Writers Helping Writers^®

Posts by Angela Ackerman

Character Motivation Thesaurus: Seeking One’s Biological Roots

January 7, 2017

Character Motivation Thesaurus: Seeking One’s Biological Roots

January 7, 2017

What does your character want? This is an important question to answer because it determines what your protagonist hopes to achieve by the story’s end. If the goal, or outer motivation, is…

Start the Year By Jumping On 3 Important Tasks

December 31, 2016

Start the Year By Jumping On 3 Important Tasks

December 31, 2016

A new year is turning, meaning it’s the perfect time to motivate ourselves to create new stories, and to do that, we should turn our attention to a few housekeeping…

Character Motivation Entry: Escaping Confinement

December 10, 2016

Character Motivation Entry: Escaping Confinement

December 10, 2016

What does your character want? This is an important question to answer because it determines what your protagonist hopes to achieve by the story’s end. If the goal, or outer motivation, is…

How Character Attributes and Flaws Work Within Character Arc

November 24, 2016

How Character Attributes and Flaws Work Within Character Arc

November 24, 2016

Like real people, characters have mixed personalities that contain both positive traits (attributes) and negative traits (flaws). Flaws are especially interesting as they develop when a person has experienced a…

Character Motivation Entry: Obtaining Shelter From The Elements

November 19, 2016

Character Motivation Entry: Obtaining Shelter From The Elements

November 19, 2016

What does your character want? This is an important question to answer because it determines what your protagonist hopes to achieve by the story’s end. If the goal, or outer motivation, is…

5 Visualization Techniques to Help Your Writing Craft

November 17, 2016

5 Visualization Techniques to Help Your Writing Craft

November 17, 2016

Happy to welcome high-performance coach and author Nina Amir and her brainstorming techniques. Plot. Scene. Character. Setting. Point of view. Theme. Literary devices. You’ve studied and practiced how to write…

Character Motivation Entry: Righting A Deep Wrong

November 5, 2016

Character Motivation Entry: Righting A Deep Wrong

November 5, 2016

What does your character want? This is an important question to answer because it determines what your protagonist hopes to achieve by the story’s end. If the goal, or outer motivation, is…

5 NaNoWriMo Hacks To Keep Words Flowing

October 27, 2016

5 NaNoWriMo Hacks To Keep Words Flowing

October 27, 2016

Ready to mow down some words? Read on–this will help you get to the 50K finish line! 1. Start with a plan (yes, even the Pantsers). Really, the more you…

Character Motivation Thesaurus: Escaping a Killer

October 22, 2016

Character Motivation Thesaurus: Escaping a Killer

October 22, 2016

What does your character want? This is an important question to answer because it determines what your protagonist hopes to achieve by the story’s end. If the goal, or outer motivation, is…

How to Choose Settings that Have Emotional Impact

October 20, 2016

How to Choose Settings that Have Emotional Impact

October 20, 2016

Generic settings won’t cut it if you want readers to feel the story–instead, your locations need emotional impact as this immerses them better in the point-of-view character’s experience. Shared experiences…