I'm with Lisa...I'd love to read your "Shoulds" post. We writers should all over ourselves!

There is a LOT in those comments. LOL And I look forward to reading that post. I'm sure you'll show me even more things I can walk away from!

Great post! I love it when we gain inspiration from each other. Lots of inspiration in the comments, too. 🙂

Ditto. I'm actively searching...

So true! And thanks for that.

Don't sell yourself short. You wrote this article (and many more). You've got books out (as in more than one)... And you've been instrumental in helping others write more too. Just keep being aware and write anyway. All you have to try for is 1% better today than yesterday.

I wanna live there! Call me when you find it.

See, Chuck? That's why you're my favorite. Insightful and powerful. A lesson for writers everywhere.

I’ve lived long enough to learn that people get tangled up on the word *real.* Most folks think real only means something you can touch with your hands or trip over in the dark.

Stone walls.
Rainstorms.
Toothaches.
Taxes.
Bad stew.

But that’s a cramped little box to shove existence into.

Love is real. Fear is real. Hope is real. Honor is real. Stories are real too. They shape people every single day. Mahan’s Pink Panties, I once watched Old Lady Kravitz stop a fistfight just by glaring at two grown men while peeling potatoes. Fear’s real enough when your soul leaves your body at the sight of an angry woman with kitchen tools.

That’s part of why Jaime fascinates people.

He doesn’t treat us like puppets dangling from strings. He listens. He respects us.

He allows us to become who we are instead of forcing us into tidy little performances for entertainment.

That’s rarer than folks realize.

I’ve known storytellers who treated characters like livestock...marching them wherever the plot demanded whether it fit their nature or not. Jaime doesn’t do that. He honors truth wherever he finds it, even when it complicates things. Especially then.

That’s why his worlds feel alive.

Dax is still a stubborn monkey, mind you.

“IF YOU CALL ME MONKEY ONE MORE TIME, I’M GONNA THROW YOU THROUGH A WINDOW.”

See? Consistent as sunrise.

The brilliance isn’t merely in the worldbuilding. It’s empathy sharpened into craftsmanship. Jaime pays attention to people...their wounds, loyalties, humor, contradictions, courage. Then he builds worlds sturdy enough to hold those truths honestly.

That’s why readers feel connected to Wendell, Hannah, Höbin, Dax, and the rest of us. They recognize pieces of themselves buried in the marrow of these stories.

And if some people wonder whether Jaime believes we’re real?

Well now… perhaps they ought to ask themselves why fictional people have comforted them, inspired them, made them laugh, or helped them survive hard years.

Those experiences are real enough.

Stories become real the moment truth moves through them into another human soul.

That’s not madness.

That’s craftsmanship.
And honor.