[A word from Susie: About 9 months ago, I birthed a new…idea! I really wanted to help a handful of serious writers dive into their stories and mentor them through the process of writing a great book. God blessed me with an amazing and dedicated first group of women who not only loved fiction but were willing to roll up their sleeves and work hard. Nine months later, most of them have finished their novels and moved onto the next ones. A handful of them are finalists in either the Genesis or Frasier, and quite a few are planning on pitching their novel at ACFW. After the retreat, they started a support group within MBT Club Voices to encourage each other which has now spilled out into […]
Read the RestArchive | August, 2010
Word Painting for Emotional Effect
[taken from the July issue of the MBT Ezine. Read more about Word Painting at: http://voicesmag.mybooktherapy.com] I love word painting. It’s the last element of texture I add into a piece before I move into polishing. It’s adding those eloquent, specific words and cadences to a sentence or paragraph that not only makes it come alive … but adds in the right emotion. A book is all about connecting to the reader’s emotions, and word painting is the finite art of wooing your words into your reader’s heart. It’s going beyond naming and telling emotions to using the painting of words to evoke the correct feeling. Let’s take a look. Here’s a piece of word painting from my current novel, Sons of Thunder: Markos speared the water. The cool lick […]
Read the RestA Therapist Thought…taken from the July Voices Ezine.
Ever read a book and think, “Wow, how did she figure out how to put that sentence, or that paragraph together? How did she pick those words, that item to focus on? How did she … word paint?” In my feature article in the current issue of the Voices Ezine, “Word Painting for Emotional Effect,” I talk about using the metaphorical word pool to find the right symbol and images. But I also use a handy acronym to help me develop a word painted description. It’s called FOCUS: First Impression Observations Close Up, Simile (or Metaphor) First Impression is all about giving us that overview of the setting. For example, if you were walking into a conference room, you might say: The conference room was small but comfortable. But you […]
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