JWTroemner.com

Welcome to the official website of JW Troemner.

Author of The Dealmaker’s Gambit, the Urban Dragon Series, and Tatter and Shine

Category: The Process of Writing

  • Stealing from another house

    It’s no secret that I’ve got a bit of a sore spot regarding certain elements in fiction: specifically, I’m frustrated by a glut of fiction featuring Tolkien’s Elves/Dwarves/Men, the standard Vampires/Werewolves civil war, the obsession with Norse and Greek mythology. It’s not that these elements are bad– not by a…

  • The thing about originality

    I was just scrolling through my Reader on WordPress when I spotted this blog post, about a book called THE DREAM KEEPER, which involves a creature called a shifter. In case you haven’t heard, my WIP is tentatively called DREAMKEEPER, and features a race of people called shifters.  There was…

  • Picking the brain of the collective

    Some days you just need some opinions. Maybe you’re torn between names for your protagonist. Maybe you’re having trouble coming up with a minor character’s motivations, or the right job for the love interest. Maybe you’re just interested in finding out what people think makes a good protagonist. Sometimes, the…

  • Mood Whiplash

    Alex and Chris are running from the monster. Alex is pretty sure there’s a bit of their mutual friend, Pauline, on Chris’s shirt– possibly part of Pauline’s kidney– left over from their last narrow escape from the beast. Every breath comes in a gasp as they turn yet another corner,…

  • The things you learn when researching!

    The things you learn when researching! My current WIP involved shapeshifters, and Michelle brought up a good question: Why doesn’t a shapeshifter just pick up the protagonist and fly her off, Hobbit-style, to where he needs to go? I considered it a simple issue of physics: in order to pick…

  • The case for creativity

    Next weekend I’ll be going to Chicago to see Team Starkid’s Twisted with my husband. For those who didn’t know, Starkid Productions started off as a student group in the University of Michigan, who created the Very Potter Musical just to goof off– and now they’re touring nationwide, and the…

  • 31 Days of Blogging: What do YOU think about protagonists?

    More than a month ago, I asked people what they thought makes for a good or likable protagonist (and, on the other side of the coin, what makes a bad or unlikable one). The responses I got were pretty phenomenal. And because it’s such a subjective question, here’s the responses…

  • 31 Day Blogging Challenge: The devil in the details

    Last night, my cat George ran off into the house next to mine and wouldn’t come back, so I grabbed my flip-flops and umbrella, went over there, and got him.  Boring, isn’t it? Technically the above is a story, but it’s a skeleton. There’s nothing to grab onto. So let’s…

  • 31 Day Blogging Challenge: Why do I write?

    On the first day of the 31 Day Blogging Challenge, Lisa told me “I’d be interested to know what you write about and why…?”

  • Aerith and the Phoenix Down

    There’s nothing like death to add drama and angst to a story. It’s a source of grief, of guilt, of shame. What leaves the biggest scars, though, is that while the angsting character might have contributed to their loved one’s death, there’s nothing they could do to stop it once…