MLF, Characters, and a Ruckus...

I'd never attended an event such as this festival and I wasn't sure what to expect, but the Midwest Literary Festival in Aurora, IL was a great event.

Friday I moderated a wonderful panel on creating characters featuring children's author Bruce Hale, romance author Tara Taylor Quinn, mystery author Hallie Ephron, and thriller author and screenwriter Jay Bonansinga. The bottom line--create dimensional, believable characters readers can become invested in.

Later in the weekend at a short story panel, author Dennis Lehane and J.A. Konrath engaged in a passionate debate about character-driven stories vs. plot-driven stories. Dennis says, as far as he's concerned, all stories should be character-driven--readers must care about the characters in a story or they won't be interested in your plot. Joe says plot is key--no one wants to read about bunch of people sitting around talking about their lives. Works were cited! Voices were raised! The moderator had to brake it up! Much much excitement!