Monthly Archive: July 2016

Characters Must Grow and Change 0

details in writing / musings / quotes

Characters Must Grow and Change

Characters are the focus of most novels. Here are two examples from well known authors that demonstrate important pats-on-the-back to characters that engage readers. (1) Show what’s “on the line” in the character’s lives including risks, obstacles and needs for change. In Distant Shore, Kristin Hannah wrote: In those days he’d promised her the moon and the stars, vowed to love her forever. He’d meant it too. Believed in it. They hadn’t done anything wrong, either of them. They simply hadn’t understood how long forever was. (p.118) (2) Show growth across the story for secondary characters and their subplots In...

National Dance Day is Coming!!! 0

Challenge / Dancing

National Dance Day is Coming!!!

Turn on the music! Put on your dancing feet! National Dance Day is coming NEXT week on Saturday, July 30th. Save the last Saturday of every July for National Dance Day and join in the fun. It’s not often a TV program inspires a national event, but that is just what the program So You Think You Can Dance has done. The event launched in 2010 and is supported by the Dizzy Feet Foundation to encourage Americans “to embrace dance as a fun and positive way to maintain good health and fight obesity.” A U.S. Congressional resolution introduced the event...

Writers VS Editors ? I Think Not! 0

editing / musings / writing / writing process

Writers VS Editors ? I Think Not!

Authors may feel the relationship between themselves and their editors are contentious times. I’ve had only great experiences so far. For me, the time I spend with my editors is invigorating. We share our concerns about my work: word choices, punctuation errors, pacing on the page as well as whether a sentence or paragraph progresses the story. We discuss my ‘why’ verses their ‘concern’. Often I concede that what I meant and what I wrote are not in harmony. Then we work through the section, make adjustments to help the reader understand my meaning, and move on. In the process...