Writers in the Storm

By Sarah (Sally) Hamer

Stories are more than plots, twists, and climaxes. They are living, breathing organisms that thrive on the pulse of their characters. At the center of every great narrative lies our protagonists -- the figures through whom readers experience both the fictional and the real world, wrestle with conflict, and ultimately discover meaning.

What makes a protagonist truly unforgettable? Is it their actions? Clever dialogue? GMC? (Goal, motivation, and conflict for those who don’t know.) I don’t think so. I think it’s their beating heart.

Of course, characters don’t truly have beating hearts, right? But remember, we ALWAYS base our characters on humans. We have to – it’s our human experiences that make characters real to the reader.

How do we uncover this heart? I believe we must explore the protagonist through three dimensions: body, mind, and soul. Together, these elements form the essence of character and ensure that our story resonates deeply with the audience. We must create something believable, but also something that will connect at a deep level with people who really want to read our books.

Body:

First, we have to ground the protagonist in reality. The body is the vessel through which the protagonist interacts with the world. It is the tangible, physical aspect of character that anchors them in reality and makes them relatable. The aspects are physicality, body language, and action.

• Physicality
  A protagonist’s face and body tells us who they are before they speak. The weary soldier with scars etched across his skin, or the child with tears on her face, tell us who they are at a glance, narrative cues that reveal history, struggle, and potential. It’s technically the superficial level we’re working with here, but it’s the first level of intimacy and we start to get to know them.
• Body Language
  The next level of intimacy is how a character can tell their story without actual motion. This is an outward expression of how we HOLD our bodies. Crossed arms, raised eyebrows, a tilt of the head, the palette of underlying emotions conveyed by tiny clues of unrealized  illustration, these all help us to determine character.
• Action/Motion
  The body also tells us other things. Every gesture, every stumble, every triumph is communicated through physicality. When Katniss Everdeen raises her bow, her body becomes the language of rebellion. When Frodo collapses under the weight of the Ring, his frailty conveys the crushing burden of destiny. The body externalizes the internal, allowing readers to witness the protagonist’s journey in motion.

Mind:

If the body is the vessel, the mind is the compass. It shapes and directs the protagonist’s perspective and choices, interprets the world, and shapes the narrative’s moral and intellectual core.

• Thoughts as Windows
  A protagonist’s mind opens a window into their worldview. Through their thoughts, doubts, and rationalizations, readers gain insight into how they perceive conflict and opportunity. As we see in Hamlet’s endless soliloquies, for example, they reveal a mind caught in paralysis, torn between action and contemplation. His heart is found not in his sword but in his ceaseless questioning.
• Conflict as Mental Terrain
  The mind is also the battlefield of internal conflict. A protagonist may wrestle with fear, guilt, or ambition long before these emotions manifest in action. This mental struggle often defines the story’s tension more than external obstacles. In George Orwell’s 1984, Winston Smith’s rebellion begins in thought — his mind daring to imagine freedom even as his body remains trapped.
• The Necessity of Intellect
  To find the heart of a protagonist, writers must explore their mental landscape. What do they believe? What do they fear? What truths do they cling to, and which lies do they tell themselves? The mind provides the scaffolding for the protagonist’s decisions, ensuring that their journey is not random but deeply rooted in their inner logic.

The Soul:

Beyond body and mind lies the soul—the ineffable core that defines the protagonist’s humanity. The soul is where values, emotions, and purpose converge. It is the heart in its purest form.

• Emotion as Resonance
  The soul is the seat of emotion, and emotion is the bridge between character and reader. When a protagonist grieves, we grieve. When they love, we love. This resonance is what transforms a story from entertainment into catharsis. Think of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird: his soul radiates integrity and compassion, and it is this moral heartbeat that makes him unforgettable.
• Purpose as Destiny
  The soul also defines the protagonist’s purpose. It is the “why” behind their journey. Without soul, a character may act and think, but they lack meaning. The soul answers the question: what is at stake? Why does this story matter? In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo’s soul is bound to the idea of sacrifice — his willingness to bear suffering for the greater good. That purpose elevates his journey beyond survival into transcendence. Instead, the character’s experiences may break them, body, mind, and soul, as Winston Smith was broken. Even though his intent was to find a way out of the torture, it finally became too much and he gave up the fight.
• The Necessity of Essence
  To find the heart of a protagonist, writers must uncover their soul. This requires peeling back layers of action and thought to reveal the values that define them. What do they stand for? What would they die for? What truth do they carry into the world? The soul is the heartbeat that sustains the narrative, ensuring that the protagonist is not just a character but a symbol of human experience.

The Interplay of Body, Mind, and Soul

The true heart of a protagonist emerges not from one dimension alone but from the interplay of body, mind, and soul. These elements are inseparable, each informing and enriching the other.

• The body expresses the protagonist’s struggles and triumphs in tangible form.
• The mind interprets these experiences, shaping decisions and conflicts.
• The soul imbues them with meaning, ensuring that the journey resonates beyond the page.

When these dimensions align, the protagonist becomes whole. They cease to be a construct and instead become a living presence in the reader’s imagination. This wholeness is what makes characters like Elizabeth Bennet, Harry Potter, or Jane Eyre endure across generations. Their bodies act, their minds question, and their souls inspire.

Conclusion: Writing with Heart

To write a protagonist is to breathe life into a story. To find their heart is to ensure that life is not mechanical but meaningful. By exploring the body, mind, and soul of a character, writers uncover the essence that makes them unforgettable. The body grounds them, the mind guides them, and the soul elevates them. Together, these dimensions create a protagonist whose journey resonates with readers long after the final page is turned.

In the end, the heart of a protagonist is not just necessary — it is the story itself. For without heart, there is no connection, no catharsis, no truth. And without truth, are stories worth telling?

How do you create a protagonist?

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About Sarah

Sarah (Sally) Hamer, B.S., MLA, is a lover of books, a teacher of writers, and a believer in a good story. Most of all, she is eternally fascinated by people and how they 'tick'. She’s passionate about helping people tell their own stories and has won awards at both local and national levels, including two Golden Heart finals.

A teacher of memoir, beginning and advanced creative fiction writing, and screenwriting at Louisiana State University in Shreveport for over twenty years, she also teaches online for Margie Lawson at www.margielawson.com and for the No Stress Writing Academy at https://www.worldanvil.com/w/classes-deleyna/a/no-stress-writing-academy.  Sally is a free-lance editor and book coach, with many of her students and clients becoming successful, award-winning authors.

You can find her at info@mindpotential.org

Header Photo by Aung Soe Min on Unsplash

By Anne Robertson

Let me take you back for a moment.

It’s 1989. I’m a young book publicist at Simon & Schuster, working on The Real Frank Zappa Book, published by Poseidon, one of S&S’s imprints. Frank comes to New York for his publicity tour, and I know—this is going to be big.

In a whirlwind few days, we hit Today, NPR, Larry King Live at CNN headquarters, newspaper interviews (including The Philadelphia Inquirer), and a massive bookstore signing in Greenwich Village. Fans lined up for blocks—Wall Street types, hippies, kids, artists, every demographic you can imagine—waiting hours just to meet him.

There was a limo (driven by Frank’s childhood friend, Eddie), champagne lunch at Le Cirque, espresso stopover at a downtown biker bar, and a book signing so wild people jumped on the limo when we arrived (Frank loved it; security… less so). The tour ended with a boozy Italian dinner where the restaurant closed its doors for privacy, Larry King Live that night, and late-night drinks at The Brasserie, where Frank regaled us with Hollywood stories before handing me a rose and a signed book.

The book became an instant bestseller. Of course it did.

Those were the days.

And if you’re an author today thinking, “Why doesn’t publicity work like that anymore, for any of us, celebrity or not?”—you’re not wrong.

Welcome to the Publicity Existential Crisis

That golden era of book publicity worked because attention was centralized. Newly published authors of all types and genres went on pre-scheduled media and bookstore appearance tours across the country. A handful of national outlets could reach millions of people at once, while local morning TV, radio, and newspaper features amplified the buzz in every city. If you landed the right show or feature, sales followed. Careers could be launched in a measure of weeks.

Today? The limo isn’t coming.

Media is fragmented. Review space is limited (or more accurately, has shifted to online reader review platforms). Launch windows are short. Algorithms decide what’s visible, media consumption keeps transforming and even strong books can feel invisible almost overnight.

Authors ask:
Why did my book disappear after pub week (or after a few months of launching)?
Why am I doing “all the things” and still not seeing results?
Does publicity even matter anymore?

Publishers ask the same questions—often quietly, often anxiously.

This is what is called the publicity existential crisis: not because publicity is dead, but because the old rules no longer apply—and no one handed out a new playbook.

So what actually changed? And what didn’t?

Publicity didn’t stop working. Mass publicity stopped working.

Readers didn’t disappear. They scattered.

Today, books are discovered through genre communities, newsletters and Substack, podcasts and niche media, influencers and reviewers, bookstores, libraries, festivals, and word of mouth that builds slowly and then sticks. Discovery is quieter, more personal, and often cumulative rather than explosive.

Publicity used to be a moment. Now it has to be a relationship.

This shift has real implications for authors, whether traditionally published or independent.

Authors can no longer be passive participants in their own publicity. That doesn’t mean becoming an influencer or posting nonstop. It means understanding who your readers are, having at least one direct way to reach them, and showing up consistently in ways that feel authentic rather than performative.

The authors who struggle most right now are often doing plenty—they’re just doing it without a clear strategy for connection. Visibility without resonance rarely leads to lasting awareness, which impacts sales.

What Publishers Are Up Against

Publishers, meanwhile, are under enormous pressure. In-house publicity teams are working with fewer outlets, smaller staffs, shorter timelines, and bigger expectations than ever before. Launch week has become the entire strategy—not because it’s ideal, but because it’s manageable.

The problem is that most books don’t sell in a week, or even a month. They succeed because readers discover them over time, awareness and trust grow, and momentum compounds. The gap between how readers find books and how publicity is structured is where much of today’s challenges live.

The solution isn’t to go backward. It’s to rethink what a campaign is.

From Campaigns to Ecosystems

Think of campaigns as ecosystems.

Modern publicity works when media, influencers, author platforms, events, long-form content, speaker gigs and community engagement support one another over time. It’s less about a single splash and more about sustained presence. Less about being everywhere and more about being in the right places consistently.

The existential crisis isn’t the end of publicity. It’s the moment for a reset, when we stop relying on the old playbook—and use what still applies to build something better in its place. Books and stories still change lives. Readers are still hungry. When publicity meets readers where they actually are, it still works—just differently than it used to.

Why We Started InkFox Publicity

InkFox Publicity (a LAVIDGE Co.) – which launches later this month – was born from this exact moment, to help authors and publishers build sustainable visibility and real reader relationships in today’s landscape.

Have a burning question for a publicist, ask in the comments below.

About Anne

As both a former journalist and a longtime PR leader, Anne Robertson began her career at Simon & Schuster, gaining firsthand insight into how books reach their audiences.

Before joining InkFox Publicity, Anne spent 18 years leading the Public Relations division at LAVIDGE, supporting clients across education, healthcare, hospitality and corporate sectors. Her newsroom background and strategic PR experience give her a sharp instinct for what makes a story stand out.

With more than two decades promoting authors and brands, Anne blends media savvy with modern digital strategies to build meaningful visibility. Known for her crisis communications expertise and industry connections, she is a trusted advisor to debut writers, established and growing publishing houses, and executives alike.

Header Photo by Binh Nguyen on Unsplash

By Jaime Buckley

Why discoverability, the AI Librarian, and leaving a public record of your work will matter more than talent alone.

Jaime here…and the last few months of 2025 were spent chasing a question I just couldn't let go.

How can we stop being invisible?

To be clear, I've been making a living with my creativity since 1986. I've always had a measure of success. Enough to raise a large family, while my loving wife wanted to be a stay at home mom to our 13 children.

Problem is, that income has never been consistent. It's always been a feast or famine.

While I sit here, on December 9^th, 2025, I KNOW 2026 is not a year to ease into. It’s a year we should step into with intention. And for fiction authors especially, there’s one priority that can no longer sit on the back burner pretending it’s optional.

Discoverability.

Not marketing theater. Not banging on our chests and shouting into social media voids. Not chasing whatever platform is trending this week.

This is about being findable in a world where readers no longer search the way they used to…because they don't. I've watched this from my own couch as my teens and married kids ordered what they needed over there phones.

Verbally.

AI is quietly becoming the world’s most influential search tool.

Nothing About This Is Safe

Whether you like it or not, the AI Librarian is already at work.

When readers ask questions now, they’re not just typing keywords into a search bar. They’re asking systems to understand intent.

Context. Authority. Trust.

“Who writes hopeful fantasy for teens?”
“Which authors explore courage without cynicism?”
“Where can I find stories like this?”

Those questions are being answered by machines trained to index the world. The whole…flipping…world.

It didn't matter what I thought or how I felt, because it's already here,…and it's not leaving. That panic I felt forced me to deal with my paranoia. To search for the truth of the matter. To ask brave questions, sifting through the arguments online.

Heck, we even started a podcast (Nothing About This Is Safe) to give us tools for talking to voices of 'reason'. For weeks, we reached out to those in the know and asked them to sit down with me to answer uncommon questions. To work through them WITH me. Not in the spotlight to prove anything, but to educate ME, ...in front of the world.

You know what we found after the first ten episodes? If our work isn’t indexed properly, it effectively doesn’t exist to this current system. Your treasured work will become invisible.

That’s not fear-mongering. That’s reality.

The good news is (yup, there's good news)…this same shift I once feared is also tearing down gates that used to be locked tight.

AI Is Leveling the Playing Field… If You Let It

For decades, discoverability was controlled by a handful of players. Retail algorithms. Publishing houses. Ad budgets. Luck masquerading as merit.

AI doesn’t care about any of that.

It doesn’t care if you’re traditionally published or indie.
It doesn’t care how many followers you have.
It doesn’t care if you live in New York or a spare bedroom in rural nowhere.

It cares about signals.

Consistency.
Clarity.
Public proof of what you create and why it matters.

In other words… your record.

AI is brutally fair in that sense, which I love. If you show up clearly and consistently, it will eventually notice. If you hide your work, it will politely forget you exist. That’s the leveling part. And for writers willing to do the work, it’s revolutionary.

Indexing Is Not Selling… It’s Translation

A lot of authors hear “discoverability” and immediately tense up.

Relax.

This isn’t about becoming a salesman. It’s about becoming legible.

Indexing your work to the world means you’re helping systems understand what you do, who it’s for, and how it fits into the broader conversation of stories. Think of it less like promotion and more like translation.

You already know your themes.
You already know your genre.
You already know the emotional promises your stories make.

Indexing simply makes those truths visible… to humans AND machines alike. This is why we keep hammering on the idea of writing your record before something else writes it for you.

Because if you don’t define your work, someone [or someTHING] else will.

Or worse… no one will.

Why We Built the Podcast the Way We Did

This exact shift is why Nothing About This Is Safe exists in the first place. The whole show was based on the top 100 questions writers had in 2024 and 2025. Questions I personally sifted through, indexed, prioritized and then crafted interview questions for.

We didn’t build it to chase downloads.
We didn’t build it to impress other writers.
We built it as a living, breathing index of ideas.

Every episode tackles the kinds of questions writers are already asking… about craft, fear, money, identity, time, technology. Not in buzzwords. In plain language.

Each conversation creates public proof. Not just of opinions, but of thinking. Of values. Of lived experience.

That matters because AI doesn’t just index content… it indexes 'patterns', remember?

And patterns emerge when you show up over time, speaking honestly about the same core beliefs from different angles.

The podcast isn’t a megaphone. It’s a trail of breadcrumbs.

…and you're being offered a seat at the table.

Discoverability Is an Act of Service

Here’s the part too many authors miss. Being discoverable isn’t about ego. It’s about 'letting' the right reader find the right story at the right moment.

Somewhere out there is a kid who needs the courage your protagonist models.
A parent looking for safe, meaningful stories.
A burned-out adult who forgot why fiction mattered in the first place.

They are asking questions. Real ones.

AI is answering those questions.

Your job is to make sure your work is eligible to be part of that answer.

That means writing publicly. Explaining your thinking. Connecting your stories to the deeper human questions they explore.

Not constantly. Not perfectly. Just consistently.

What 2026 Is Quietly Demanding From Authors

The era of hiding until you’re “ready” is over.

You don’t need a massive audience.
You don’t need polished branding.
You don’t need permission.

You need presence.

The wonderful part, and what we strive every day to help writers understand, is that presence looks like this…
• A clear body of work that lives somewhere stable.
• Language that describes what you do in human terms.
• Repetition of your core ideas across time.

Minimal lists. Maximum clarity. Isn't this what you already do day in and day out?

If you’ve been waiting for the industry to notice you, 2026 is gently tapping you on the shoulder and saying…

That’s not how this works anymore.

The Hope Most Writers Haven’t Noticed Yet

This shift should actually make you hopeful.

For the first time in history, writers who care about substance have an advantage (at least for now).

AI is terrible at shallow posturing.
It’s bad at fake authority.
It’s allergic to inconsistency.

But it’s excellent at recognizing sustained intent.

If you believe in your stories.
If you believe they matter.
If you’re willing to speak clearly about why you write what you write…

Then you’re not late. You’re early.

Start the Year By Being Findable

So here’s our encouragement as we step into 2026.

Don’t make this the year you write in secret.
Don’t make this the year you wait for permission.
Don’t make this the year you let fear dress itself up as humility.

Make this the year you index your work to the world.

Write publicly.
Speak honestly.
Leave a trail.

The AI Librarian is already listening. And for the first time in a long time… it’s not stacked against you.

If you want help thinking through this shift, start with our podcast. That’s what it’s there for. Not to hype. Not to posture. But to think out loud together… while the world is listening. There's nothing to sign up for. There's no commitment to make. Look for Nothing About This Is Safe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or…ask AI.

Noting to lose. Everything to gain.

Let’s start 2026 visible, intentional, and unafraid.

Be honest: where are you still writing in secret—and what would “being findable” look like for you in 2026?

About Jamie

Jaime Buckley is an award-winning cartoonist and best-selling author.

More importantly, he’s a loving husband and father of 13 children. Since 1986 he’s worked for famous authors and TV personalities, and illustrated for hundreds of new authors across the genre spectrum. If you can think of a creative project or marketing strategy, Jaime's likely done it… but always finds his greatest success by being himself. You can find Jaime entertaining readers five days a week on LifeOfFiction.com and expanding his fictional lore on WantedHero.com.

He also runs a writers community over at JaimeBuckley.com which includes his popular new podcast Nothing About This Is Safe.

The link to the podcast is https://www.jaimebuckley.com/podcast

Check out Jaime's current books:

Worldbuilding Guides

Wanted Hero comics collection (over one million downloads!)

Demoni Vankil

Bloodsticks

What IF (a choose your own ending adventure)

Stella and the Bear

Photo by David DINTSH on Unsplash