Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing

Posts tagged “Protagonist”

Dark Musings

Posted on February 24, 2016

bad guys close in on her they crawl under her skin fill her mind with filth rob her soul of worth not one ray of sunshine is left to show herself how to stand and find the light that is hidden by night’s bleakest hour in that black while before the dawn their vile words tear at her heart break her force her to her knees and leave her with nothing but the cruelest spurning of her self with no choice but to capitulate to the dark

Categories: Books, YA books

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Gone Writing – Day ♥♥

Posted on February 14, 2016

Valentine’s Day.   I usually shy away from commercial festivities like this, but being all wrapped up in my love for writing and books these past weeks and since it’s International Book Giving Day, I thought I’d make an exception and give you not a book but a little snippet of my protagonist’s view on love.   The girl sits in Cody’s chair and digs her nails into her boyfriend’s arms. It’s her first ink and she squirms and squeals even before Cody touches her with the needle and she almost passes out when he does, hyperventilating through the whole thing, but the look in her eyes is not one of terror but one of love, of devotion. Surrender. She’s doing this for him. She’d do anything for him. She…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, YA books

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Gone Writing – Day 30

Posted on January 31, 2016

A friend posted a picture on Facebook of a heron that he said looked like a murderbird plotting a murder. ‘Whoa,’ I commented, ‘I thought I was the murderbird plotting murders. Is that bird gonna write my books now?’   No, seriously. I do slip a lot of dark into my young adult stories and my adult thrillers, including murder, unintentional killing, suicide, and other vicious betrayals of and by mankind. Why? I ask myself that question with every new story and usually end up blaming my muse, even if I know, deep down, that I must have a dark and ruthless streak or his ideas and inspiration wouldn’t strike a chord. For what it’s worth, I never set out to write about death. I do know…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, YA books

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Gone Writing – Day 10

Posted on January 11, 2016

After days of solid writing and going deep, I needed a break. From writing. From the story. From solitude. So I decided to hop on the ferry and meet with my friend Donna Weidner across the Bay in Tiburon. Donna, also a writer, and I had a long and thought-provoking talk about life and about writing and what it does to you if the story is close to home and chafes your soul. Like this one, which is my story and at the same time not my story.   One of the things I had to decide was between a happy, or at least a hopeful, ending and a sad ending. I knew already it had to be the latter. It is a sad story and like real-life sad stories sometimes there…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, YA books

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Writing Prompt: Fleshing Out Your Protagonist

Posted on June 4, 2013

Exploring my protagonist’s true feelings is hard labor. In this particular manuscript Max hides his feelings as much from me as he does from himself and his fellow characters. I force him to come out and show himself by pulling him into situations he hates. This way I explore the most likely and most believable behavior, acts and moves. For this exercise I used the writing prompt: Describe a time when you’ve settled an argument between two close friends.  I watch them bicker. I know why they fight, but I can’t help them. It’s time that works against them, not their friendship. Time and the second batch of their endeavours that turned out a disaster. The tension between them built since their first failed…

Categories: Books, Thrillers, YA books

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When protagonists rock your manuscript

Posted on October 4, 2012

Sometimes it feels like this writing business is a never ending story. Is there any time that a writer can say goodbye to his manuscript and send it off with a feeling of having pulled off something good? I doubt it. For me, it seems almost impossible.  I have been working on this manuscript – ICARUS’ DOOM – for a while now. The first version I rejected myself, the second version was manhandled (in a good way!) by my publisher friend, my agent and my critique partners, and still the third version didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted it. The story was there. It was a good story, a thrilling story, but something was off. I twisted it, I turned it. To…

Categories: A Bit of Everything

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