April 30, 2025
So that you know, I’m not fighting a demon. Not literally, anyway. I’m talking about fighting the battles of my mind. The battles each writer deals with regularly—the battles each writer must overcome to be successful. Sometimes the battle is as simple as just writing. It’s buckling down and getting the creative juices flowing, and putting words down on paper or typing them on the computer.
There are also moments when the plot is just not flowing in my mind. Perhaps I need to think through what a character might do in a certain situation. Or better yet, I need to think through what a character might not do. I’m always wanting to make my characters as real and fascinating as possible. But let’s be honest, sometimes people are just crazy.
An important aspect of any story is conflict. There needs to be enough conflict to draw in a reader, but not too much that the reader gets exhausted with the story and just wants it to end as soon as possible. There is a fine balance there. For example, in Avengers Endgame, it wasn’t enough that the characters had to go back in time to get the stones. The writers threw in a conflict where Nebula gets captured and gives away the plan. “Thanos Knows!”
Another important feature of my writing is that I want the reader to relate on some level with the bad guy or the killer. It’s just not enough for the reader to want to see the killer get theirs in the end. I want the reader to understand how they got there, the why for their actions, and maybe to struggle over the concept of whether or not the killer has any redeeming qualities. And if there are any redeeming qualities, are there enough of them to root for the killer, at least on some level?
So, yeah, I’m working on all those things when I write The Mack Files books. Hope you like it.
All the best!
Rodney
