My mother taught me many things about love. One is that love allows one to step outside of her or himself and see the other person’s perspective, particularly if that other person is your child.
As women we are expected to make room for everyone at the table even if that means we do not get to sit down.
As a woman, who is also the mother of three daughters, my
Of Mothers, Daughters and Generosity of Spirit … Read More »
Our youngest called this afternoon to say she had lost her iphone 4S.
On arriving at the school and going upstairs where she was completing her homework, I greeted her then looked in her backpack–thinking I might uncover what she had overlooked–only to see an empty iphone case.
“You didn’t lose this. Someone stole it,”
Of An Iphone 4S, A Social Media Expert, and Perspective … Read More »
What creates setting, both physical and emotional?
And what goes into creating a setting that stimulates a reader to feel?
What is the challenge of creating a formative and transformative setting?
What needs to remain static and constant in a setting?
And what needs to cry out for change?
These questions point out the importance of setting and the challenge of meeting the needs that setting addresses in a story or novel.
John Truby, author of The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Masterful Storyteller, advises that the setting of a novel needs to include 2-3 separate and distinct places.
His belief debunks the idea that a good story needs to have a list of settings in order to sustain interest and hold the reader’s attention.
Of Setting, Change, Action, and Dilemmas… Read More »
This weekend I played my first game of chess.
My eldest now 23 learned the game from my husband. Like the cello, I have always admired people who played chess.
It truly is a game of thought, forethought and reasoning. Unlike the game of checkers that I learned as a child and play with my youngest who is eleven, chess pieces have names and characters.
Like the elements of fiction, these characters or pieces have 1 or 2 directions in which you can move them, defined tasks that propel the plot of the game.
Of Pawns, Rooks, Knights and Bishops… Read More »
Reaching that point where the protagonist has made the change, we, as writers feel differently.
We see the world of our novel from another level.
Ideally we come to hold those dimensions of personality regarding our central character(s) come in greater clarity and understanding.
And yet this is also a place where we can get to know ourselves better as individuals, not simply as persons who write.
Of Clarity and Understanding, Guide and Map, Epiphany and Plot… Read More »
The heroine or hero provides the reader with perspective and focus on the story, point of view. She or he also serves as the point of identification allowing the reader to invest her or his feelings towards care and concern for not simply the major character but also remaining with the story to see its
The Heroine/Hero and Their Function in Story Read More »
it’s 18 minutes after midnight. the kids are in bed. my adolescent has completed 2.5 days of the new year. my 5th grader has their first day tomorrow. it’s a half day with no aftercare; pick-up is at noon. then my high schooler gets out at 2pm. we have lunch. tomorrow is my last day,