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Layers verses Subplots – the truth exposed

By on August 26, 2008 in Creating Story Layers and Subplots

One of my favorite teeny-bop movies is Chasing Liberty.  Aside from the theme of the story – trying to keep a teenage girl (incidentally the president’s daughter) from misbehaving (if you know what I mean), it’s a cute story about the dilemma of a secret service agent to not fall in love with his assignment.  Embedded in this tale is another tale – the romance of two secret service agents tracking above mentioned duo.  Their story is what makes this movie such a delight – their banter, their eventual romance, their happy ending.  It’s this extra story in a story that that gives the movie the extra sparkle that takes it from teeny-bop to good-enough-for-grownups.   In short, the Subplot makes the movie.   This week we’re going to talk about Subplots […]

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Make ’em cry with a metaphor

By on August 21, 2008 in How do I write Emotions?, Protagonists: The Basics

So yesterday we talked about the three common layers of emotional writing – the Surface, Skin-Deep and the Touch the Heart layers.  This last layer is where a lot of authors stop.  They have connected with their readers’ hearts, made them feel what their characters feel and that’s their goal.  But there is another layer, one that goes even deeper, one that makes us connect with the character, an almost spiritual connection.   And that’s what I call soul-deep.  It’s the use of Metaphor to convey emotions.  It’s the heart of showing.   Let’s look at Dear Darla again.   She has a book.  A Fear of Flying book.  She takes it out.  Clutches it herself, and then almost frantically shoves it back into the bag.  Then, after wiping her hands on her […]

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Layers of Emotional Writing

By on August 20, 2008 in How do I write Emotions?, Protagonists: The Basics

Okay, so remember Darla from the plane yesterday?  (Like I’m ever going to forget her!)  ~  We’re going to talk about writing character emotions today, and the three main layers that authors use when writing them.   Feel free to refer back to Dear Darla during the examples.  (Or maybe she’s already firmly embedded in your mind)  1.  The first layer of writing emotions is simply that surface emotion – the name of the emotion.  Darla turned me and said: “I’m a little nervous.”  She stated her emotion.   Examples of this first layer:    ~ She stood at the entrance to the gateway and fear gripped her.  ~ She could not watch the children in the playground without feeling sorrow.  ~ Never had she know such happiness as when she saw […]

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Dear Darla…

By on August 19, 2008 in How do I write Emotions?, Protagonists: The Basics

So – I just gotta tell you about Darla. I do a lot of travelling and not long ago, I was sitting in the O’Hare Airport when a woman walked into the gate area. She was in her early twenties, and carried a backpack, which she held with a whitened fist. She sat down and began to fidget in her seat, checking her watch, looking at the gate, pawing through her bag. She pulled out a book, and clutched it to her chest a moment before opening it, and pulling out a highlighter. The books said, in large black ominous letters – How to get over your fear of flying. Periodically, she wiped her hands on her jeans, and blew out a long breath, as if she’d been holding it. […]

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