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Prescriptions: Hooking your Reader wk 5

By on December 20, 2007 in Uncategorized

Welcome back to our HOOKS discussion! We’ve been talking about the elements of a great HOOK – using the acrynom SHARP: S= Stakes (Public or Private) H = Hero Identification (or Sympathy) A stand for ANCHORING! Or, using the journalist inside to create place! I can’t stress how important it is to anchor your reader into the scene. So many books I’ve read recently start out with dialogue or action, and they leave out the where, and when, and even to some extent, the who. You want your reader to know where they stand in a book, what the world is, who the players are, and to some extent, why they’re there. Here’s the novelist’s twist, however: you want to use these elements to anchor your reader in a way […]

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Self Therapy – Taming Rafe and the colors of grief

By on December 19, 2007 in Loosen Up!

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 […]

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Doctor’s Notes – The Colors of Emotions

By on December 18, 2007 in Uncategorized

I am just going to brag for a moment…My son played Daddy Warbucks in this season’s Community Play’s fall show, and did it brilliantly. One of my favorite scenes is when Warbucks wants to adopt Annie, and she turns him down because she wants to find her parents. Warbucks, who loves her, is torn between wanting her to be his daughter, and wanting her to be happy. It’s a powerful scene, without words, and David played it with vivid emotion…first loss and grief, to pure love for Annie, then a determination to make her dream come true. As I sat in the audience, I also experienced a mix of emotions – pride at his performance, sadness that he is growing up so fast, and joy that he would be proud […]

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Ask the Doc: Using Coloring Emotions to create unique scenes!

By on December 17, 2007 in Uncategorized

Question: As I’m writing my wip, I find myself having to describe character’s emotional responses (show don’t tell!) but it’s being difficult to be original every time. What is a good way for describing emotional responses with originality? Answer: I love this question because it’s all about going deeper with your characterization, and really drawing the reader into the story in a way that connects. I believe there are levels to portraying emotion. The first, of course, is the most basic, just the facts. “He was angry.” Of course, this is boring, and holds the reader the farthest away. Second level is involving the body. “Anger filled his throat.” Not bad, because we can understand how that might choke someone, but again, it keeps the reader at arm’s length, unable […]

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