If You Don’t Love a Character…

Sunday’s Sisters in Crime Heart of Texas Chapter presented a New Authors panel: Robin Allen (If You Can’t Stand the Heat: Stick a Fork in It), Kaye George (Choke; Smoke), and Janice Hamrick (Death on Tour; Death Makes the Cut). Hopeton Hay, host of KAZI Book Review, served as moderator.

Here, listed in no particular order and attributed to no particular panelist, are the tips I gleaned from the discussion:

• If you don’t love a character, get him out of your manuscript.
• Characters don’t always behave.
• Publishing the first book makes writing the second easier.
• There is no one correct way to write a book.
• Characters come to life during the writing, not during the outlining.
• Write characters worthy of subplots; they will carry the book.
• Writing is torture.
• Writing is necessary for good mental health.
• Sexual tension between characters is hard to sustain over time, but marriage ends things.
• Publishers encourage authors to have a social media presence.
• Publishers discourage authors from having a social media presence.
• Publishers don’t market books.
• Authors must actively market in order to sell books.
• Without limitations on time, it’s easy to screw around all day.
• Agents don’t know everything.
• Plot in advance but be willing to change the plan.
• Writers who pants successfully have a lot of the plot in their heads.
• Not everyone needs to write daily.
• Sometimes a character disappears without telling the writer where he’s gone.
• Writing a novel requires large blocks of time.
• Writing a novel can be done in twenty-minute segments.
• Experience makes a difference.
• Establish a writing calendar.
• An excellent manuscript doesn’t ensure publication.