Birthdays: Clement Clarke Moore (1779), Thomas Bullfinch (1796), Walter D. Edmonds (1903), Hammond Innes (1913), Iris Murdoch (1919), Jacques Derrida (1930), Clive Cussler (1931), Lydia Davis (1947), Richard Russo (1949), Jeff Jarvis (1954), Marcia Jones (1958),

Clement Moore is most well known for “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (‘Twas the Night before Christmas)

Thomas Bullfinch is best known for “Bullfinch’s Mythology”

Walter Edmonds is best known for “Drums Along the Mohawk”

Richard Russo won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “Empire Falls”

Quote: “Study authors who write in your genre and who are successful; their writing style, structure, characterization, and plotting. It’s all there. You don’t need to go four years to school for a degree in writing. Ernest Hemingway studied and used the style of Tolstoy. Thomas Wolfe delved into James Joyce. I used Alistair MacLean when I started out, eventually moving into my own writing style which is now copied by other authors.” – Clive Cussler

Tip: What is your main character’s goal? What does s/he want to accomplish? Who stands in the way of this goal? This is the conflict for your plot.

Jumpstart: Your character is with a friend in a store. The friend steals something and gets away while your hero gets caught. Does he give up his friend? Why or why not?