Oh hey there, it’s that writing podcast guy who did really dumb cold opens for the first twelve episodes of Inkwell Insights, Blake Reichenbach.

If you are not familiar with the Inkwell Insights podcast, (a) I’m surprised you found this newsletter, and (b) let me give you a quick introduction.

The Inkwell Insights podcast is a haven for word nerds. I geek out about writing. Sometimes, I interview authors about their work and how they approach craft. Sometimes, I talk to industry professionals about how to stand out and write some damn good fiction. Other times, I talk about my own writing– you know, the usual trials and tribulations of aspiring to be a published novelist while also working a full-time job and caring for a very needy, deaf bulldog.

This newsletter follows a similar pattern. In weeks when I don’t publish a new episode of the podcast, I’ll publish an edition of the newsletter. It’s like a trade-off between your senses. Eyes some weeks, ears on others.

Just wait until I launch my cologne and hot sauce lines. Then, we can incorporate your senses of taste and smell into the mix, too. Touch can also come into play when I publish my book, and you get your grubby little paws on that glorious hardcover (I’m thinking deckled edges, baby!).

In the Inkwell Insights newsletter, you can expect to find:

• Writing exercises to help you hone your craft.

• Book reviews.

• Exclusive content from our podcast guests that is only accessible to newsletter subscribers.

• Deep dives into the mechanics of writing, including grammar, story structure, and other conventional wisdom.

We may occasionally venture away from these territories. For example, sometimes, I may want to shove a picture of my dog in front of your face, but that will be rare.

Sink your teeth into the following writing exercise as an amuse-bouche of what to expect from the newsletter moving forward.

Writing Exercise: Does Your Protagonist Have Daddy Issues? Plumbing Your Character’s Past to Understand their Present

One of the most challenging aspects when writing a novel is figuring out your protagonist’s motivation.

Stories are propelled forward by the tension between your protagonist’s goals or desires and the conflicts– internal, external, existential– that they must overcome to attain their goals.

If you aren’t sure what your character wants and why they want it, you’ll struggle to create a story that readers connect with and care about.

Even in genres like speculative fiction, where the external stakes may be as big and dramatic as an apocalypse or angry gods, every story has to be anchored in its characters.

As such, to create a book that readers will love and that you won’t dread writing, you need to know your characters deeply. That includes understanding what happened in their lives before your manuscript began.

"Without the past to anchor the present, everything will be neutral, and nothing will add up," Lisa Cron, author of Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere) explains. "And so it will come across as random to the reader."

Getting to the heart of a character's motivations—their misbeliefs, their emotional roadblocks, the specifics of how past experiences shape their perception of reality—is essential groundwork.

Exercise Instructions

For this writing exercise, which takes inspiration from Lisa Cron’s Story Genius, you’ll need to draft a scene from your character’s past that has shaped how they view the world. I intentionally want you to pick a moment that will not appear in your manuscript. Your character may reflect on it, but it shouldn’t be one that comes up in the prologue or a flashback.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Identify a misbelief that your protagonist possesses and write it down. Do they think love always results in pain? That wealth will solve their problems? That people are tools to be used?

   1. If you’re not sure what misbelief your character has yet, think about their flaws. Are they really sarcastic? Maybe they have a misbelief that it’s not safe to be genuine. Do they charge into situations without thinking? Maybe that indicates some kind of deep-seated fear that triggers their fight or flight response.

2. Once you’ve written down their misbelief, start to jot down ideas for events that may have happened in their past that either created or solidified this misbelief in their mind.

   1. Try to get three or four possibilities down on paper at this stage. You don’t need more than a sentence (or even a sentence fragment).
      

   2. Example: A character whose misbelief is that money will solve all of their problems might have a list of events like:

      1. Her mother used to say things like, “When mama makes it big, we’ll get out of here” when she was growing up.

      2. He once had to miss out on a school field trip to the planetarium because his dad drank the field trip money.

      3. After getting fired from his last job and taking on a temporary gig as a bus boy at the local dive bar, he ran into his childhood best friend, who grew up in a well-connected family and is now a hot-shot executive.

3. Pick one of the ideas that you came up with– whichever feels most interesting to you– and flesh it out into a scene. Focus on what your protagonist feels moment by moment. What did they go into the scene believing? How is that belief challenged, solidified, or changed by the events of the scene?

   1. For my current manuscript, which explores the queer experience of nostalgia as one of its key themes, my protagonist has the subconscious misbelief that he has to be perfect to be deserving of love and acceptance.
      
      So, when I did this exercise, I wrote about the first night he met his childhood best friend. His parents invited his friend’s parents over for dinner since they were new neighbors. In the scene, my protagonist (who was six at the time) makes a mistake that embarrasses his father and is swiftly and harshly punished.
      
      By the end of the scene, he feels like he has to walk on eggshells around his father, resents his mother for not protecting him, and admires his new friend, who tries to stand up for him and take the blame.
      
      (The scene I wrote for my own manuscript is also why I call this exercise Does Your Protagonist Have Daddy Issues?)

4. Once you’ve written your scene, reflect on how your character’s worldview will be shaped by that event in the future. Consider if there are scenes in your manuscript in which your character may be faced with a similar situation. Will they make different choices? Or, will the past repeat itself?

5. Tuck that scene away. I use the Notes section in Scrivener, but putting it in a Google Doc or whatever you prefer to use is also fine. Draw from it for inspiration as needed.

A First Issue Bonus: Meet Walker

As I wrap up this first edition of the Inkwell Insights newsletter, I wanted to introduce a recurring character to the newsletter: my dog.

I semi-jokingly said earlier that I might stray from the path of writing and share pictures of my dog. And hey, what’s a semi-joke without a semi-punchline?

By subscribing to the Inkwell Insights podcast and newsletter, you make Walker and me a very happy duo.

Happy scribbles,

Blake