You provide the food, I'll provide the perspective.

Perspective. Point-of-view. The other side. Point-of-view is an Essential trait for any writer. New and old must master the content required in achieving an alternate perspective. the biggest reason why? Unless you're writing a story about yourself in first person, you'll be in the minds of others.

So you have to consider, what is the person in your story thinking? Have you taken into account the extremities of their situation? All too often, Writers (both new and experienced) write their characters into doing a stupidly brave thing. It depresses from the story, and it puts you into a situation where your characters are extremely powerful.

For example, If you have a character that has arachnophobia and he overcomes his fear and kills some giant spider, when does he come up with the bravery to do so? He doesn't get it overnight in a random surge of adrenaline: He will freeze up until something happens where his fear is less motivating then his desire to help ___.

Lets use an example from the master, J.R.R. tolkien: Sam doesnt help Frodo kill Shelob until AFTER frodo had been caught. He was still horrified, but he didnt charge out to protect Frodo before, because he was too afraid.

Use caution in your writing, so that your characters deranged acts of bravery make sense. Take into perspective what THEY'RE thinking, not what you think they're thinking. One of the hardest, and best things to do? The age-old question- Why are women/men so cray zee?

Thats your prompt. Pick up Aphrodite's mirror (men) or Ares' shield and spear (women) Show us what its like to be the opposite gender

Writing prompt: Write from the perspective of someone the opposite gender. Be careful of stereotypes!

Unkillable

Today, I'll talk about Immortal, or unkillable characters. These are a great incentive and a horrible pitfall all in the same fell swoop. Often, Immortal characters are seen either as a god or as an evil entity, something that should not be tampered with. Have you ever thought about your own characters being immortal? You might be doing it subconsciously.

Dues ex machina- a Latin word that means god from the machine. This is a plot device which is far too often used by writers, with or without their knowledge. Consider lord of the rings. If Gandalf helped destroy the Balrog without any consequences, what would happen to the party? The Balrog was seen as one of the most evil creatures alive in middle-earth at the time. From that point forward, there wouldn't be any reason they couldn't just march into mount doom and destroy the one ring.

Be careful when making your characters immortal in books, you need people to feel fear at the fact they're escaping. If they always get away in the nick of time with cuts and scrapes, if they always escape with a crippled limb, if something always happens to your Protagonist and he always gets out of it the same way, it feels less like a novel and more like a bad action film.
Conversely, immortal characters can help the protagonist in ways that can be useful to the plot. Just make sure the "Grace of god" doesn't get out of hand. This type of usefulness will be covered in the upcoming post, "The Hero's Journey"

Lastly, the immortal character can serve as a great antagonist. If the bad guy isn't striving for it already, the immortal bad guy poses a very interesting question, "How do we kill him?" Interestingly enough, this practice is seen in a lot of story plots for a good reason. In the Eragon Tetralogy (by Christopher Paolini),  Galbatorix is seen as a figure that cannot be stopped. In the Mistborn Triology (By Brandon Sanderson), The main antagonist has lived and ruled for over one-thousand years.

Granted, both series have their own plot twists and dramatic turns, But the evident correlation comes from the immortal aspect of the antagonist. The stronger they are, the more satisfying you feel when they get pulled from the throne, id say.

Special thanks to Christopher Paolini and Brandon Sanderson for helping with those analogies, and also thanks to Writing excuses for giving me the ideas for this post!
Be sure to check out Writing excuses, starring Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, Mary Kowell, and Brandon Sanderson.

Good luck writing!

Writing prompt: Romance! We didn't discuss romance plot much here, but write about an immortal character  and his complications with love (I.E gods cant seduce mortals, their a witch/warlock and cant let that person know, ect. be creative!)