Joyce Carol Oates — On Writing Characters.

A short, interesting video that I’m sure some of my regular readers will find very helpful. Character is always a fundamental starting point for me and here Joyce Carol Oates shares her very similar approach…

Through the Stormy Shades — Update.

Last week ended up being written off as far as my work on the rough outline for Through the Stormy Shades is concerned. There was simply too much going on in the blogosphere for me to give it my full attention and, to be honest, it didn’t seem all that urgent. The outline is very much a formality — a nailing down of what I already know — and I was far from worried about this brief interruption.

Today, however, has been rather more quiet and I have succeeded in getting a little done. If Children of the Resolution is taken on and I go ahead with this project (as enthusiastic as I am about Through the Stormy Shades, it would be foolish to write the second book in a series of books when the first hasn’t sold), I know it’s going to be exactly the kind of project I most enjoy; challenging, amusing, dark, multi-layered and, hopefully, unique. Like Children of the Resolution, I think it could be an important book… Christ, that  makes me sound so up myself! I really don’t mean it in that way (or maybe I do!) — the point I’m trying to make is that it has something highly individual to say. Where literature is concerned, that from me is the mark of a good book… an important book.

I can’t wait to get started. Always a good sign. But, as yet, it’s too early — so I’ll simply take my time with the outline and let it, you know, mature.

© 2008 Gary William Murning