Homespun -or- Character Spread

I’m sure there is a system.

There’s bound to be some kind of formula a writer can just plug into her manuscript and see if the Character Spread works. If there is, I don’t know it. In fact, I’m not entirely sure the concept of Character Spread exists anywhere outside my own OCD-tainted brain.

While I hold a Master Degree in Art History and a minor in Literature, I have never taken a single Creative Writing course in my life.

Some might dub this a hindrance. I think of it as a strength.

Yes, I may know all the proper terms and proper strategies toward storytelling from an academic standpoint, but my employment of these terms and strategies are entirely homespun. I believe this makes my writing efforts memorable, as quirky as my characters, as dumbfounding as some of my less than successful plots.

In a world that has a gazillion or more authors clamoring for that publishing call, I feel it is very important to be unique. To play within the rules but bring your own bat and ball to the game.

Anyhow, Character Spread is my idea that no major character in a book should go more than two chapters (once introduced) without a significant presence on the page. This might seem like child’s play when you’re working with the traditional one-two punch of a 50k genre romance, but when juggling 6 major characters in two distinct and distant locations things can get a little squirrely…

Or so I think.

But, really, what do I know?

Until tomorrow…

Chloe