When creating a dynamic character to carry your story, it’s important that they be strongly motivated to drive the plot forward. It makes them more interesting, and the story a lot more fun. When I was writing the first novel in The Witch of Cheyne Heath series, Waking the Witch, I was researching psychological models…
Often when I’m developing a character or a story, I get lost in my own head with all the possibilities available to me, and I need something to anchor me and narrow my choices in a simple, direct, and progressive way. To help me think through a character’s inner struggle, I developed this 10-point questionnaire…
Sometimes inspiration doesn’t come to me spontaneously and I need external prompts. The divinatory system of the tarot offers a complex map of human psychology, archetypes, and challenges that I’ve found a great starting point for understanding and developing characters and stories. In trying to harness all that intuitive potential planning my books, I came up with this approach to using the cards as a storyteller.