on writing - knowing your characters and stories

See these questions to get to know your characters.  They can help you focus your writing and discover things you didn't previously know about your stories.

Examples:
What kind of distinguishing facial features does your character have?
When and where was your character the happiest?
On what occasions does your character lie?

Also, here are 100 questions to critique your own story.  Lots to think about.
And...  questions to ask after your story's ending.

Happy writing!

By Susan Sorrell Hill

the well written - sylvia plath

Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow. To forget time, to forgive life,
to be at peace.

- Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

By Kim Herbst

illustration - chris appelhans

Chris' strange beginnings.
What will happen next?

from unexpected places - a blue cap

Often characters are known by something they wear consistently...  glasses, a pocket watch, crisp white shoes...  a blue cap.  So here's a bit of inspiration.
Write on.

By Garance Dore

the well written - kurt vonnegut

He looked around at the perfectly white world, felt the wet kisses of the snowflakes, pondered hidden meanings in the pale yellow streetlights that shone in a world so whitely asleep. 
"Beautiful," he whispered.

-Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan

By Jordan Lynn Gribble

a dreamer's wisdom - haruki murakami

The answer is dreams. Dreaming on and on. Entering the world of dreams and never coming out.
Living in dreams for the rest of time.

- Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart

By Dominique Falla

illustration - jeffrey stewart timmins

A lot of great character inspiration from this guy.