Spring 2026
April is National Poetry Month
Saturday, April 11, 2:00-3:30 p.m.
Celebrate with Sonoma County poets.
Santa Rosa Northwest Library, 1331 Guerneville Road
Sunday, April 19, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Favorite Poems with Sonoma County Poet Laureate, Dave Seter.
Join for a heartwarming afternoon celebrating the power of poetry, benefiting SebArts’ Literary Arts Program.
You know how you learn something and you think you get it, but something happens and then you really get it?
That happened to me recently while listening to Jordan Rosenfeld and Nina Schuyler at Books at the Source Literary Arts Summit.
What I thought I knew was how to create believable characters by filling out questionnaires like these:
Character Sketch #1 . . . Prompt #556
Character Sketch #2 . . . Prompt #703
Jordan and Nina talked about how the sound and rhythm of words learned in early years form characters.
About how families have shorthand ways of talking.
About how someone in a group can say a word, or reference something and the other person gets it without a lengthy description.
And that’s when I “got it.”
Writers need to know their character’s childhood background and experiences . . . to walk in their character’s childhood shoes.
Writers need to know their characters intimately so their characters fully inhabit their dialogue and action, making the characters believable rather than unformed and shallow, make them more than cardboard cutouts or mannequins.
One way to do that:
Explore Characters . . . Prompt #557
More links to Write Spot Blog posts about character development
Three-dimensional characters . . . Prompt #444
Character idiosyncrasies . . . Prompt #554
What does your character want? What gets in the way? Prompt #133
Neuroplasticity & Character Development . . . Prompt #743
How to learn to develop characters and grow your writing skills:
Attend writing workshops and writing classes.
Read blogs and Substack posts about writing.
Writing Workshops
Sonoma County Literary Update has schedules of writing teachers and writing workshops.
Writing Blogs, Newsletters, Substacks
My favorites:
Let me know your favorite writing blogs and newsletters so I can post them in a Write Spot Newsletter.
Find the motivation to show up and do the work
Your most precious resource as a writer by Dan Blank, February 27, 2026
“The most terrifying thing we do as writers and creators, is to try. To have an idea, a creative vision, and then make an effort.
This begins privately — often unseen even by friends and family. Ideas locked away in our minds, jotted down and developed in a file saved deep in our computers.
I was talking with a writer the other day about my process of helping them hone their author platform, and connect their writing with readers. They asked what brings success in this process. I thought for a moment, and gave the most honest answer I could:
To find the motivation to show up and do the work.
Being clear about who our work may reach and why it will matter to them may uncover things we are even scared to say aloud.”