Wednesday links: Unnecessary characters

I love regularly reading tips and advice articles in certain subjects — particularly writing and publishing. I don’t always need the information right then, but I know that it’ll eventually come in handy. Or at least, I hope it will.

I know there are a lot of other people out there who feel the same way I do, but sometimes it can be difficult to find every useful advice article that’s out there. So I thought I’d bring you a few.

Here are the tips and advice articles that jumped out at me the most over the past week.

1. A Lesson in Eliminating Unnecessary Characters From Your Story, from Helping Writers Become Authors: Both authors and readers alike love characters. Not only do they help propel a story, but they also tug at our hearts and draw our sympathy. But that doesn’t mean that every character is necessary to your story. Excerpt: “You’ll often hear me and other writing instructors say that all “unnecessary characters” should be eliminated from your story. But that, of course, begs the question: How do you know which characters are unnecessary?“