“I’m so sorry,” Sally said, sitting down and unwrapping her scarf from her neck. Outside, ice glazed the puddles, the sky a slate gray. The first hint of snow hung in the air, the world of northern Minnesota in crisp expectation. It was a perfect day to teach Sally about how to understand Turning Points in a novel. I love the change of seasons. I blew on my candy cane mint mocha. “Why?” “Our high school football season is over,” she said. “I know how you love to go to the games.” I do. I live for the Friday night lights. “It was a tough game. A number of game-changing turning points that could have turned the game our way. Our boys fought a tough fight.” “I heard that on […]
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Conversations: How to start your Scene
“How is your NaNoWriMo manuscript going?” I set my coffee down at the table where Sally sat waiting for me, drinking coffee and eating a cookie. A light frost tipped the grass outside, the lake frothy along the rocky shoreline. “I think my brain is shutting down. I’ve written about two thousand words a day, but I am running out of ideas on how to start my scene.” Sally broke off a piece of her monster cookie, the fresh-baked smell enough to make me wish I hadn’t eaten breakfast. “Have you done your scene preparation? Figured out Layer One: what kind of scene it is, and the 5 Ws’?” “Oh, that’s the easy part. And Layer Two isn’t so hard either. Creating Tension is easy once you understand the equation: […]
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Setting Up For Success, Part 1: Planning to Win!
We are getting down to the last few days of the year. Know what that means? Well, yes, there will be parties, gifts, over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go. In fact, that’s what most of us are focused on. Yet, just hours after all that tradition draws to a close, we usher in a brand new year. If you want to be successful in 2013—and who wouldn’t, right?—you would be wise to put some things in place now to make certain you reach your goals. Winston Churchill said it best: Fail to plan and you plan to fail. In fact, chances are there will be some readers of this blog who will say, “I’ll read this blog post later, when I have more time.” […]
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