Hey, how’s it going? I’m Pat Marcello and I’ve written 10 books for publishers like ABC-Clio, Lucent, and Andrews-McMeel. I haven’t been writing for magazines or writing books for years, but I do write every day. I am a writer. And I have writerly thoughts all the time — some twisted, some normal. And so, I’d like to share a little of each with you. Enjoy!

Feel Your Character

Writing characters is a tricky process. You don't want characters that are flat and stiff, but you don't want to go overboard and make them caricatures, either. So, you need to really think about who these people are and where they have been. One simple way to do it...

read more

Writing Characters, Step-by-Step

If you're a fiction writer, you need three-dimensional characters.  If your characters are flat and boring, you won't have a very good story. I like to start any story I write by creating my characters, or at least the main characters in my stories. In a children's...

read more

A Fun Way to Create Characters

What are we good at as fiction writers? Making things up, right? That's fun for us, though often frustrating when we don't know where to go. So, I'm going to give you a simple starting point -- create your characters first. Image via Wikipedia Simple. And to make it...

read more