The Voices in my Head

My background includes theater, and during my studies in that area, I learned that  there are no new plots.  The human condition has a large but finite combination of interactions, and writers have been stealing from each other since the Greeks invented drama.

What makes a book, play or movie stand out isn't the pacing or how realistic a plot is.  (Seriously, even some of Shakespeare's plots have more holes than a colander.)  It's the characters who inhabit them.  (Again, Shakespeare is a...