So, I don’t know about you, but I’m really picky about who sees my work before it’s publishable. My ideas are like little unbaked cookies, too easily smashed (but still ever so tasty!) SO, I was thinking about the My Book Therapy readers (me being one of them) and how we could share our ideas in a protected setting (sort of like a, uh, THERAPY group!), and I came upon this PRIVATE social group…at Ning. It’s a fun place to interact about the topic of the week, help each other with our wips, and share our unbaked cookies with a group who promises to encourage and uplift. So — if you want to be a part of BOOK THERAPY Voices, where your inner writer finds a voice, join us! See […]
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Self Therapy – Taming Rafe and the colors of grief
Love. Anger. Happiness. These are broad, blanket emotions that can take on many actions and facets. Many “colors.” Yesterday we talked about brainstorming the different hues in your basic emotions, and drawing those hues out to illuminate a character’s emotions. I want to give you a glimpse of how I did this in my upcoming book “Taming Rafe.” Rafe’s a tough guy…a bull-rider. And he’s hurt deeply by the actions of the woman he loves. He’s been through a lot, and he’s broken. At his darkest moment, I didn’t want him to punch things, or go on a drinking binge…I wanted the reader to enter into his despair. As I looked at the emotion of GRIEF, I saw: Regret and Hopelessness. I picked those emotions to work with to illuminate […]
Read the RestSelf-Therapy: An Interview from the Therapy Couch!
As promised, yesterday, I wanted to give you all a look, today, into my own interview/characterization process. These are the actual rough draft notes from Reclaiming Nick – my interview with my hunky hero, Nick Noble: Identity: Nicholas Noble, quiet strength, pensive, narrowed eyes, distrustful, coiled power, well of emotions, Age 30 6’1, hazel eyes Who am I? I’m a broken cop. A man who falsely put someone in jail…well twice, really because the first time, I blamed my father for betrayal, when in fact, I know now he didn’t betray me. I knew it then, also, but as a boy whose mother had died two years prior, it felt like betrayal to me to see him in Adele’s arms. It was a bad moment – I hit my father, […]
Read the RestSelf Therapy: What’s Important To A Scene?
Back from 12 days on the road, visiting family and friends, I sat down to work on Love Starts With Elle, my work in progress. (WIP for those who are new to this game.) I started editing chapter one, a chapter I’d edited many times, but as I worked it yesterday, I didn’t like it. Before vacation I did, so what happened? Panic. I felt the stakes weren’t high enough. Was the opening hook strong? Did Elle seem too sanguine? I pondered these questions while walking my dog, Pal, later in the evening. I was going to revamp my whole story, take my “soft” opening and drive some hard core plot point into it. Yet, I realized, stakes are raised gradually. Since this is a love story, I needed to […]
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