VC's Musings

Leave it out

Question answered

Leave it out

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You likely know much more about your main character than you can use in a story. Take a character’s likes and dislikes. Your character may absolutely hate the taste of licorice. Do you need to include that fact in your story? Perhaps. Perhaps not. How do you decide? Is that fact going to advance the story? That’s the question you have to ask yourself. In the case of licorice, what could happen that would force your character to eat some even though they hate it or explain that they do not like licorice? Either of those choices reveals something about your character. For example, if they eat the licorice, what reason would they have to do that? Did they do that because they didn’t hurt the person’s feelings was offering it? Or were they afraid of the other person’s reaction if they didn’t eat it?

You see how including a dislike for licorice can advance the storyline. If it doesn’t, leave it out.

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VC

” I am a writer and as a writer, I do not neatly fit into any category. I have written magazine articles, feature news articles, restaurant reviews, a newspaper column, and several book length nonfiction projects aimed at people interested in particular health problems for foundations and companies. As to novels, I have published some Kindle novels.”

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