In the last week or so, I’ve written about 8,000 words on The Gate. Partly this was jump started by my having nailed Fiona’s underlying character motivation. But more importantly, I belatedly realised that the reason I’ve stalled on The Gate lately isn’t just because I’ve been madly scribbling away to get a pile of short fiction pieces submitted around the country, but because I haven’t been reading.

Well it seems obvious in retrospect, but I can’t remember the last time I sat down and read a book. Three months ago? Four?

I've been struggle with one of my primary characters in the Gate. From feedback I received when I posted the first chapters over at Critique Circle, I knew I had to flesh out my character more. For several months I have been trying to get to get to the bottom of the character using character templates, questionnaires, and the like. But nothing would get to the bottom of this character for me. That is until I discovered certain very useful archetypes that deal with underlying motivations.