know your characters

·  Left or Right?  · I grew up in a white, suburban neighborhood of Chicago. People in my community, Skokie, were predominately of the Jewish faith. On Jewish holidays at school I would join two or three other students in our nearly empty classrooms. Because of my religion, I was a minority. I had many Jewish friends including Steve Boren. Les Nagai, was Japanese American; Harvey Look was Chinese American. I never thought of any of them as hyphenated friends; we were just buddies. When my … [Read more...] about Tribal Identity

·  Know Your Characters  · "So, you said you wanted to be a better writer." "Yeah, I do." "Well, I'll give you some tips. I'll bet you've heard this one before." "Just tell me!" "Practice, practice, practice." "Oh, come on now! I know that already! How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice." "Yeah, but knowing it and doing it are two different things." "Well, that's true. I don't write enough." "In writing dialogue you must first know your characters. In order to … [Read more...] about Writing Dialogue