Episode 185: We're Still Traumatized By This Writing Debate

A detail from the cover of Witchmark by C.L. Polk

Not long ago, everybody was arguing about whether characters need to be "relatable". We get to the bottom of a debate that still makes us intensely grouchy. Plus we talk to one of our favorite writers, C.L. Polk, about how to write excellent descriptions in your fiction -- and it turns out to be all about connecting to a character's POV.

Notes, citations, etc.

C.L. Polk's website. Plus Instagram and Bluesky/Blacksky.

C.L. Polk is the author of the Kingston Cycle and Even Though I Knew the End

The New Yorker has a helpful essay by Rebecca Mead about “relatability”

See also this discussion on the writing subreddit

Also instructive: this interview that NK Jemisin did with Tobias Carroll at Electric Literature

Here’s a good discussion about whether people who make bad choices can be “relatable” in an article on Crimereads by a crime writer