor I’d been watching. Continue reading “No one is entitled to anything….”

Character Description – Visual

Police sketch artist…he knows.

When I was teaching writing workshops for High School kids, there was one thing that always got that epiphany ‘aHA!’ moment that I liked so much. Description. Character description to be specific. We took it slow. I got my share of stories about guys with cornrows, blue jeans, baggy white T-shirts, and Air Force Ones. Gradually, I would start to share the writers’ secrets. And one of the first ones was this: for the most part, describing your character is a waste of time. People will argue about this, so let me explain what I mean.

Continue reading “Character Description – Visual”