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My aunt, Jackie Lloyd, is writing a rather unusual book: My Imaginary Dog, based on a series of fantasies she had while walking the steep seaside slopes of Deep Cove here in North Vancouver.
She has asked me to help edit it, and has even launched a blog to talk about the whole adventure. I think the dog, Bear, will also be giving his two cents' worth there.
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Tag Archives: archetypes
They call me Mister Vitols
I don’t write every day, but I do read every day. The reading and processing of books is the central activity of my life. I am a student before I am anything else. I say this not from a sense … Continue reading
creating characters, part 5: combining archetypes
I’ve been sharing my discoveries about the art of character creation in storytelling. The idea here is to build characters from the inside out, to make vital, interesting characters from scratch instead of trying to create characters based purely on … Continue reading
creating characters, part 4: story archetypes
In part 3 I described how to start building a character by snapping together 2 different kinds of archetype: a heroic archetype, using the book The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes & Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes by Tami D. Cowden, … Continue reading
creating characters, part 3
Welcome to another installment of my character-creation process for storytelling. I started out by calling the series “creating characters in epic fiction,” but really I’m talking about creating characters in general, so I have shortened my title accordingly. I would … Continue reading
creating characters in epic fiction, part 2
Character creation is one of the most difficult and demanding tasks in the art of storytelling. Some people have a talent for it—I think Charles Dickens was one of these—while the rest of us have to stretch out a thinner … Continue reading
The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes & Heroines by Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever, & Sue Viders: “people power” for writers
The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes and Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes by Tami D. Cowden My rating: 4 of 5 stars This apparently self-published handbook of character archetypes adds a powerful tool to the writer’s kit. As I recall, this … Continue reading
The Wizard of Oz: birth of a Girl Adventurer
How many times have you seen The Wizard of Oz? I’m going to guess that I’ve seen it a dozen times. Kimmie, my wife, reckons that she’s seen it at least 20 times. I haven’t the slightest doubt that there are … Continue reading
archetypes r us
Yesterday in my post reviewing Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss I said that I had much more to say on the topic. Maybe I’ll try to make a start now. Something I didn’t mention in my review was that for … Continue reading