John Baker’s Blog

The most important single ability of a fiction writer is to be able to characterize. Unfortunately it is also an ability which can never be taught. That being the case I’ll confine myself, in this post, to try to show some of the most particular faults that beginning writers make in trying to assign characteristics [...]

1. Why do you blog?
Dangerous question. Like asking a fly fisherman why he wades out into an icy cold stream in the grim pre-dawn light on a bitter morning in early spring or like asking a model railroader why he dons a blue and white striped engineer’s cap and red bandana and disappears down [...]