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The Conversation of Literature: What Are They Saying About Your Book?
We don’t write in a vacuum. Your story is in the context of the whole of literature, and specifically, the literature of your genre. How does your story add to, change, enhance the conversation? This question was brought home to me as I picked up my son’s comic book. It’s a reproduction of the original […]
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Abandoned Story? Pick up the Story Lines Again and Create Magic
Some fear the blank page. I fear the half-written page. I was writing along, doing great on a story when life interrupted (how dare it!). Has that happened to you? You know where the story is going, you’re in the drafting mode and going strong and BANG! Something happens. You have to set the story […]
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How to Ruin Your Novel’s Opening with a Few Wrong Words
Choosing the right set of words–the diction of your novel–is crucial, especially in the opening pages of your novel. Novels are a context for making choices, and within that context, some words make sense and some don’t. A novel sets up a certain setting, time period, tone, mood and sensibilities and you must not violate […]
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Novelists: You are Gifted & Talented
Gifted and Talented If you have finished a draft of a novel (however messy!), you are Gifted and Talented. The fact that you are Gifted and Talented has an important implication for revising your story. GT Learners. First, I’ve talked with Gifted and Talented Teachers about how their students learn. When they learn something new, […]
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Point of View: Inside a Character’s Head
How does an author take a reader deeply into a character’s POV? By using direct interior monologue and a stream of consciousness techniques. This is part 3 of a 3-part series on Point of View: Techniques for Getting Inside a Character’s Head. Read the whole series. Outside Outside/Inside Inside Going Inside a Character’s Head, Heart […]
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Point of View: Outside/Inside a Character’s Head
Partially Inside a Character’s Head: OUTSIDE AND INSIDE POV How deeply does a story take the reader into the head of a character. Many discussions of point of view skim over the idea that POV can related to how close a reader is to a reader. But David Jauss says there are two points of […]