The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.
Here’s what we talked about in this episode:
We were light on crew today, having only me and Bill in attendance. It’s okay, though; we improvised and proved that WE DON’T NEED NOBODY NOHOW.
We began by talking about the function of characters in pacing and exposition: When do you add a character to a scene as “spice” and when are they unnecessary?
Bill then asked about how I handle converging storylines, which I flipped into a discussion about flashbacks and how their order matters, scene-to-scene, even though the two storylines are happening at different times.
We then talked some about BAD GUYS. Which are truly evil, which are just misunderstood, and which are evil … but still able to be understood (if not forgiven)?
… which led me to talk some about how I love writing because it lets me explore psychology. I just love figuring out why people are the way they are, and trying to understand their actions (even if said actions are inexplicable to me).
We ended by talking about endings that feel rushed, and a tangential discussion about “many epilogues and endings” versus a slow progression toward a single ending.
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