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hook, I’ve got the beef, and I love to lay them out.
Laying them out keeps me from killing people. See,
I used to be an assassin. The tallest assassin in
the world.
When I started the voice journal, I did not know that
Pierpont was an assassin. But he told me he was. So I
wrote it down.
However, if this does not fi t the needs of my story, it’s
very easy to change that and go on with something else.
Next, you can concentrate on background:
I was born in New Jersey and grew up in the
rough part of Newark. My dad died in a subway
tunnel. Somebody pushed him off the platform.
They never found out who. I was eight years old,
and my mom didn’t do too well after that. I had
to take care of my little sisters. Twins. Two years
younger than me. I had to grow up fast. The night
our building caught on fi re, well, that made me
grow up even faster …
Keep going with this. You will fi nd yourself excited
about your characters. You’ll think about them even
when you’re not writing.
They will become real to you.
It’s freaky. It’s fun. And it makes for better characters
in better stories.
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