February 2017 Update

    February has continued the streak of being a busy time for me, but I did manage to write some dialogue for my next book. One of the issues with writing a book is writing good dialogue especially with more than two people. While some TV shows do a good job of developing it's many characters over the course of time, what is a good way of doing that within one book? One way I'm trying is to give them meaningful dialogue where we learn about their past indirectly and how it's affected them. Other is to see the little things they do and focus on. I'll try to utilize that, but I do know it's important to make sure they aren't flat either. However, that does bring an interesting question. Where do flat characters belong?
    In Hamlet, there are two characters where you can swap lines and not tell the difference. There is certainly a place for these sort of characters, possibly for humor, but I'm still experimenting with where. I'm aware that some characters in Shining ended that way and hopefully my next cast of secondary characters won't follow suit.
    Do I expect to make more progress in the coming weeks? No. I'll be busy with work and other duties, and I want to play the new Legend of Zelda game as well. From what I've heard, they have a nice story so maybe I can learn a few techniques from the game. I am curious to ponder if the story will be nice on its own or if it requires knowledge of the series for its effect.

Take Care,

J. D. Nyle