Digging deep: What's your character's real problem?

Writer Unboxed's Therese Walsh, like many of us, loves a particular advice columnist.

In her case, it's Washington Post columnist Carolyn Hax, who constantly impresses Walsh with how she figures out the actual core problem behind a letter writer's complaint.

And reading these columns isn't just entertainment — it's instructive for writing, she says.

After all, if you can come to understand what is truly motivating your character, your writing will be that much richer and better informed.

Walsh shares some exercises on how to dig depeer into your characters' motivations at Writer Unboxed.

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