Ask the Author: Michael Gouker
Answered Questions (7)
Michael Gouker
Hey, Donna! Thanks for your question! I like ProWritingAid. I have a subscription and use it to find otherwise invisible issues in my text, however it is only a tool, and especially with dialogue, you must be flexible. For characters, voice and consistency are most important, and the only way I have found is to read each character's dialogue aloud--it has to be aloud for me to *hear* where it sounds unnatural. Maybe once I become a better writer it will flow naturally but for now, I compensate by doing the grunt work. :-)
Michael Gouker
Thank you, Donna! The best advice I can give about writing is to trust your narrative voice, even if it sometimes appalls you. You can always fix your story in revision, but unless you trust yourself first, you don't have enough clay to shape into your art. For motivation, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says, "Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person." So, who do you want to tell your stories? Those stories you alone can tell best? Those stories that would otherwise die without you? It's up to us. :-)
Michael Gouker
To serve the story and let the characters live.
Michael Gouker
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Michael Gouker
Today it is Kvothe and Denna from The Name of the Wind. I love the tension between them and the certainty that it won't end well. Next week it will probably be another. ;-)
Michael Gouker
Read everything. Immerse yourself in words. Soon enough the voices in your head will fill the silent moments. Then write everything down.
Michael Gouker
I actually write something else. I always have many different ideas. Sometimes you just need to shift to a different focus for a while. Later, when you come back, the ideas will flow again. If not, maybe you're not writing the right thing.
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