What ingredients make your best book?  A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES won the Pulitzer prize years ago and is still a favorite of mine.  It’s all character driven by one character: Ignatius Reilly, whom you’ll never forget.

When I write, I try to balance everything; imagery, dialogue, and characters.  Of course it all ends up driving the story which I believe is the most important.  Take out any one of the previously mentioned ingredients or at least weaken it substantially and an engaging story will pull it along.     For my own writing, balancing everything is a consequence of judicious editing as my original draft is all story.  Of course, the protagonist is the star, as always but the supporting cast can’t be ignored.  Everything they do and say must move the story.  Sorry, no frivolous friends unless they are the ‘twist’ at the end of the story.

Come back to read more.