Peter Dunne’s book Emotional Structure has given form to something I’ve always thought was simply intuitive: the character arc in a novel. Dunne emphasizes that emotional structure has to come before plot, because the plot is used to reveal the emotional structure. If you haven’t thought about emotional structure before plotting out your novel, fret not. You can apply Dunne’s… Read More
When I joined ROW80 a couple weeks ago, I thought I’d be writing with a bunch of people I didn’t know. Silly me. My blogger-friends Sheri Larsen and Margo Berendsen have joined me, and we’ll be linking our posts on Tuesdays as a way to stay accountable for our progress (here’s the official linky for check-in #2 for ROW80). I’ve… Read More
I feel like I’ve been neglecting you lately. Sure, I tweet my blog posts, and occasionally whine about the weather, but what have I done for you lately? An occasional dalliance with #yalitchat just reinforces how much I’ve neglected our relationship. #Imsorry From now on, I promise to faithfully post something every day, throwing my thoughts into the electronic maw… Read More
I’ve always been a linguistic chameleon. By which I do not mean that I am good at languages. After four years of mangling my rolled-r’s in Spanish class, I admitted defeat. However, I am fluent in many English-dialects, and I pick up slang like a bad habit. If I visit Texas, I come back with a drawl. If I watch… Read More
Picture credit On Monday, I talked about Thinking vs. Feeling, and Sherrie brought up an excellent point: boy characters think/feel differently than girl characters. First, let’s not stereotype: boys certainly have feelings just as much as girls do, and your character should be true to who THEY are more than what their gender is. But, in general, what boys do… Read More
Picture Credit One of my favorite CP’s sent me a critique with several notes that said, “Don’t think so much. Feel.” Now, for me, thinking is feeling, so it took me a moment to figure out what she meant. I realized my character was thinking through something that they should be emotionally reacting to, and she (my crit partner) was quite… Read More