My brother continued pleading to attend the sports camp.
Two days prior to his fellow teammates and coach leaving for the summer sports camp, my brother made a final plea for my mother to allow him to go.
Irate and frustrated my mother held her ground,
Of Sports Camps, “Beloved” and Fears … Read More »
Every story is like a court case wherein we, the author, like an attorney, tries a case of our protagonist.
Who is on trial?
Is your protagonist the defendant or the plaintiff seeking judgment and damages for a wrong committed upon her or him?
If she or his had been wronged then what was the crime and the injury inflicted?
Who committed the injustice?
What cries out for change?
Is this injustice still occurring at the outset of the novel?
If so what does the central character need to accomplish to stop the wrongful act?
The story we craft becomes our protagonist’s quest, their journey to achieve justice and survival, a tale of change and transformation.
Of Mars in Cancer, Courts of Change, and Travels… Read More »
Make up a story. Narrative is radical, creating us at every moment it is being created.
–Toni Morrison (Accountable: Making America as Good as Its Promise by Tavis Smiley)
These words gripped me the first time I read them. That was over a week ago. In the days since, I have repeated and shared them with others.
Each time I speak them their meaning, the truth of purpose and process of what I do as a writer, the depth of impression left by the work I do, enlarges.
As writers we are constantly remaking ourselves through the words we write, the stories we tell, the plots we weave and unbraid.
The Writer, Narrative, and Evolution… Read More »
“Make up a story. Narrative is radical, creating us at the very moment it is being created.”
–Toni Morrison, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author
The protagonist, in reaching home, during this last chapter of the journey, must evidence that she or he has traveled, not simply waited steps beyond home, seconds beyond the gates of the home native city and after sufficient time to have journeyed far, they reappear with their tale.
Just as the central character must evidence the crisis has transformed her or his way of thinking regarding making decisions, so too, when reaching home again, she or he must demonstrated they have traveled, that they have truly been away.
Often when we travel we bring back gifts for those we love.
The gifts come from the places we have been, where our itinerary of travel has taken us.
Of Narrative, Journeys, and What Compels Us to Write… Read More »
interesting day… i interviewed novelist, Thrity Umrigar, on her latest work, The Weight of Heaven. such a nice person. then i wrote several blogs about her. south asian writers have so influenced me–Jhumpa Lahiri, Lavanya Sankaran, Manil Suri, and of course, Thrity Umrigar.. i wish more black and african americans read their work. we could
interesting and blessed day… Read More »
The setting of a novel addresses where the story takes place, location, but also the time period wherein the change of events occurs. Setting and time period are important dimensions to a story. In many stories they act as additional characters.
So You Want to Write a Story: Where Does Your Story Take Place? Read More »
Very. And yet this is a place where writers from all genres agree to disagree, as was the case today on AAMBC Radio where the topic was, “How Important is Editing?” I encourage all writers and novices of the craft to listen to or download the broadcast. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/AAMBC/2009/05/02/Panel-Discussion-How-important-is-Editing It would seem that quality editing is
Editing: How Important is It? Read More »