I have a friend who has taught creative writing, in one form or another, for over 50 years and she has read a couple of my stories and has given me a ton of books about how to write fiction and develop plots and characters. I thought I did a pretty nice job myself but she wasn’t very impressed and I have started to glance through the books and can see why because they sure have lots of techniques in making characters and stories come to life. My first response was that I don’t want to learn to write like other people I want to learn to write like myself and then it dawned on me that I don’t have any choice about that no matter what style I use so I’m going to read her books and maybe I’ll write my first novel. My first fictional character might even be a free-spirited, dynamic, beautiful, mischievous, talented, beautiful inside and out MCal girl hehe.

Keep the faith

David