ON THE MORROW: (Becky Levine & I are giving away this book)

On the subject of Characters, here's a tiny sample from Becky Levine's fantabulous new book, THE WRITING & CRITIQUE GROUP SURVIVAL GUIDE
(from p. 71)

ANALYZING THE WEAKNESSES

Here are some of the common problems that can cause a character weakness:

• A character isn't complex enough
• Characters don't show enough reaction
• A character behaves inconsistently
• A character doesn't grow

And then, Becky elaborates. On her first point, (A character isn't complex enough) she says, among other things,

As a writer you need to make sure your hero isn't all good and your villians aren't all bad. Even your secondary characters must have conflict within them to keep your reader hooked.

As a critiquer, it's your job to help your partners develop all the depth their characters need.

There's more on this point and on all the points.

And much more on:

• characters
• plot
• dialogue
• setting
• various genres (loads on genres)
• etc. etc. etc.

She shares writing samples to back up every point. She critiques the samples. She shows you how to critique the writing samples.

At first glance this is a book about critique groups. But I think you can see how it's also a book that teaches you to write. This book is a MUST HAVE for writers! If you haven't entered the contest (and thanks to all those who did!) you have approxinately 24 hours to do so!

Here's how:

1. Enter a comment that clearly communicates your desire!

That's it, basically. Tell me you want the book. I'll add your name to the hat. And by noon on Groundhogs Day (okay, that's noon Pacific Time in honor of Becky and any California groundhogs) I'll draw the name.

And I'll announce it ASAP, which is to say, approximately 3:15 EST. Good luck!