Seeing Color? Become a character in a book.

Forget writer's block, how about writer's cramp?

When I was a kid, my brother and I liked that commercial where the learned owl is trying to determine how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll, tootsie pop.

I was reminded of that commercial on Monday when I flew to Spokane to see how many books I could sign in six hours and still make my flight home. The answer, 2520. I never knew writer's cramp until now.

Seeing Color?

But, to have a little fun, I signed all of the books in black ink, except for one. If the lucky person who buys that book emails me and can tell me the color of the signature and answer one other conversation, I will name a character after them in my next book.

I leave Friday for Chicago where I'll teach a two-day seminar on writing and then the tour begins. If you've signed up for my mailing list you'll be getting an email today or tomorrow loaded with information on where and when I will be signing, hopefully in a store near you.

Writing Tip of the Week:

Okay, if you've been following along, you should now have created your character and the world in which he or she lives. You should also have come up with the inciting event that has set the story in motion. Now that your character's journey is underway, where does it first take him or her - to a new world, perhaps, new state, new job, new house - someplace different than his ordinary world and what is the first obstacle he or she encounters in this new place. (An obstacle is anything that gets in the path or your protagonist's goal, whether his or her ultimate goal in the book - to save the world before the bomb explodes, or his or her goal in the scene - to get a hot cup of coffee)

Hope to see you at one of my book stops.

Bob Dugoni