In this week's episode, we'll take a look at five tips for creating distinctive character voices and viewpoints within your novel. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Update Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 209 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is July the 12th, 2024 and today we are discussing five tips for creating vivid characterizations. Before we get into that, we'll have some writing progress updates, a couple of questions from readers, Question of the Week, and then we'll get on to our main topic. So for my current writing projects, I'm pleased to report that Shield of Darkness is out and selling briskly, and you can get it at all the usual places: Amazon, Barnes, and Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books, Smashwords, and my Payhip store. It's had a very strong response so far and thank you for that. I'm glad you guys are enjoying the book. Now that Shield of Darkness is out, my next project is Half-Orc Paladin. I am pleased to report I'm currently on Chapter 10 of 16, which puts me at 60,000 words. Yesterday I had a 10,000 word day while I was working on it, my sixth one of 2024. Good progress has been made. I'm hoping to have that book out preferably in early August. In audiobook news, the audiobook of Wizard-Thief as narrated by Leanne Woodward is almost finished. We’ve just got to finish proofing it and that should take place next week and hopefully the audiobook will be out towards the end of July or early August. Once Half-Orc Paladin is done, I have not 100% decided what I’m going to write next. I'm 20,000 words into Ghost in the Tombs, so that could be next or I might write Shield of Conquest or Cloak of Illusion. We will see what I do when I get to the end of Half-Orc Paladin. But right now, I am focusing on Half-Orc Paladin and bringing that to completion. We have a reader question from BV, who asks: I saw an app called Scrivener, and I thought of what Jonathan uses. I'm an old mainframe COBOL/RPG developer and I know that the tech environment can really help. I tried Scrivener way back in 2014 and it was too complicated for me, too much. Granted, the app might have changed since then because 2014 feels to me at least like it was really recent, but it was in fact ten years ago. So for writing, I primarily use Microsoft Word for writing and editing and then I use Vellum on the Mac for the final ebook formatting. That's the way I do it right now. Nothing to say that it can't change. Maybe I might switch to LibreOffice again for writing as Microsoft continues to sort of circle the AI drain and adds more and more useless AI features to its products. 00:02:38 Question of the Week Now it's time for Question of the Week, which is designed to inspire interesting discussion of enjoyable topics. This week's question: what is your favorite kind of sandwich? This got a lot of responses, as you might expect. Grimlar says: buttered oven bottom muffin, slice of lamb, medium mature slice of cheese, and a coating of salad cream. Justin says: the current sandwich at my house is turkey with provolone, lettuce, and tomato with mayonnaise on homemade sourdough. That actually sounds pretty good right now. Kevin says: bit boring here. Grilled cheese and bacon or BLT with mayo. Easily pleased, Michael says: can't beat a toasted cheese sandwich, which seems to be called a grilled cheese in the US, which has always baffled me. Ham is a good addition as well. I agree with Michael. That is a very good sandwich. Brandy says: old school. Tie between cold Jif creamy peanut butter and Concord grape jam or warm grilled Gruyere and Colby Jack on a good homemade bread (pumpernickel, oatmeal, wheat, or sourdough). Barbara says: Kind of a plain girl: toasted cheese and tomato. Annie says: toasted sandwich: ham, cheese, red onions, and tomato with butter and mayo. Jesse says: Italian sub with hot peppers. Steve says: I'd add some cheese because I'm a cheesy kind of guy and my spicy mustard has a bit of horseradish, too. Bonnie says: Maine Amatoes roast beef Italian (RB, cheese, onion, green pepper, pickled tomato, black olives, mayo, not oil. Jenny says: rare roast beef slices, sharp cheddar, and sourdough bread. I don't lubricate my sandwiches and prefer simple. Otherwise grilled cheese (extra sharp cheddar and gouda) or really anything with ham in there. Nick says: this is just perfect. Just make the beef pastrami. Jonah says: Panini. Genoa salami, roasted red peppers, onions, Jack and mozzarella cheese, good olive oil, and maybe a pesto. Gary says: there are lots of good ones, but if I can only have one, it has to be PB&J (crunchy peanut butter and raspberry jam). Andrew says: An MLT, a nice mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich where the mutton is so lean. I have to admit I did not know that was an actual sandwich. Randy says: hot and juicy pastrami with melted pepperjack cheese, diced red onion, mayo, and horseradish mustard on a lightly toasted sourdough hoagie. Dang it. Now ...
