Finding the Sweet Balance Between Interiority and Exteriority in Fiction

Photo by Nick Morrison from Unsplash

During my last writing retreat, I had a discussion with a few writers about how to nail the emotional thoughts, and inner struggles of a character on the page. How do you make the reader fall in love with your character just by writing dialogue or action? How do you fit in the things only the character knows. How do you decide how many inner thoughts to include? What is too much? Or is not enough? All great questions.

The answer is simple: Find the sweet balance between the characters’ interiority and exteriority within the story you are trying to tell.

What is Interiority?

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Binge-worthy Podcasts for Writers

Lori Twining ~ Podcast Recommendations

Some of my writing buddies have been struggling to find the words lately. I’m no different. There are days I sit at my desk and stare at a blank page and wonder why I am even bothering to get up. Seriously, I could be sleeping right now. I never get enough sleep.

However, there are also days that I plunge my mind into other things besides working for someone else and wrestling with the words on the page. Sometimes, I like to immerse myself in other creative activities such as sketching, painting, and photography. Sometimes, I create colourful quilts and blankets from scraps of material found in a material bin. Sometimes I spend hours designing a new baby blanket (because who wants to use someone else’s pattern). And, sometimes, I bake cookies, experiment without a recipe, and eat every last one of them.

The thing is, I have found a way to get my writing mojo back during these other creative moments in my life. I’ve been multi-tasking.

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