Five Links Friday 11/27/15

Happy Friday, ya’ll. Here is some stuff to read in between college football games. And if you don’t like football, that’s cool. Just don’t tell anyone and you’ll be fine. At least that’s the strategy that’s gotten me by for the last three or four decades.

1. For those of us who occasionally struggle with our dialogue (and I mean within the context of our characters. If you’re struggling with your own dialogue, I can’t help you) here are 7 Tips for Writing Realistic Dialogue by Lara Willard at Better Novel Project.

2. Are you boring? Surely not, as us writing folk are supposed to be the most interesting people around. But what about your characters? If they are boring it could be that they lack proper motivation. Fear not, however, as Kristen A Kieffer can show you How to Create Character Motivations That Will Rivet Your Readers at shesnovel.com.

3. You know what? There are times when you get stuck or just flat out forget how to write. Some guy named Neil Gaiman has Eight Rules for Writing that might help you out when this happens.

4. You know what else? World building can be hard. To prove that point, here are Things I wish I knew about worldbuilding when I started writing by Chris Andrews at Fandelyon.com.

5. And finally, for the writers out there who like to write villains, but just don’t know how to do much more than give them a Boris Badenov mustache to emphasize their evilness, here are 6 Terror Tactics For Really Scary Villains from writer Sacha Black.

That closes out this week. Make sure you put those extra five pounds you gained yesterday to good use. And keep writing, and keep reading. Don’t forget; you don’t need to see your toes to do either.