Jan Hurst asked Mike Billington:

Do you ever have problem with a character who won't talk?

Mike Billington Not really... sometimes my characters don't like what I've written and so - rather than go off and sulk somewhere - they tell me that, usually at some inconvenient time like when I'm trying to sleep or have something cooking on the stove... I've found that they're usually right and so I go back and do it again (and sometimes again and again and...) until we're both satisfied :-)
Seriously, though, I do sometimes get stuck because I want to have one of them say something and it just doesn't ring true to the persona I've created for that character. When that happens I usually try to do something else for a bit... sometimes I draw or paint, other times I try out a new recipe. That usually works because it gives me a little time to clear my brain and get back on point. Hemingway once said "Never fall in love with a sentence..." and I try to keep that in mind when I'm trying to force one of my characters to say something that - no matter how brilliant it may sound to me - just isn't right.

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