Warning – this is a long post, but I wanted to walk you through all the phases. It’s a YA novel by Wendy – she didn’t tell me what her dilemma was, and it was a solid piece to start with – but I found a few things to highlight. Let’s start with the original: Paige joined me as I was walking back toward my drum. “Good morning, starshine–” she said as she bumped one of her hips into mine. “What were you doing over there?” She said it like she would have said, “What were you doing over in that place that is quarantined for deadly diseases such as small pox or the bubonic plague?” I flashed her a pained smile that I hoped said, “It was no big […]
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Dialogue Dilemma 1
We had so many great dialogue submissions – and because they were a little long, I’ve decided to spend the next few days going over three of them. Here’s the first one, from our Linda M. Let’s look at the orignal: (author: This is from Anna’s pov: She and her husband Jack are visiting her best friends preemie baby.) “Ellie!” She sits in a wheelchair while Nick helps her put the gown on. “Anna! You’re here?!” “Hey, man,” Nick and Jack give that old guy friend hand-shake-pat-on-the-shoulder thing. “That?” Nick steps back and takes a long look at Jack’s face. “Congratulations! I was just in seeing junior.” Jack pats Nick on the back, clearly evading the face/nose issue. “We’re going to see him now, right?” Ellie pats Nick’s hand. “It […]
Read the RestVoice of Reason/Passion winners!
Hey all! After five days of internet, uh…let’s call it CHAOS…I am finally able to get back online. Something involving a burned out router, and a settings glitch, and I don’t know…but WOW, did it bring out the VOICE OF PASSION as I stared at my “cannot connect to the internet” windows screen. I wanted to hurl something at the monitor. But a smart, rational girl listening to her Voice of Reason husband, (who calmly reminds her that it’s NOT the new Dell Monitor’s fault) refrains from acting out. Even though the wildly frustrated girl wants to embrace her Voice of Passion and call up her computer guy and threaten bodily harm if he doesn’t show and I mean Right Now to fix it. There you have it, the Voice […]
Read the RestThe Power of Point of View Part 2
Yesterday, we talked about Point of View, and started a discussion over on Voices. Be sure to let us know if you have any POV questions. To recap, point of view refers to the character “telling” the story. We can only know what he/she sees, hears and feels. If the story is being told in first person, then the protagonist does most of the talking. 🙂 A story can have more than one POV in first person, but the character voices must be unique. In third person, the author has more opportunity to open up the story and allow the reader to see the action from different “angles.” Talking to my Thomas Nelson editors once, I learned they like third person because of the versatility where sometimes first person can […]
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