Just got back from a road trip. Along the way, I stopped in Jonesboro, Arkansas (home of Arkansas Sta
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te University) for the sole purpose of resting my weary head and having a stable connection so that I could be on Randy Weir’s show, Bringing Characters to Life. Randy is the author of the #1 Amazon Bestselling Jarvis Mann PI Series. If you’re a fan of PI novels, check it out.
Randy and I talked about how to build characters and give them agency, even when that agency makes them a bit sassy.
Personally, I think that sass helps. It lets your characters correct you when you try to make them do something inconsistent – even when you really need it to help the story. In my novels, Feral is the one who most often speaks up in this manner. As a reminder, Feral was featured in the NYT Game Wordle back in 2024.
The show goes for about an hour and leaves viewers with lots of new insight, plus a reminder of the importance of leaving reviews.