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!

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...

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Creating Memorable Characters

One of my favorite things to do is create characters for my stories, and that's really where a good story starts. Create a three-dimensional protagonist, who's not all good or all bad, who suffers the same issues as we do in our day-t0-day lives and then, throw them...

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Bad Endings Just Creep Me Out

Have you ever had that feeling? You get to the end of a great book or short story, and you're at the end and NOTHING happens? Or it's a dumb ending or ugh! Doesn't that just make you feel... well... icky? Does me. Image via Wikipedia When I get to the end of the book,...

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