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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But I’m so broken inside…
Yesterday, we talked out the PLOT or EXTERNAL Obstacles (Why Nots) that keep our characters apart. The point of a great romance is for love to overcome the obstacles and triumph! So, without obstacles….well, there’s no story. I’ll say it again. YOU MUST HAVE EXTERNAL OBSTACLES! (Yes, that was shouting). Now that we have that settled…let’s turn to the Internal Reasons why we (and our characters) run from love. This is the easy part. We can all come up with a long list of the reasons why we are unloveable. Our sins, our flaws, or fears, our idiosyncrasies….you name it. It’s a wonder we don’t all live in an igloo. The problem with finding internal obstacles is often authors either; 1. Pick too many or… 2. Focus […]
Read the RestDialog, Subtexting, Talking Heads
Let’s talk. Dialog. My passion. When I was a preteen, my friends and I created worlds where we were scientist, teachers, single women living in a loft in Minneapolis. (Mary Tyler Moore anyone?) Weight Walkers, our twelve year old version of Weight Watchers. We played out our scenarios in my friend’s basement. In our bedrooms. Outside, riding our bikes. (The Weight Walkers version of make believe.) And without a doubt, the only way our pretend world worked was with dialog. We could motion, gesture, observe each other, pass notes, write on the chalk board and speed past one another on our bikes calling out, “race you!” and never created a make believe world. We had to make up dialog. We had to become characters in our play world. This is […]
Read the RestFinal rough draft of Chapter 1.2 + Thoughts to prep Chapter 2!
Here it is – the final rough draft of chapter 1.2. (I am sure you are tired of reading it by now!) Note, I’ve made a few more changes (especially after reading more of the VOICES comments and reviewing SKD’s edit notes again!) Now comes the hard work. We have to write chapter 2! So, what considerations go into writing chapter 2? First – we’ll probably open back in Mackenzie’s pov. We want to catch up with her and figure what happens next. How do we do that? First, we know it is a REACTION scene – because she had a strong ACTION scene in the first chapter. Which means we have to figure out her current DILEMMA, as raised in the last chapter. Then, we determine […]
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