This is K.M. Wyland.

and you are listening to the 233 episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast.

As much as I love to type, transcribing notes isn't exactly one of the best of an author's jobs, especially when you're dealing with repetitive

stress injuries or the like in your wrists.

As I'm outlining my historical superhero story wayfarer right now, I'm transcribing each section

of the outline piece by piece instead of waiting until the end of the outline to transcribe

the whole thing. Even still, this can end up

up putting undue stress on my wrists so I've got another little trick I use.

Windows 7's built in Speech to Text program lets me dawn my microphone, read my notes, and dictate the whole thing.

I may need to take a few extra steps of water, but no added stress to my wrists. That means I get to

save them for the really important typing come the first draft. Why you should give your antagonist a mushy moment? The latest post in the video series on my blog offers tips for humanizing your antagonist without making him too sympathetic to readers.

To watch it, visit my website at helping writers become authors.com.

New videos are posted every Wednesday.

And now I hope you enjoy this week's podcast,

entitled Creating a stunning Character Arks Part 3,

The Thing Your Character Wants versus the thing your character needs.

The lie your character believes is the reason for all character arcs.

After all, if everything's hunky-dunky why change? We might think of the lie as the

cavity in a tooth. Everything might look shiny and white on the outside, but inside there's decay.

If the character is ever to be happy, he's going to have to do some drilling to excavate the rot in his life.

But like with most of us with a rotten tooth, he's in denial.

Even though he keeps biting on that tooth and pushing at it with his tongue, he doesn't want to admit he's got a problem.

...