Italics and Internal Monologue can be very confusing. I write in Deep POV, so for those who employ this technique, here are some hints that might help. If you’re writing in Deep POV, which many authors are today, remember that you’re in a character’s pov, so anything they think, feel, see or hear filters through their head and directly onto the page. Thus, if it doesn’t have quotation marks around it, it is internal and should not be in italics. The only time you need italics is when the character is remembering another voice in their head, or they are unable to voice the words they are speaking. For example if a person is remembering something their mother, their pastor, their friend, or even something they read, it is another […]
Read the RestArchive | Quick Skills RSS feed for this section
MBT wants to help you sell your book!
Are you getting ready to pitch your book at a writing conference? Wow, we get that! Below is a video I taped about pitching…maybe it will help. Also, if you are interested, MBT is having a Pitch and Promotion seminar right before the ACFW Conference in Dallas. If you want to get your pitch in shape, and learn how to promote your book during and after the conferece, consider attending. Here’s a little shameless promotion and the link is below! Find out more about the Pitch and Promotion Scrimmage at: http://scrimmage.mybooktherapy.com! Hope to see you there! Have a great Independence Day! Susie May
Read the RestQuick Skills: Inserting the 5 Senses into your Storyworld
I am a “List and Schedule” girl – I like to have a checklist when I build a scene to make sure I’ve inserted everything into it that I can to give it the strongest emotional impact. One of those checklists, and something commonly missed are the five senses. To really draw your Storyworld, you need to use your five senses to engage the reader’s emotions. Sight. Smell. Sound. Touch.Taste. When you walk into a room, all your senses are a part of your understanding of that scene. Before you sit down to write, make a sensory list of everything you perceive in that scene. You’ll use it as a “cheat sheet” as you build the scene. Sight, of course, is what a scene is usually built on, but remember […]
Read the Rest
Quick Skills: POV in Storyworld example.
Yesterday, Sally and I talked about the importance of describing your Storyworld through the Point of View of the character. I used an example from one of my favorite books, Wiser than Serpents. This scene is from the POV of the hero. See if you can pinpoint the way his attitudes are woven through the scene to give it more life. ***** He’d never eaten deep fried frog on a stick, but David Curtiss was a patriot, and he’d do just about anything for his country. “Shei Shei,” he said as he took the delicacy from the vendor, fished out a New Taiwan Dollar and dropped it into the vendor’s hand. He wondered what might leave a worse taste in his mouth, fried frog, or meeting a man who had […]
Read the Rest
