This is What I Learned, Part III
I’ve always had trouble with chapter breaks. Once upon a time, I assigned chapters based on word count. Later, I decided two scene changes would be equal to one chapter. But scenes vary widely in length and content, making my two scene rule more trouble than it was worth. This is What I Did doesn’t use proper chapter breaks, but rather journal breaks. Scenes change the way movie scenes might, flowing one to the next without any additional exposition. While using the exercise below,...
Read MoreThis is What I Learned, Part II
(A late post today–a teething, snugglier-than-usual Mir-cat is keeping me busy!) This is What I Did revolves around Logan’s reaction to an event–an event that occurred before the novel begins (and isn’t fully explained until around 135 pages in). Hints are sprinkled through the text, sometimes as flashbacks, but more often as Logan’s thoughts and actions. The latter–reveals–are very hard to do well, and something many authors, YA and adult alike, fail at....
Read MoreThis is What I Learned, Part I
Here’s the jacket blurb from Ann Dee Ellis’ debut novel: Imagine if you had witnessed something horrific. Imagine if it had happened to your friend. And imagine if you hadn’t done anything to help. That’s what it’s like to be Logan, an utterly frank, slightly awkward, and extremely loveable outcast enmeshed in a mysterious psychological drama. This story allows readers to piece together the sequence of events that has changed his life and changed his perspective on...
Read MoreFinding Your Voice: Dialogue
Dialogue is one of my weak points. I’ve been known to pore over just one page of dialogue for the better part of a day, tweaking this and twiddling that, all to no avail. Why ? Writing natural dialogue is difficult. There’s so much to consider – speech patterns, word choice, contractions, slang, creating distinct character voices – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. When it comes down to it though, the most important thing to remember about dialogue is this:...
Read MoreFinding Your Voice: Reading Aloud
One of the ways I find my voice – character voice and author voice – when writing is to read aloud. Actually using my voice helps me get a feel for the words I’m writing, and find the places where my sentences are a little awkward, or where a character sounds a bit trite. Read the following paragraphs aloud. First draft The women from the boab trees shook themselves, shaking free their leaves—falling into the water, the leaves flashed, becoming river fish. The fish swam...
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