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Playing to your strengths

Phin Scardaw

Troubadour
I always like to see writers extolling the value of writing exercises. There's really not enough writers actively engaged in exercises to hone their craft.

I recall the first novel I wrote had protagonists who were thinly veiled versions of myself, and I consciously decided that the hero of the sequel to follow would be a character I couldn't relate to at all. I constructed a story in which the hero of the first novel becomes the antagonist for the second, and the hero of the sequel is an old embittered man who comes from a wealthy British family but lives as a political exile in Brazil. I had a lot trouble finding a voice to write his narrative, and adopting his bigotry and biases while I wrote his POV was a huge challenge for me. Stretch Goals that leave you with mental Stretch Marks!
 
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