tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27560579316178728372024-03-12T16:24:14.888-07:00Just GingerWelcome to my blog. I write a little bit of everything. Personal essays, novels (sensual historical and sweet contemporary romances), short stories, articles, and even FAA aviation handbooks!Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-59900174078614394682023-08-05T13:53:00.001-07:002023-08-05T13:53:13.628-07:00Website 101: Storyboarding (Part Two)<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In part one of this discussion, we looked at why a writer needs a website even if he or she is unpublished. You’ve hopefully answered two basic question: the purpose of your website and who you hope will visit. Now we’re going to discuss storyboarding, which I think is a great writing tool.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Storyboarding and Websites</span></b></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">While storyboarding is traditionally associated with films, it is also popular in the world of web design. Just think of storyboarding as a management tool that facilitates the creative thinking process and you’ll see why it’s useful in a variety of endeavors. Its primary appeal is that it allows for thoughts to be captured on paper (and writers love paper, right?), which can be spread out as one works on a project. For a writer, this can mean using lists, graphs, boxes with text, images, or illustrations.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">You don’t need to be an artist–believe me I’m not one–to storyboard. All you need is paper, pencil, and imagination to determine the content of your website. To keep things simple, use boxes to represent the webpages. The top box represents your home page while the next level of boxes represent the pages you plan to include in your basic navigation bar. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">A quick note, I’m in the process of updating my website, and this storyboard reflects changes I’m making in the layout.</span></p><div><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9wMZqPo8JP7s-L4tZ8hmyrYA3pSR19V4EGbFi1XV7WBx70byt-ewrHGWih2gBywOifDTRZ9iYmmLZyUyueuRZd-pVhSyu9mFxMv2k42Y8QZZ0JMhC-KsUBYhFkee3LcpwPcK5IR3sU2Ap2MIEKE8b-vjA00aN7pmtgD1RgN2Do1h0pVqhNiTEW1gfee0/s1000/StryBrdOptz.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="1000" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9wMZqPo8JP7s-L4tZ8hmyrYA3pSR19V4EGbFi1XV7WBx70byt-ewrHGWih2gBywOifDTRZ9iYmmLZyUyueuRZd-pVhSyu9mFxMv2k42Y8QZZ0JMhC-KsUBYhFkee3LcpwPcK5IR3sU2Ap2MIEKE8b-vjA00aN7pmtgD1RgN2Do1h0pVqhNiTEW1gfee0/w400-h188/StryBrdOptz.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Basic Storyboard Navigation Bar</b></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The example above shows my basic line up. When a visitor arrives at my home page, they have several choices on the navigation bar if they want to go deeper into the site. I chose to put <i>Books</i> first on the menu. If the visitor clicks here on my in-progress website, a drop down menu from <i>Books</i> will link the visitor to the different categories of books I write.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">While I’m not the most prolific writer in the world, I do have a selection of novels, short stories, as well as three nonfiction books. Since I want to promote and sell them, <i>Books</i> is an important navigation item for me. This is where readers can go to read about my books and hopefully buy them.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>For Readers</i> is next on the nav bar. This is a behind the scenes web page about my books as well as some personal insights. I also periodically offer a free short story for readers.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Writers who read my writing skills books, <i>She Sat, He Stood</i> and <i>She Said, He Said</i> can click on <i>For Writers</i> to access the web page with links to the PDFs referenced in these books. There are also other free PDFs filled with information for writers.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In case visitors are wondering about who I am, I have a bio page with a photo of me, a biography, and some fun facts. The <i>Contact Me</i> link finishes off my top nav bar choices.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">In the revised website, I plan to streamline my submenu choices. My current site has almost every project listed on its own page for visitors who want a deeper dive into the books. Rather than list every book on a separate page, I plan to group the books into categories with titles, cover images, and blurbs. And of course, links to the various book distributors. </span></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">My goal is to create a streamlined experience for visitors. For this rendition of the website, <i>Books</i> will end up having a drop down menu with four pages instead of eleven. (I'm only showing two!)</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaEs_UbTrJG23Ny8tKiuro7kuBouqjNrKw953l_nJFaKJlSmeoKbQp-MRxBqZlGqaisGUTIj9jyxwG8yz43Awne69-g1X9Y5VvKYNmRoRKSu67jt_c61FWyHYd3uaxo-Zr8VUxRiQ0x4u0ld0JeLAyr_mEcWvHcsCzE9W8UrHlLZ2hNwi_EmWFSKGY0_E/s500/StryBrd2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="500" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaEs_UbTrJG23Ny8tKiuro7kuBouqjNrKw953l_nJFaKJlSmeoKbQp-MRxBqZlGqaisGUTIj9jyxwG8yz43Awne69-g1X9Y5VvKYNmRoRKSu67jt_c61FWyHYd3uaxo-Zr8VUxRiQ0x4u0ld0JeLAyr_mEcWvHcsCzE9W8UrHlLZ2hNwi_EmWFSKGY0_E/w400-h297/StryBrd2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Unpublished? Not to Worry</b></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you aren’t published yet or perhaps have only one book to showcase, don’t worry. You can look at other sources for images that reflect the purpose of your content. Stock photos are useful and depending on the source, you may only need to credit the photographer.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps you’re sharing an excerpt of your current work in progress and it’s set on an island in the Caribbean. Depending on what you find, you can always add an image of a topical island or even clip art of a beach umbrella. It isn’t difficult to give your content a little image boost.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">One last word of advice, in today’s fast-paced world, it’s always good to keep your website easy to navigate. Going mobile years ago certainly influenced me into trimming my content. I like to think I have an attractive, easy-to-navigate website. More importantly, I doubt a visitor has any problem figuring out who I am or what’s available on the website.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-49859212525533467822023-06-07T11:13:00.003-07:002023-06-07T11:13:27.440-07:00Website 101 (Part 1)<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzHfR2n2pnTKf6jvR6KxAiauIaCrB2LbjU3uI6EDREE_GrqNK8YiRW4_QRN7xKyiV7a5muwOwwDPCGzXLS6u8-JsrNcnze6IshSlmwx0NmZQabVlgC0A-Ww4mVPh4EXf51wPhS_gD8WjutoOmIYtPR5pJ_FPmLxdVk2i6U1ZZiRKC0PihpGlwHP_ak/s1800/Web%20Banner.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="1800" height="71" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzHfR2n2pnTKf6jvR6KxAiauIaCrB2LbjU3uI6EDREE_GrqNK8YiRW4_QRN7xKyiV7a5muwOwwDPCGzXLS6u8-JsrNcnze6IshSlmwx0NmZQabVlgC0A-Ww4mVPh4EXf51wPhS_gD8WjutoOmIYtPR5pJ_FPmLxdVk2i6U1ZZiRKC0PihpGlwHP_ak/s320/Web%20Banner.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><span style="font-size: large;">Some writers use only social media to connect with readers, but most social media is a superficial system of communication filled with brief posts or videos. It’s good to be connected with readers via social media, but social media has its limitations. Most importantly, the user forfeits control over their content which can be lost when the company changes policies.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you’re serious about your writing career, build a website.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Websites are all about content, much of it written. Lucky for us, writers are all about writing. We’re a natural fit with websites. Website design is about putting together the content in a visually pleasing way. If you’re published, you have the written content or descriptions of your stories, so you have text. As for visual content, you have book covers. If you’re unpublished, nothing is stopping you from creating an informative website.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Why does an unpublished author need a website? It’s the best way to ensure you own your domain name. Many website builder companies offer easy to-fill-out templates beginners can use to create visually appealing websites.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Two basic questions need to be answered as you think about your website: what will be its purpose and who will be its audience?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Purpose</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The purpose of your website determines what you’re going to put on it. For published writers, one purpose is to sell their stories, but that doesn’t have to be the site’s only purpose.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">For example, I want to promote and sell my books, but I also want to educate writers and entertain readers. For the past 20 years, in each rendition of my website I’ve worked to promote that purpose.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">For the unpublished writer, a website offers a place to establish some credentials before publication. (Check out my free PDF “Promotion Before Publication” for ways to get known before publication at www.gingerhanson.com.) A website also offers prospective agents. editors, and readers a taste of your writing skills.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Potential Website Audience</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Once you establish the purpose of your website, it’s time to think about your audience or who you hope will visit your website. As a writer with published books, I hope readers who enjoy my books will visit to learn more about me and my stories and buy more of them. Another segment of my audience will be writers because two of my ebooks are writing skills handbooks. Anyone who buys She Sat, He Stood or She Said, He Said will probably visit my website because I put downloadable charts used in the books on my website. I also have various handouts, such as the previously mentioned Promotion Before Publication and Story Steps, an overview of some steps I take when I write a story.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Readers page is devoted to a behind the scenes look at my writing life as well as my nonwriting life. I also post free short stories or articles that I think might interest readers.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">As you can see, it’s a good idea to picture your potential audience because they influence the content you put on your website. Once you can answer those two basic questions–purpose and audience–it’s time to think about how your web site will look.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the next blog, we’ll look at how to use storyboarding, a basic design technique that works well with building websites.</span></p>
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<p><br /></p>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-73798416386870433192023-05-08T13:24:00.001-07:002023-05-08T13:44:12.014-07:00 Finding the Write Fit<p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">You may or may not recognize the actor Burt Reynolds who was a celebrity icon in the 20th century. If Smokey and the Bandit rings any bells, then you probably remember Burt Reynolds.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">A former high school and college football player, Burt often did his own stunts while making a movie. During the filming of City Heat, Burt was hit in the jaw with a metal chair while filming a fight scene. The stuntman who played the assailant grabbed the metal chair instead of grabbing the breakaway chair. Burt spent the next two years in agony with constant vertigo and difficulty chewing food. Searching for a diagnosis and cure, he saw forty doctors.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">He was diagnosed with temporomandibular disorder (aka TMJ dysfunction) which can cause pain in the jaw joint and the muscles that control jaw movement. The problem was figuring out how to fix it.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Not much was known about the issue then, but basically he needed extensive reconstructive jaw surgery. Finding a doctor willing to undertake the surgery wasn’t easy, but he found one and the surgery was a success.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">What stuck with me was Burt Reynold’s perseverance in his search for an answer to his problem and a doctor willing to accept the challenge.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Burt was looking for a path to success.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now you might wonder how this anecdote has anything to do with writing.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">It’s probably a stretch, but maybe not.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Burt Reynolds was given all sorts of different advice for the treatment of his problem. Much of that advice didn’t help. But he persevered until he not only found a solution, but also found a doctor willing to try and repair the damage.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now, think about all the how-to writing paths available to writers.<i> Save the Cat</i>, the <i>Snowflake Method</i>, W Plot Technique, <i>Story Grid</i>, <i>Dramatica</i>, and the list goes on. Then, of course, there are videos, online courses, and blogs filled with writing advice (including this one!).</span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6-qIKBWncl7Wbg6fSoPwL2vEuBPwfqScRiLfEJuURXkq-Z2WFukj-7dkPSooE_YvYoRPpj1XOoE4e-61uxY1YOjOYAMT3t-BYRtGxVYtbL8yfRT4kKYqw-zzttG9OK2GER7YFTQ114Xomu8k3QMlqw9oNsrrevFJIvazFrMZeFYYHkqbUseb_YDLe/s1500/marcel-strauss-rd9bLSvglVI-unsplashB.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Image of typewriter keys" border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1000" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6-qIKBWncl7Wbg6fSoPwL2vEuBPwfqScRiLfEJuURXkq-Z2WFukj-7dkPSooE_YvYoRPpj1XOoE4e-61uxY1YOjOYAMT3t-BYRtGxVYtbL8yfRT4kKYqw-zzttG9OK2GER7YFTQ114Xomu8k3QMlqw9oNsrrevFJIvazFrMZeFYYHkqbUseb_YDLe/w133-h200/marcel-strauss-rd9bLSvglVI-unsplashB.jpg" width="133" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I started writing short stories B.T.I. (Before The Internet) and relied primarily on the library, bookstores, a creative writing class, and writing magazines to learn how to write. I seldom lived in large cities, but I eventually discovered writing conferences. I remember going to one way back when. It was an exhilarating experience until I attended a workshop by a published author who read a selection from his latest novel. I’ve never really figured out why reading an excerpt from a novel is a selling point. Probably because I’m not an auditory learner. Read listening is not my strong point. I tend to daydream too easily.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">After his reading, this author proceeded to describe his writing process and pretty much told us his way was the only successful route to writing a novel.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">His ego astounded me.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Based on all the how-to writing methods, there is obviously more than one way to arrive at a well-written story. It may take you a few tries (hopefully, not forty) to figure out your individual path to writing a story.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Or you could follow Stephen King’s thoughts on how to be a writer:</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“You don’t need writing classes or seminars any more than you need this (<i>On Writing</i>) or any other book on writing… You learn best by reading a lot and writing a lot, and the most valuable lessons of all are the ones you teach yourself.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Whatever path you follow, just be sure to find the write fit for you.</span></p>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-70031905979400357522023-03-25T16:02:00.001-07:002023-03-25T16:02:26.183-07:00When a Novel Becomes a Screenplay<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">How do you tell if your story has too much dialogue?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">This question was posed to me by an attendee at one of my Zoom writing presentations. It’s a good question and like a good question it nagged me far longer than the answer I gave that day.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Finding the right balance between narrative and dialogue is a challenge. Too much dialogue and you’re writing a screenplay. Too much narrative and sleep overpowers the reader.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Balancing dialogue with narrative reminds me of advice a commercial printer gave me: white space is good in a newsletter. (I’ve written a lot of newsletters in my day.) He said pages need to be a balancing act between text, images, and white space to keep the reader engaged.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Although I don’t use images in my fiction, I found this concept–balancing dialogue and narrative–works for stories, too.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Caveat: I read and write for entertainment so my opinion is shaded toward commercial (read for pleasure) fiction more than literary (usually designed to make the reader sad. I read the news for that.)</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Dialogue versus Interiority</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Robert B. Parker, who passed away over 10 years ago, is one of my favorite authors. I enjoyed his early Spenser novels the most. To be honest, I wasn’t as happy with him in the later years of his career. His novels became dialogue heavy, lacking the narrative I had so enjoyed in his earlier books. He had a lot of white space and not much interiority.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Basically, he stopped exploring the inner character’s–thoughts, emotional reactions, and feelings–about a situation. Sure I knew Spenser, Susan, and Hawk really well, but I still want to know how the story affects them.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">And while dialogue can achieve wonders in a story, the reader stills needs interior anchors that flesh out the scene and the characters.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">When Ace Akins was given the job of writing the Spenser books, I was leery of the end product. Then I read that Mr. Akins was a lifelong fan of the Spenser books. To my delight, his additions to the series brought the original flavor of the Spenser books back to life. His stories had a nice balance of narrative and dialogue.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I think Mr. Parker’s reliance on dialogue in his later novels made me feel cheated. He was no longer writing with all the nuances I enjoyed and expected. He had too much white space.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWdOT7fu1BJkrhASYDzyRAiOXvfsLgLzAkWD4Y-088CFF29L5-4sJB27ffWKpoJKAlovq56v42-itKbL6AZuH-5yRQnD2KFUOY7fyrrJvuLyMR-gzVS54-aT-fMIYM8CCz19-apcTEKHfdnHMKTVKuTR0iEl0TWNLQfwQ2T6pP_vNeGILThXSlNXGg/s904/GirlWBook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="904" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWdOT7fu1BJkrhASYDzyRAiOXvfsLgLzAkWD4Y-088CFF29L5-4sJB27ffWKpoJKAlovq56v42-itKbL6AZuH-5yRQnD2KFUOY7fyrrJvuLyMR-gzVS54-aT-fMIYM8CCz19-apcTEKHfdnHMKTVKuTR0iEl0TWNLQfwQ2T6pP_vNeGILThXSlNXGg/w200-h179/GirlWBook.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Which is why I think some novels make better screenplays. A screenplay is supposed to be dialogue heavy.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Huh?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Novel versus Screenpla</b>y</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Think about it. A screenplay doesn’t need all the components of a novel. The curtain rises and the setting is clear to the audience. The movie is set in a diner, suburbia, or a football field.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">An actor walks on stage and the audience makes immediate deductions: male or female, tall or short, blonde or brunette. The actor starts speaking and the audience thinks, oh, a Russian accent.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">You get the idea. The movie setting and actors anchor the audience into the movie world within moments of the opening scene.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The writer doesn’t have this luxury. The opening paragraphs set the scene and introduce the characters. The reader “sees” the story via the writer who uses many elements to bring the story alive for the reader. Dialogue should only be one of the paths a writer follows to bring the story alive.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Back to the question at hand:</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">How to tell if your story has too much dialogue.</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">One very visual way to determine if your story has too much dialogue: highlight the dialogue. This can be done using a highlighter pen on printed pages, or the highlight tool on computer documents.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In either method, the goal is to highlight the dialogue. This offers the writer a concrete visual of how much of the story is dialogue and how much is narrative. Large blocks of either dialogue or narrative can be rewritten to ensure there is a nice balance between narrative, dialogue, and white space.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-48431669213055027192023-02-09T12:22:00.001-08:002023-02-09T12:22:47.812-08:00The Beat Goes On and On and On…Writing Fiction Dialogue<p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As I mentioned in my previous blog, the word beat has a cornucopia of meanings. For me, the definition of beat offered in <i>Self-Editing for Fiction Writers</i>, by Renni Browne and Dave King, makes the most sense.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">They defined beat as a descriptive sentence or sentences inserted before, after, or during the dialogue section. Keep in mind, it is not a dialogue tag such as “said,” that establishes who is talking. Instead, a beat comes into play after the reader knows who is talking and describes a character’s response or action.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If dialogue is the audio, think of beat as the video.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Renni Browne and Dave King go one step further by saying a beat is the “literary equivalent of what is known in the theater as stage business.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I love this definition because stage business refers to physical actions made by an actor on stage such as tucking a tendril of hair behind an ear. You see stage business all the time in plays, movies, and television shows. If you have trouble visualizing this concept, just mute the sound on a TV show or movie and watch the actors. They don’t stand around like robots and talk, they do things while they are saying their lines.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Which is exactly what the characters in our stories should be doing.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Beats enable readers to picture the action, they allow you to vary the rhythm of the dialogue, and they help reveal your character’s personalities and emotional reactions. In effect, they remind your readers of who your characters are and what they are doing.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">How do you chose what type of “stage business” a character should do while talking? That’s where nonverbal communication or body language comes into play.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In my writing skills ebook, <i>She Sat, He Stood, What Do Your </i><i>Characters Do While They Talk</i>, nonverbal communication is defined as the gestures and mannerisms by which one person communicates with others. Although different cultures may have different meanings for some gestures, most body language is universal.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsjdz08YTz2nXm0thV4K3Z6NtyW605_c2JXzKlWjh90EuJhBoBjtywjs6pWAyZuWzictOUC4eHEFpDZBYxOQyoD8PyzGntA4gC6p7QMYswhqUJaMQoR0vEJegYkydvvFSps2GMiDc7EvPX0-K6NDI3SNICaXEcpm2RhxaKKivGvQYozFC7BqRg48uf/s450/SheSatHeStood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsjdz08YTz2nXm0thV4K3Z6NtyW605_c2JXzKlWjh90EuJhBoBjtywjs6pWAyZuWzictOUC4eHEFpDZBYxOQyoD8PyzGntA4gC6p7QMYswhqUJaMQoR0vEJegYkydvvFSps2GMiDc7EvPX0-K6NDI3SNICaXEcpm2RhxaKKivGvQYozFC7BqRg48uf/w133-h200/SheSatHeStood.jpg" title="She Sat He Stood" width="133" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Humans actually use body language more than tone of voice or even words to communicate. Writers deal in words so it behooves a writer to figure out how to convey body language and tone to better set each character firmly the reader’s mind. </span></p><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Beats can help a writer do this. They also help a writer avoid interior dialogue to track a character’s emotions.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Well-written beats fulfill many roles in a story, but it’s important to strike the right balance between dialogue and beats. Just as too much uninterrupted dialogue can confuse or irritate a reader, too many interruptive beats can be distracting.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The best way to check your dialogue is to read it aloud. Listen to the rhythm of the dialogue to ensure the beats enhance the dialogue exchanges rather than overwhelm them.</span></p><div><br /></div>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-37040552473965962772022-11-26T13:39:00.006-08:002022-12-03T13:50:53.399-08:00The Beat Goes On: Writing Fiction Dialogue<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When I aspired to become a published writer, I didn’t know the “writing experts” used different definitions of the same words and phrases. Or that their definitions wouldn’t always be listed in a normal dictionary.</div></span></span></div><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Beat is one such word.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you check a dictionary, you’ll find an extensive list of definitions. Since I took lots of piano lessons as a kid, I tend to think of beat in relation to music. Like in maintaining the correct beat which had been hammered into me by several piano teachers.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thus, to me beat had to do with the tempo of a piece of music. The rhythm.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">During my journey to published novelist, I went down the screenwriting rabbit hole. Imagine my surprise to see the word beat used interchangeably with plot points and turning points. Then I read Robert McKee’s <i>Story</i> and he had yet another definition: “A beat is an exchange of behavior in action/reaction.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Oddly, I can’t find a dictionary that defines beat in any of those screenwriting terms.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Frankly, none of the screenwriting definitions of beat clicked with me. I think my primary definition of beat kept getting in the way. Not that I worried about it, after all, I wasn’t writing a screenplay.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrsELfqyJLw3oJXvVp9BJMX9WxpQSRUxUzbGVvwtjIwVu-mqZAVBjJrKYycZm1gycnQXRLesJDs4ib15CsdqAtJ4GcH5KZrER0DgZL4Eu6eDYfrxI34i0rPnWYPc9PB05phaUZzdRED57J9uvq6jd61p7PndcOP5AjGX940dXhv-p0j0Emj0GUlIxf/s500/kidband.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="500" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrsELfqyJLw3oJXvVp9BJMX9WxpQSRUxUzbGVvwtjIwVu-mqZAVBjJrKYycZm1gycnQXRLesJDs4ib15CsdqAtJ4GcH5KZrER0DgZL4Eu6eDYfrxI34i0rPnWYPc9PB05phaUZzdRED57J9uvq6jd61p7PndcOP5AjGX940dXhv-p0j0Emj0GUlIxf/w200-h133/kidband.png" width="200" /></span></a></div><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">When I was editing one of my novels years ago, I was introduced to<i> Self-Editing for Fiction Writers</i> by Renni Browne and Dave King. It's a great little book that keeps you on track while editing your way through a final draft.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">It also gave me a definition of beat that completely changed how I wrote dialogue. Their definition was easier for me to grasp because it married well with music.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In <i>Self-Editing for Fiction Writers</i>, a beat is a descriptive sentence or sentences inserted before, after, or during the dialogue section. It is not a dialogue tag such as “said,” that establishes who is talking, but instead comes into play after the reader knows who is talking and describes a character’s response or action.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">If dialogue is the audio, think of beat as the video.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The reader not only “hears” the character, but can also “see” the character. In this context, a beat is a well-timed pause in the dialogue, a succinct but descriptive sentence filled with deeper meaning, that expands the scene.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Revisiting the dictionary, we find a definition of beat: it contains a rhythmical flow or pattern. Using beat in this fashion makes it easy to see how a well-written dialogue beat helps the rhythm of dialogue flow.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">To me, beats are key components of writing dialogue. For decades writers used overworked descriptive dialogue tags (loudly, determinedly, sweetly) in order to show characters’ emotions. Beats offer a much better way to do this.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I love using beats for two reasons:</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">They make descriptive dialogue tags unnecessary. They reduces the number of times I need to use the ubiquitous “said.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Here’s an example from a scene in my short story “The Courtship of Serena Smith.” The heroine is petting the hero’s dog.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“It’s in her face and coloring,” Serena said sadly. Her fingers slid from Mollie’s head to the distinctive ridge of hair running down her spine. “And the ridge. She looks a lot like my Bandit,” she said in a choked voice. “He was honey color, too. With four white paws and a white tipped tail.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LKUQOQSg/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwiPjTAcK9L_fkEXJFJNjSm0ZqBNT2DFEFX6dllANsIFaltHL-z64XmEN-7wLYBNrf6esBdnR37Ts4Ngsc1-Pu7YjP-oAO_G99vESuViLeGHJRbP3b7IEUreYXkOgObauJiMEYzaQnclR2Q40f8-pSU0Lpj_Q1_cz7VsBsy8PwpXyCQ_UJK846ctk-/s393/CourtshipofSerenaS.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwiPjTAcK9L_fkEXJFJNjSm0ZqBNT2DFEFX6dllANsIFaltHL-z64XmEN-7wLYBNrf6esBdnR37Ts4Ngsc1-Pu7YjP-oAO_G99vESuViLeGHJRbP3b7IEUreYXkOgObauJiMEYzaQnclR2Q40f8-pSU0Lpj_Q1_cz7VsBsy8PwpXyCQ_UJK846ctk-/w153-h200/CourtshipofSerenaS.png" width="153" /></a></div><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;">But I wrote:</p><p></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> “It’s in her face and coloring.” Her fingers slid from Mollie’s head to the distinctive ridge of hair running down her spine. “And the ridge. She looks a lot like my Bandit.” The woman’s words caught in her throat, coming out a little ragged. “He was honey color, too. With four white paws and a white tipped tail.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I dropped the descriptive “said” tags in favor of focusing on what Serena is doing and how she sounds as she speaks. My goal is to keep the reader in Serena’s point of view by using descriptive beats that best connect the reader to Serena’s emotional state.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dialogue can be used in multiple ways to enhance storytelling–everything from advancing the plot to revealing goal, motivation, or conflict. (I actually have over two dozen uses of dialogue in my <i>She Said, He Said: The Power of Dialogue</i> ebook) Dialogue coupled with beats offer a variety of ways to deepen the emotional connection between the characters and the reader. If you’re a novelist whose exposure to beat is trying to fill out a Beat Sheet, keep in mind, beat has more than one meaning.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: xx-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFZ0qz1ZnQjgwkyRvtcLLeAV-JSOf7nux7gobIuHKrL-_x4K-iSK3TjUqy9QG_sX3x5G7q3U9QsjKiedSCw16tSN3pvmy1XoeyKjhMIiYfPNnctT-Q3TIc0_QAUfY_K8Tk7iqqpy6-kLUQpx7C7mILKQnGwz7M8UrB8DHtheUAiS_i2ssfTfIlEe0Z/s393/SheSaidHeSaid.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFZ0qz1ZnQjgwkyRvtcLLeAV-JSOf7nux7gobIuHKrL-_x4K-iSK3TjUqy9QG_sX3x5G7q3U9QsjKiedSCw16tSN3pvmy1XoeyKjhMIiYfPNnctT-Q3TIc0_QAUfY_K8Tk7iqqpy6-kLUQpx7C7mILKQnGwz7M8UrB8DHtheUAiS_i2ssfTfIlEe0Z/w153-h200/SheSaidHeSaid.png" width="153" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">Once we assign the word “beat” to the job of enhancing dialogue, it a short step into understanding, as Browne and King wrote, that a beat is the “literary equivalent of what is known in the theater as stage business.”</span></span><div>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">A deeper dive which we’ll take in an upcoming blog.</span></p><div><br /></div></div>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-20783947138430917852022-10-26T14:05:00.001-07:002022-11-26T12:49:07.964-08:00Gestation of a Novel<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">I’m frequently asked how long it takes me to write a book and I’m never sure how to answer because I’m not sure what the person is asking. Do they mean the actual physical act of writing? Or do they mean everything involved from conception to finished product? Conception to finished product covers a lot of time because the imagination is triggered in countless ways.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>What kind of things trigger a writer’s imagination? They can include song lyrics, historical events, a sentence in a book or magazine, a casual conversation, a new recipe or even a dream. Once an idea takes hold, I start a file. This is normally a physical file, but I also use computer files. I come up with a working title and when I run across photos, newspaper articles, reference books, possible character names, research about possible jobs for a character or snippets of information about the time period, I put them in the file.</span><span> </span></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">During this phase, I collect possibilities that may be used to tell that story some day. The truth is, I have more files than I have time to write, but it’s comforting to know there is always another story gestating. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Gestation</b> </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I like the word gestating because it means the development of something over a period of time and that’s what a book does. It develops over a period of time. Time that cannot be easily calculated because much of it takes place in the imagination where there are no clocks. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’ll use <i>Lady Runaway</i> as an example. The book started with a dream scene that lodged itself firmly in my brain. I couldn’t forget it. The scene involved a young woman hiding in a 19th century London alley. She is pulling her hand, sticky with her own blood, away from her chest. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCxCyNcsPFjRdPXcuyMojWux9LgU4-ZpSxRV3tEPbvAXPyydgkH_AhtJAivGTJksQpC0zIn5b99o2wKY7qqbfIUCuqK0IYGzVusSzgtU-ZuxO-XUeK1bQxmENYWwkQD9I6wJZK0kRAG0fLTUpQnRbPUz1w4E_TWc0LtypBXwISzS-VqvIb4owCKPeg/s1368/LadyRunaway.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1368" data-original-width="1045" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCxCyNcsPFjRdPXcuyMojWux9LgU4-ZpSxRV3tEPbvAXPyydgkH_AhtJAivGTJksQpC0zIn5b99o2wKY7qqbfIUCuqK0IYGzVusSzgtU-ZuxO-XUeK1bQxmENYWwkQD9I6wJZK0kRAG0fLTUpQnRbPUz1w4E_TWc0LtypBXwISzS-VqvIb4owCKPeg/w245-h320/LadyRunaway.jpeg" width="245" /></span></a></div><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">At the time I dreamed this, I was writing a Victorian era novel, but I’m an avid reader of Regency romances. I love the wit and humor of the short traditional Regency and use these books as a writing reward. I’d read one or two every weekend to give myself a refreshing change from the Victorian time period. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Once the scene in the London alley got stuck in my brain, I started mentally fleshing out a story line. Trying to figure out why this woman was in the alley, why she had been knifed, and what was going to happen to her next. I had read a lot about 19th century medicine so I knew a Regency doctor would be in this story. Who else could take care of her knife wound? Eventually, I outlined a possible story, but the real impetus for writing <i>Lady Runaway</i> came from the rejection of my Victorian era novel. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Rejection, Request, Success</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">An editor who read that submission (which would go on to be my first published historical romance–<i>Stealing Destiny</i>) liked my writing style, but couldn’t use that particular manuscript. She asked me if I had any Regency manuscripts because they were hot and she needed manuscripts. I pitched my idea for the book that would become <i>Lady Runaway</i>. She liked it so I wrote furiously, submitted the manuscript, made the suggested revisions, and resubmitted it, but in the end that version of <i>Lady Runaway</i> was rejected. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">While the basics of the story were there, I don’t think that version had gestated long enough. During the next year, no longer under the pressure of trying to write a book before an editor forgot who I was, I tweaked, poked and prodded <i>Lady Runaway</i> into a better story (and better title). That’s the story that Twilight Times Books published. How long did it take me to write <i>Lady Runaway</i>? I really don’t know. I didn’t mark the calendar the morning I awoke from that dream scene, but it was probably a year or so later when I pitched the idea. Then I had to write it and revise it. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">I also seldom work on one writing project at a time. When I was working on <i>Lady Runaway</i>, I was also writing a humor column for the local newspaper, writing and editing an aviation newsletter, and trying to break into the magazine scene. Trying to cage the creative process with time limits isn’t easy and that’s why I tend to hem and haw when someone asks me “how long” it took me to write a book.</span><p></p><div><br /></div>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-78707613096247302272022-09-15T14:22:00.001-07:002022-10-26T14:18:05.178-07:00 Why I Like Reading Genre Fiction<p><span style="font-size: large;">I recently realized I’m a genre snob. Literary works don’t do much for me. I realized this when I read the reader discussion at the end of a book I had just finished. The author admitted he has no message in that book. No message? No take away? Nothing that makes reading the book worthwhile for the reader?</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSWCpjP_adrkHMaGA0TDVlghp68MzK6I2t1CC3JknOTUCBWX7gDC-gnZjt5JllXfr3NPUaCYMwTpoDOyrxdjaUv6Oza2Dhj1Kse_ZscooBjlZHqi9w8S6FtfCb82QMybqAZ4i9nWYJFco94KzfI9l2eSNs_unofxOxqlzRh41zSVuOPxbUIAqDYKLa/s2726/BookShelf.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1539" data-original-width="2726" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSWCpjP_adrkHMaGA0TDVlghp68MzK6I2t1CC3JknOTUCBWX7gDC-gnZjt5JllXfr3NPUaCYMwTpoDOyrxdjaUv6Oza2Dhj1Kse_ZscooBjlZHqi9w8S6FtfCb82QMybqAZ4i9nWYJFco94KzfI9l2eSNs_unofxOxqlzRh41zSVuOPxbUIAqDYKLa/s320/BookShelf.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Actually, this pretty much summed up thoughts I’ve frequently had about literary fiction. Many “literary” books don’t seem to have a worthwhile message, some stories just meander from scene to scene without really going anywhere.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Yet in all my years of study of how to improve my own writing, we are constantly told to have some sort of takeaway for the reader. That most people read a book to help them make sense of the world.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Through the years, I have read countless fiction books written by countless authors. It may be shallow, but I often veer away from literary fiction because I have learned the stories often have an unfulfilling ending. At least to me.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">It took me awhile to realize I preferred genre fiction. It hit me over the head after I joined a library book club. The books we read were selected by recommendations from the members. The group would vote on whether or not to read recommended books. Once the members agreed on a book, whoever suggested it became the moderator for the book.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">A week before one meeting, the woman who had suggested the upcoming book selection asked me to be the moderator. She had unexpected company coming and was going to have to miss the meeting.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Reluctantly, I agreed.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">My reluctance stemmed from the fact I did not care for the book. It was sad and I don’t like to read sad books. In fact, often the books chosen by the members of this book club were either sad or didn’t have satisfying endings. Since I had joined the group to widen my reading habits, I faithfully read the selected books.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Problem is, I’m an avid reader of the news which usually reeks with sadness, especially these days with so much turmoil in the world. The real world sort of turned me off of reading sad fiction for entertainment.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I think that is why I prefer genre fiction. I prefer the villain be caught and pay a price for their wickedness. I prefer the mystery be solved and justice served. I prefer the hero and heroine end up in a successful relationship.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Thus, I read fiction for entertainment. And my fiction preference is usually genre fiction where I know the promise of a good story with a satisfying ending will be met.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Obviously, I’m a genre snob.</span></p><div><br /></div>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-41478813130644039112022-08-25T13:04:00.000-07:002022-08-25T13:04:10.443-07:00 Zooming into Writing Presentations<p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">I gave my first Zoom class in the spring, “As You Wish: The Power of Dialogue,” for a writing group in California. Since I have two writing skills ebooks on that subject, I had resources for the script I wrote. That was a plus because I needed two hours worth of something intelligent to say about dialogue.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I also needed a slideshow. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hmmmm. My slideshow expertise rests solely on a long ago attempt to showcase my dogs in five slides. Since I used photos I already had, all I did was add the captions. This recent attempt needed witty captions that matched pertinent images that fit the content about dialogue.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Whew!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Script writing for a presentation and designing a slideshow was a new writing experience for me. My background is more of the “in person workshop.” I’ve presented at all types of writers’ conferences from local to national. In addition, I’ve given presentations about writing to every age level from first graders to senior citizens, book club groups to the Rotary Club.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">When the Internet hit, I expanded into online writers’ conferences and workshops. This was done with email lectures and I became comfortable with this format.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I wasn’t eager to appear online because an experience in the early days of video chats with authors was not positive. Our librarian invited an author to join our book club session via the Internet. For some reason, the Internet connection kept freezing and the weird frozen faces of the author killed any desire I had to try the process.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Still, when my friend asked me to do a Zoom class, I thought, it’s been a decade since the fiasco at the library, surely Internet connections work better now. Fingers crossed, I took a chance and hoped my face wouldn’t freeze into a grotesque mask at any point.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then face freeze became a moot point when I realized it’s all about the lighting. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx_ssTD9iI092NU2pYuebGes_cULT8H5NFxh5mwQZ9nuWony0RZCc_nX8JdhZ-eRIu6wLp6JrmOgkX24vpyUz_hR34oFKug0bS8r86h8k1XgbfqWxULmVH78WXPaPyONtFZSVgD62W68iglbLUSwBokMHlLjBxWb9uzZnUsT0tqnCcKaUt0viXWDHQ/s300/ZoomMtg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="300" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx_ssTD9iI092NU2pYuebGes_cULT8H5NFxh5mwQZ9nuWony0RZCc_nX8JdhZ-eRIu6wLp6JrmOgkX24vpyUz_hR34oFKug0bS8r86h8k1XgbfqWxULmVH78WXPaPyONtFZSVgD62W68iglbLUSwBokMHlLjBxWb9uzZnUsT0tqnCcKaUt0viXWDHQ/s1600/ZoomMtg.jpg" width="300" /></a></span></div><p></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Like lighting your area without creating unattractive shadows on your face. And if the lighting isn’t right, it will glint off your glasses’ lenses when you move your head. Removing my glasses isn’t an option. I’d have to hold my notes about an inch from my face if I needed to read anything. Then again, if my face froze no one would know because my face would be hidden behind my notes.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Like the trooper I am, I watched the rerun of my “As You Wish: The Power of Dialogue” Zoom show. While I didn’t do extremely well on the lighting, I did get most of my first Zoom class right.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Two sources indicated to me the content of the presentation was well received. I remembered to include the class in some discussion. And I only suffered the occasional “duh” moment as I tried to share information and register the disappearing and reappearing class attendants.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">My positive experience with a Zoom presentation was aided by my dear friend who invited me to speak. She graciously sent me examples from past Zoom presentations she had made. They proved priceless as guides for how to create a Zoom presentation.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The tech guru who ran the slideshow portion contacted me prior to the big day with helpful information describing his part in the process. He also offered some general suggestions on making the Zoom experience positive for the attendees.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">All in all, it was an educational experience.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">One I’m apparently going to repeat in October.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now if I can only figure out how to keep my glasses lenses from sparkling.</span></p><div><br /></div>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-52282657687991552962022-06-30T13:56:00.006-07:002022-06-30T13:56:57.668-07:00The Joy of Writing<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Several years ago, I wrote this essay for another blog I have called “Beneath the Midlist.” I’m not as familiar with all WP’s bells and whistles and tend to “forget” to post there.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I really liked this blog and thought other writers might find it helpful to read so here it is.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">While it would be nice to make a living at writing, I never have. If I hadn’t married a Renaissance prince–a patron who shelters, feeds, and encourages me–I would never have had the opportunity to write.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sure, it’d be nice to rake in a lot of dough, but truth is, I’ve always written and I’ve never made a lot of money at it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">But I have experienced a lot of joy.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy75ncdUEU3Z1z6Yo9J5MI3OPTDkRosOrxN5LmOMcpRDwokOBqf1mytzDCrChFq8uwFl0OTA28hrts_SPEYqmOJr8xy6N512CzCWDppm-VI5uBQAXZTCJl-cds16ASi0nyN2JzRdG5JcBBepbXacpAqpEtQ6EOqYrYxgaAwCiCjzXAxtKyQoURwpmI/s848/Typewriter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="848" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy75ncdUEU3Z1z6Yo9J5MI3OPTDkRosOrxN5LmOMcpRDwokOBqf1mytzDCrChFq8uwFl0OTA28hrts_SPEYqmOJr8xy6N512CzCWDppm-VI5uBQAXZTCJl-cds16ASi0nyN2JzRdG5JcBBepbXacpAqpEtQ6EOqYrYxgaAwCiCjzXAxtKyQoURwpmI/w320-h213/Typewriter.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;">One of my favorite writing experiences occurred when I wrote a humor column for the local newspaper. I had a good friend who was an older woman who had worked tirelessly through the years to make our home town a better place. When I discovered, she had started the Girl Scouts organization in town and helped establish an arts alliance program, I decided to devote a column to her. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;">After I lauded her accomplishments, I asked readers to thank her the next time they saw her. Well, they did more than that. They had the mayor proclaim a day in her honor and held a reception for her, inviting the town to come and thank her.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I got hooked up with newsletters right after I was married. My husband was in the Army and I volunteered with Army Community Services. Once the supervisor learned I had studied journalism in college, I got to write the monthly newsletter. The Army sent my newsletter to military installations around the world so I was internationally published way before the Internet made it easy. One of the wives who received the newsletter wrote to thank me. She didn’t live on post and felt out of touch with military life while her husband served overseas. My newsletter helped her feel connected to the military community that she missed. It was nice to know she read and enjoyed my newsletter and that it helped her endure the separation from her spouse.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">To my delight, an article I wrote in an aviation company newsletter led to three mechanics in Alabama receiving the FAA’s Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award. They read the article and realized they qualified. Of course, it took a little more than that for them to receive the award, but it got the process started.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">As a fiction writer, it’s always satisfying to feel your characters have touched someone’s life. When <i>Stealing Destiny</i> was first published, my hair stylist begged me to write a sequel because “I want to know what happens to Billie and Grayson after they go to Colorado.” While I appreciated her desire to stay with them longer, their story had reached its happily ever after conclusion.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Internet has opened wider doors and it was great fun to hear from a reader in Australia who used my essay about finding ants in my iron to convince her “mates” that ants had been in her iron, too. And I doubt I’ll ever forget my husband’s co-worker who told my husband what I needed to do to get rid of said ants. It was quite a pleasant surprise to discover what I wrote interested men, too. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’ve met many writers during my journey. Some have done well financially, some have made a little money from one project or another, and some have published their own work and given copies to their friends and family. In my opinion, the size of the audience and the amount of money earned doesn’t make you a writer. What makes you a writer is the act of writing.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Only then can you experience the joy writing brings.</span></p><div><br /></div>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-35038758128745185462022-06-10T12:44:00.009-07:002022-06-10T13:28:07.585-07:00The Handy Dandy Occupational Outlook Handbook<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Most of us have a general idea of many careers. Our paths have usually crossed those of dentists, nurses, bank clerks, car mechanics, postal carriers, and librarians, just to name a few. But we’re not always well acquainted with professions other than our own. This is where the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ handy dandy Occupational Outlook Handbook comes in handy for writers.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh09v_vqQaRVaPoXhXg1XbTAhbU-DX1U8TBJkW-6xc3sssJZgQjeTH6r3ON4AVZJeVdkZd307dpGqCvX8ZRPHB9i-H_vbEona_5zlNYv-Ag_1JOsT7iDTWNAJdfjSMU_gpErmXEiuVGmJjgQB-1eG2WGJmWks536nZpiDQDgm-yOiTdXao4K0Ok-QbL/s936/OOH.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="936" data-original-width="724" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh09v_vqQaRVaPoXhXg1XbTAhbU-DX1U8TBJkW-6xc3sssJZgQjeTH6r3ON4AVZJeVdkZd307dpGqCvX8ZRPHB9i-H_vbEona_5zlNYv-Ag_1JOsT7iDTWNAJdfjSMU_gpErmXEiuVGmJjgQB-1eG2WGJmWks536nZpiDQDgm-yOiTdXao4K0Ok-QbL/s320/OOH.png" width="248" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large; text-align: left;">Never heard of this handbook? Well, if your main character insists on being a biological technician and you know nothing about this career, then this is the website for you. The OOH is stuffed with details about this profession and thousands of others.</span></div><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">First of all, what is a biological technician? According to OOH, biological technicians assist biological and medical scientists. They set up, operate, and maintain laboratory instruments and equipment, monitor experiments, collect data and samples, make observations, and record results. A biological technician may also analyze organic substances, such as blood, food, and drugs.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">That’s not all the OOH shares about this profession. It also lists educational requirements, annual wages, and how many are employed in the field. There’s a geographic profile for the profession that breaks statistics down by state and even metropolitan areas.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The profile also provides estimates on how how fast the field is growing and future job prospects. The types of industries that employ biological technicians are also profiled. Some biological technicians work in scientific research while others might work in the pharmaceutical industry.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Using the OOH is relatively easy. On the home page you’ll find 25 categories of occupations. I chose Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations which led me to biological technicians.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Each profession has a menu bar: Summary, What They Do, Work Environment, How to Become One, Pay, Job Outlook, State and Area Data, Similar Occupations, More Info (links to further resources).</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">All this information helps your imagination as you build the backstory of your character. Keep in mind that education influences the way a person talks and will also influence the way your character talks. If we return to the character who trained to be biological technician, OOH tells us a person training for this occupation would typically need a bachelor’s degree in biology. Biology programs include subfields such as ecology, microbiology, and physiology. Throw in a little math and physics seasoned with laboratory experience and you’re brewing up a biological technician.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Not only will this character’s dialogue be influenced by having a college education, the actual day to day activities inherent in the profession will also color their dialogue. For example, for a biological technician, the word “lab” will conjure up a well-lit, sterile environment that features microscopes, vials, and latex gloves.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">To me, the word “lab” conjures up a big, friendly family dog.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’ve never been a biological technician, but OOH certainly helps me get a good handle on the basics of the occupation such as the education required, the way a character might speak, their work environment, and even their socio-economic status.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">All in all, not a bad place to start building backstory and getting to know my character.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Best of all, this information comes to you free from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. If you want to check out this handy dandy handbook visit </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/">https://www.bls.gov/ooh/</a></span></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Occupational Outlook Handbook, career descriptions, character backstory building</p><div><br /></div>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-1721885431384883002022-03-22T13:48:00.000-07:002022-03-24T08:26:22.275-07:00 Let’s Revisit the Ripple Effect<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">On May 25, 2015, I posted a blog titled “The Ripple Effect in Storytelling.” I wrote about consequences in setting up a scene. I was reminded of this blog when I recently watched Ryan Reynolds’ latest Netflick movie, </span><i style="font-family: Georgia;">The Adam Project</i><span style="font-family: Georgia;">. As a longtime Reynolds fan (Two Guys and A Girl!), it was fun to follow his adventures as a pilot from the future who goes back in time and encounters his younger self.</span></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Reynold’s character is wounded while stealing an aircraft to travel back in time. Although the bullet supposedly exited, its path was through his body, not a graze mind you, a bullet hole through flesh and organs and blood vessels–and he bleeds a lot.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">While he spends some time early on tending the exterior of the wounds, he ends up in several physical encounters with no visible problem of an untreated bullet wound in his side. In <i>The Adam Project</i>, the screen writers forgot about the ripple effect.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">What’s the ripple effect, you ask?</span></b></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSQXT4Ke2bvo57tM4yWXNQpaiwu6GnNXdQo7eVNZcUg6_emCL7iRg-of_kKal2RqTeL7wWud5Jq06DLwC8SCR6txkT8dR_krk5T8tqf0pdpYxFOVHI_1iCezlBXmqnLdC3lYiwpFkjtnntEvg6iDHSTlWNbsDSr53KcCYGUMvAVhm_oZFv-GmqzjGi/s1200/skipping-stones-1439378.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="900" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSQXT4Ke2bvo57tM4yWXNQpaiwu6GnNXdQo7eVNZcUg6_emCL7iRg-of_kKal2RqTeL7wWud5Jq06DLwC8SCR6txkT8dR_krk5T8tqf0pdpYxFOVHI_1iCezlBXmqnLdC3lYiwpFkjtnntEvg6iDHSTlWNbsDSr53KcCYGUMvAVhm_oZFv-GmqzjGi/w150-h200/skipping-stones-1439378.jpg" width="150" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Well, once something is introduced into the story, it has consequences that ripple out. Imagine a pebble tossed into a pond, it hits the water and then ever widening ripples reach out to touch more area than the pebble itself touched.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Let’s look at the word consequence. It has two meanings. Consequence is something that can be the result of an action or condition. Think outcome or repercussion or aftermath. The second definition of consequence is importance or relevance. Used in that sense, words such as significance, substance, or value comes to mind.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The consequence or result of being shot is a bullet wound. What is the importance of this wound? Its relevance? We feel it has significance when we watch Reynold’s character pull his blood soaked hand away from the wound.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thus, the writers dropped in the pebble of a gunshot wound, but they failed to truly widen the repercussions. They erased the effects of the wound.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">What happened?</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the beginning, Adam the pilot is profusely bleeding as he escapes capture. He needs to find medical supplies to treat the wound. He even tells his younger counterpart that the bullet exited so he doesn’t need to worry about fishing it out. Then the remainder of the movie, it’s as if he has no bullet wound. There are no consequences. No infection, no fever, no bodily weakness from blood loss.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">According to <i>Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia:</i></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Gunshot wounds that pass through the body without hitting major organs, blood vessels, or bone tend to cause less damage.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I guess this is what the writers intended, no major organs hurt, no ricocheting off a bone. But bullets still destroy tissue and blood vessels. Gun shot wounds hurt! They cause damage to the body which needs time to heal. Without the proper care, they become infected.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Wouldn’t that hurt?</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">At the very least, the wound would be a source of pain when someone whacked you in the side.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yet, Reynold’s character fought valiantly against a slew of opponents, including the villain’s henchman who engaged him several times in one-on-one physical battle. Ryan’s character never flinched or displayed any disability while being pummeled, or leaping around, or bopping the bad guy.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">While this lack of the ripple effect may be all well and good for an established actor, the average writer might want to think about the ripple effect’s consequences and how they impact characters when building story scenes.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The screen writers failed to give the wound a true ripple effect. It was the result of an action, but it failed the second definition when its important role in the beginning of the story fizzled out. The ripple effect of this injury never reached its true dimensions.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Don’t leave your readers wondering why a character fails to react when someone lands a punch in a body part that was penetrated by a bullet only hours earlier. Think of the ripple effect as you write your story.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000737.htm">https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000737.htm</a></span></p>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-26318331706920748332022-02-23T09:00:00.001-08:002022-02-23T09:00:34.356-08:00 Confessions of a Bookoholic<p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">2021 wasn’t too kind to my blogging. I was a sporadic blogger to say the least. Not only was there the pandemic to live around, we had once told our daughter we would move and live near her when she retired from her career in the U.S. Coast Guard. Needless to say, she retired and held us to our promise. Cleaning out and packing up a home after you have lived there for 25 years is not an easy job. Either physically or mentally.</span></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">One of the most difficult choices I had to make was which books to move and which to donate. It was a difficult task and here’s why:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m a bookoholic. I love books. Big books, tiny books. Fat books, thin books. Old books, new books. Fiction books, nonfiction books. Mysteries, romances, cookbooks, history books, biographies. I love them all.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimfn4SC_9jMOC1_cyUEfzNYVXf2EezAPyIcMwHzBPyH-NEhVrLxi5_pClZIYcNM3t8dCL27gHIWzre6m-wLDcn1wB-Kz-3iMmuIqxOs2CVsJe7EOBxXc6aRWFaS_0hBaiSI9e0807dRpWeEESZO45IfSxvqDC_vSSc1uSczrfkkM9bqwe1RU1js0aq=s2726" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1539" data-original-width="2726" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimfn4SC_9jMOC1_cyUEfzNYVXf2EezAPyIcMwHzBPyH-NEhVrLxi5_pClZIYcNM3t8dCL27gHIWzre6m-wLDcn1wB-Kz-3iMmuIqxOs2CVsJe7EOBxXc6aRWFaS_0hBaiSI9e0807dRpWeEESZO45IfSxvqDC_vSSc1uSczrfkkM9bqwe1RU1js0aq=s320" width="320" /></span></a></div><p></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I buy books, I borrow books. I check them out of the library. I dug through a dumpster to save them when an Army library in Germany tossed them. Whenever I visit another city, I check out local bookstores and buy some book I didn’t know I had to have because I didn’t know it existed. I volunteered with the Friends of the Library for over two decades. It made finding treasures to buy even easier. I can’t begin to guess how many armloads of books I lugged home over the years.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I love the smell of new books and the crisp feel of a newly printed page beneath my fingers. I love the musty smell of old books and the soft, worn feel of a yellowing page.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I love the shiny dust jackets that make lavish promises. The audacious “New!” or “Latest” emblazoned on a 30-year-old book. I treasure the less presumptuous and tattered cover of the simple 1956 edition of a biography, promising only the life story of its subject.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I love the information inside the covers of books. Fiction or nonfiction, what joy it is to read what others have written. To be able to visit any time and any place while comfortably ensconced in an easy chair surrounded by books.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Books define who I am and how I live. They have gone from living in the multiple bookcases I have bought or had made just for them to showing up as part of the decor. Artfully piled on the coffee table, nestled in baskets in various rooms, or stacked in hidden corners like the treasure they are, books are in every room of my house.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">And while I know that if I did nothing but read 24/7, I could never read all the books I have before I die. That’s okay because I’m a bookoholic. I’m not into reading them all, I’m into giving them a good home.</span></p>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-90475895511157494512021-12-01T13:37:00.001-08:002021-12-01T13:37:14.450-08:00Writing the Historical Romance Part 3<p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Historical writers tend to love history and are often lured off the research track by fascinating historical tidbits. Frequently, the lure isn’t germane to the story being written. Which is why I find writing some type of outline or synopsis a great help once I’ve gained a feel for the historical period. This does not have to be a polished, submission level outline/synopsis. This is for your eyes only and can be as sloppy as you want.</span></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Probably the most important first step is establishing a time line. Why read about what happened in 1858 when your story takes place in 1812? Listing the basic elements of your story is another important step. In my November 19, 2019 blog I write about the essential story ingredients such as character, motivation, conflict, goals, etc. You can be as thorough here as you want. This is for your eyes only and can be as vague or detailed as you like. It’s easy to expand a word with a question mark into a sentence which eventually becomes a paragraph </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheTEugrRuhlOafUCrUz3hyd__LsQmWyuX6EtKhgUbALl_BKCjRpvW6G0jgYBmS9qGeHLgemteHu_UZCp92-b0h6HPXVhIHD_KeCfR16Zg9L-zRYft1SIioIAjlHe6ZAUvl-p4TLYcKyZc/s300/Pen%2526Bks%25233.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="300" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheTEugrRuhlOafUCrUz3hyd__LsQmWyuX6EtKhgUbALl_BKCjRpvW6G0jgYBmS9qGeHLgemteHu_UZCp92-b0h6HPXVhIHD_KeCfR16Zg9L-zRYft1SIioIAjlHe6ZAUvl-p4TLYcKyZc/w200-h133/Pen%2526Bks%25233.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">and then morphs into a scene.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Having established the basics will help keep you on track as you continue to research, while also hopefully writing the actual story.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Remember when I said the bibliography at the back of every nonfiction history book is your most valuable resource?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I said that because the bibliography opens the door to the specific. In order to write the general overview of the period, the author pulls together information from many sources and lists them in the bibliography. Scan the bibliography of every resource you use, because nuggets of historical gold are found there.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Let’s return to <i>Stealing Destiny</i>. My initial research gave me a good idea of what was happening in the years preceding and following 1866. Now I needed to begin not only researching specific details but also writing a first draft.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The story centers around a horse so I decided to move the story to Tennessee where horse breeding is important. Since I wanted my heroine to travel to New York after the war to retrieve her horse, I knew she had to be a resourceful person and decided to make her a Confederate spy. I wanted my hero to have a reason to be separated from his unit when he commandeered the horse, and decided to make him a mapmaker for the Union army.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now I’m moving into specific areas of research: horse breeding in Tennessee, spying during the Civil War, cartography, Tennessee during the war, and life in central New York state. I’ve found it useful to read autobiographies or biographies of people who lived during the period. My research for this novel netted me a biography of Stonewall Jackson’s cartographer and gave me an intimate look at the life of a mapmaker during a war.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">At this early point in writing, I try to maintain a good balance between research and writing. While you research, always keep writing. Be aware it is easy to get bogged down in research. If you hit a snag in a scene and need more detailed information such as what type of hat your heroine is wearing, mark the place with asterisks and a note to look it up later, and then write around it. Computers make it easy to go back and add additional information.</span></p>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-6462023952438849902021-10-19T10:04:00.000-07:002021-10-19T10:04:29.458-07:00Writing the Historical Romance: Part 2<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Inspiration for a historical story can be triggered by a multitude of sources. Be it a sentence in a book, a personal experience, a dream, a podcast–the list is endless for source material. Today’s writer of historical can tap into a wide variety of autobiographies and biographies, historical nonfiction, and print or online magazines. Period films, movies, and documentaries are another favorite source. You never know what nugget of information will become the trigger for a story.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">If you enjoy history, inspiration never runs dry.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1kR39TTwgfQKBXcdKxPgv0YB244di_rLg5-9HhyphenhyphenV8pkFtK1yLnnlg8K-Tj-5RKlb8hmGYGr8Ig5a65B7S999wPfsOnBFxUyNJyPI0xfm34sb7BHIm0_5upOh0jukw4XJGD5PWsZDD60/s300/Pen%2526Bks%25232+300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1kR39TTwgfQKBXcdKxPgv0YB244di_rLg5-9HhyphenhyphenV8pkFtK1yLnnlg8K-Tj-5RKlb8hmGYGr8Ig5a65B7S999wPfsOnBFxUyNJyPI0xfm34sb7BHIm0_5upOh0jukw4XJGD5PWsZDD60/s0/Pen%2526Bks%25232+300.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The idea for my first published book, </span><i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Stealing Destiny</span></i><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> (aka </span><i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Tennessee Waltz</span></i><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">) came from an item I ran across while reading about the Civil War. A Yankee officer had commandeered a horse from a woman in Virginia. After the war he wrote to her that the horse survived the war and was doing well. I thought the woman in Virginia, one of the most fought over states in the war, needed that horse more than he did. I decided to send my heroine after her horse.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">With a time period, three characters (and yes, the horse was a central character), and motivation, I began my research. I prefer to go from the general to the specific. I like to get a general feel for the time period before zooming in on specific details. To obtain an overview, I like to read a general history that spans at least twenty years of my target time period. Ten or so years before the story begins as well as ten or more years after it ends. College textbooks are an excellent source because I can’t think of any historical period that some college professor hasn’t written about.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">For example, my first two novels are set in post war 1866. I found </span><i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution 1863 to 1877</span></i><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> an excellent source for this time period. Written by the prize winning author Eric Foner, Ph.D., who specializes in writing books about the Civil War and Reconstruction.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">General history books about different time periods are available in the history collections of most public libraries. Other sources for getting a general feel for a time period are the popular “everyday in the life of” type books. I used the Writer’s Digest Books, </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Everyday Life During the Civil Wa</i><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">r by Michael J. Varhola as well as </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Everyday Life in the 1800s</i><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> by Mark McCutcheon to help flesh out the story. Keep in mind the bibliography at the back of every nonfiction history book is a valuable resource as you narrow your focus.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Don’t forget to check out the children’s section of the library. Books written for younger readers offer a good spring board into unfamiliar topics. I also love the </span><i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Eyewitness Visual Dictionary</span></i><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> series published by Kindersley Publishing. From Dinosaurs to Climate Change, these books offer easy to read but detailed coverage of over 100 topics. </span><i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ships and Sailing</span></i><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> provided me with valuable information about steamboats for Stealing Destiny.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The Internet is a wonderful source for today’s historical researcher, but use it with caution. Its greatest drawback is the frequent lack of a bibliography which makes validating the information difficult. History buff turned web site manager doesn’t always equal historical accuracy. Plus, there’s always the problem of a site disappearing into cyberspace. Treat the Internet as yet another resource, not the only one.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">This initial research helps anchor me in the time period and gives me fodder for bringing the story to life. It also triggers ideas for scenes in the story. To avoid being overwhelmed with scene possibilities and to keep my research organized, I like to use an outline or narrative synopsis.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Before you faint at the idea of writing an outline or narrative synopsis at this point (sloppy is fine because it’s for your eyes only), think of it as a tool to help focus your research. Rather than going off on unnecessary historical tangents, an outline helps you concentrate your research on the historical facts you need to write this particular story.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">In the next blog, we’ll look at how to focus your research while balancing your story writing with research.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">P.S. By the way, you might enjoy my August 2020 blog, </span><i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Title Control: Coming up with a Title for Your Story</span></i><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> in which I share how traditional publishers sometimes ignore story content and assign a title willy nilly. As happened to me when the publisher came up with the title for my first book </span><i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Tennessee Waltz</span></i><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">.</span></p><div><br /></div>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-12728291130697616942021-08-31T16:42:00.002-07:002021-08-31T16:47:42.709-07:00Writing the Historical Romance: Part 1<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Never write a historical novel as your first book.” I read this piece of writing advice in my first how-to-write fiction book. Youth and an undergraduate degree in history made me discard the advice. I spent the next two years writing a 900 page tome about Roman Britain set in 60 A. D.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Gladiator</i> it was not. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">By the time, I wrote “The End,” the advice made sense. A novice historical romance writer is giving herself two difficult new skills to master: the craft of writing and the creation of a different time period. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUXbnZS7beQJUI8lLpcJbTM2qYMswIPwneTO0n25PgGlp2-TG5JRIrdse0Fj4SMsfyjQXA5ylG5f-h5yFqxFo0KIlv53cGyMDb28iWfAl3eq2tdpRyahyphenhyphene9O-tiDdtrNznpxeOjzHgXT0/s300/Pen%2526Bks%25231300.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="300" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUXbnZS7beQJUI8lLpcJbTM2qYMswIPwneTO0n25PgGlp2-TG5JRIrdse0Fj4SMsfyjQXA5ylG5f-h5yFqxFo0KIlv53cGyMDb28iWfAl3eq2tdpRyahyphenhyphene9O-tiDdtrNznpxeOjzHgXT0/w200-h133/Pen%2526Bks%25231300.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-size: large;">The beginning writer of a contemporary story worries only about learning the craft of writing, because she can draw upon a store of shared contemporary images when she creates her setting. For example, the word “McDonald’s” puts the reader in a fast-food restaurant replete with smells. </span><p></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Life isn’t as simple for the writer of historical novels. You don’t have this store of contemporary images and if your story is set before 1827, you can’t use the word restaurant. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">How do I know this? I checked my trusty <i>Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary</i>, an excellent source for when a word first entered our vocabulary. <i>English Through the Ages</i> by William Brohaugh is another useful addition to your library if you want to know if your 16th century hero can say “sandwich”. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Still anxious to tackle your first historical romance? Of course, you are. If you weren’t passionate about writing and history, you wouldn’t be reading this essay. But before we delve into researching the historical romance, here are some general guidelines to keep in mind. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Whether your story is about Viking warriors or Regency rogues, you must enter that world in order to bring your reader into it. The world you create must be historically accurate because your readers know their history. Make too many historical mistakes in your writing and you will lose readers. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">On the other hand, too much history can cost you readers, too. Romance may come second in the category description of historical romance, but the romance should always come first. Remember, your story is about the relationship between the hero and heroine. The history provides the context in which your hero and heroine develop their relationship. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Another challenge for the historical romance writer is to keep characters true to their time while offering the reader a strong and independent heroine. Today’s writers of historical romance walk a fine line between historical accuracy and heroines that appeal </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">to modern readers. This challenge can be turned into an asset if you use the social mores of the past as added conflict for the characters, especially the heroine. Good research will keep both your reader and heroine rooted in the time period no matter how sassy your heroine is. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I feel very fortunate that Jo Beverly, one of Regency’s most famous authors, helped me figure out a key plot element for my Regency <i>Butterfly Bride</i>. Jo was famous for her attention to historical detail and I was ecstatic when she volunteered to help me figure out how my heroine could legally end her marriage. We worked through various scenarios until we hit upon one that stayed true to the historical period.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">A good story plus good research is the key to a good historical romance, but where do you start? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></p>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-19270433312963348392021-06-30T12:32:00.002-07:002021-06-30T12:34:00.482-07:00A Story of Flashbacks<p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Flashbacks are events that happened before your primary story began. You insert them in the scene in such a way as to flesh out the story, being careful not to slow the pace of the story, lose the reader’s interest, or create confusion. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">I recently read a novel set in World War II Paris. The book chronicles the lives of two women during the Nazi occupation of Paris. It is told almost completely in flashbacks. I guess they’re flashbacks since there’s no real timeline.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The story begins in 1943, but the subsequent chapters bounce between 1939 and 1945 (when the Allies free Paris from Nazi rule). Not only does the story bounce around in time, it bounces between the two heroines. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Does this type of story telling slow the flow of the story? Does it lose reader’s interest? Does it create confusion.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Honestly, I’d have to say yes to all three. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Still, many readers enjoyed the story and it has received good reviews. Some readers didn’t stick with it and voiced their dislike of the structure.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Here’s the real question. Did writing the story with a bouncing timeline make the story better? </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I don’t think so.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">While each chapter heading set the date and location, there was always momentary confusion as I tried to orient myself to the year, the point of view character, and the setting. Once I accomplished that, I could usually fit the opening paragraphs into the context of the overall story. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I realize some authors like to turn story telling on its head and try new gimmicks. And yes, I think a novel filled with flashbacks is a gimmick. The story lacked the basic structure of a story: a beginning, a middle, and an end.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIgAq2GsY-6_EzNOXjM3mrdx-3DgYk_1yPF2iUSGZykuVt2RLsZG5xP2Ttkia0-5zOuEszQLNH5fsqydebEnEYJhYoi0FENtRokzdZAcdQFpmE1G3dqrbmO5KGMvqtQsQRbeVnDEhqS3o/s692/Cavemen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="692" data-original-width="692" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIgAq2GsY-6_EzNOXjM3mrdx-3DgYk_1yPF2iUSGZykuVt2RLsZG5xP2Ttkia0-5zOuEszQLNH5fsqydebEnEYJhYoi0FENtRokzdZAcdQFpmE1G3dqrbmO5KGMvqtQsQRbeVnDEhqS3o/w200-h200/Cavemen.jpg" title="Storytelling Cavemen" width="200" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Story telling is an ancient art form refined through countless centuries and countless stories. It originated eons before there was pen and paper. Early storytellers did exactly that, they told stories to their family, friends, and visitors. A good storyteller learns how to keep the audience interested. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Through trial and error, storytellers unknowingly shaped stories around the way the human brain processes information. For example, one strong component of storytelling is its reliance on the participation of the audience, or in this case, the reader. Brain research has revealed that humans get quite caught up in stories. Most readers try and guess what comes next. And a good story uses twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. Listening to or reading well-written stories also enhance our critical thinking skills.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Paris occupation story isn’t told in the accepted story format and it makes it difficult for the reader to participate in the story. We know this isn’t an alternate history story and we know the Nazis will be defeated at the end. As written, we don’t get a chance to anticipate how the heroines will react to the various events or guess what might happen next because the next chapter might well be set two years earlier than the one you just read.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">You may wonder why I finished this book. I admit, I wasn’t sure I was going to read all of it. What kept me going was the author’s historical research. She did a fine job of putting the reader in occupied Paris. As a history buff I enjoyed that aspect of her novel. So, I guess I connected with her story via the setting. On the other hand, the lack of story structure makes me wary of reading any other book by her.</span></p><div><br /></div>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-17136756572604057822021-01-11T12:40:00.003-08:002021-02-06T12:08:34.123-08:00 Print Dictionary: A Useful Addition to a Writer’s Library<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Sometimes, we don’t know the exact word we want so we look it up online. While online dictionaries are a great resource, I’ve noticed they sometimes offer the briefest of definitions. Not so long ago, I was reading a book that used the word recognizance when the writer meant reconnaissance. I’m not sure if the writer didn’t know the meaning of the two words, or if an editor changed it and the author didn’t notice the change, or if they were both unaware.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2k9f4LrB9UQbvkM2PHtl587R__31hXINS5AhZW-YpL5O3XK01LN7u0-aC3bHoxlSsyf3sroZoD-LWKBoHZxDpktY8015-y0b6gJD5On8JZCK0vTXQ7jhTUQlNzvKyOrzFhUqQrXU5Pz4/s1080/photo-1583361704374-152ab9fb6dcc.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1080" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2k9f4LrB9UQbvkM2PHtl587R__31hXINS5AhZW-YpL5O3XK01LN7u0-aC3bHoxlSsyf3sroZoD-LWKBoHZxDpktY8015-y0b6gJD5On8JZCK0vTXQ7jhTUQlNzvKyOrzFhUqQrXU5Pz4/w200-h133/photo-1583361704374-152ab9fb6dcc.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><p></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Recognizance and reconnaissance both stem from a French word “reconoissance" which means recognition, but they have completely different meanings. Recognizance has to do with the court system. When someone is arrested, a judge may are may not set a bond. If no bond is set, the person is released on his or her own recognizance. Basically, the judge has decided you are trustworthy and will appear in court when called. There will be a penalty if you don't keep your word and appear in court, but the judge believes you will. This word dates back to the 14th century so it's been around a long time.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The word reconnaissance, on the other hand, doesn't show up in the English vocabulary until 1810. This is the time frame of the Napoleonic wars which makes sense because<br />reconnaissance originally referred to a military survey to gain information about the enemy. It can also mean gathering information.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Reign in or Rein in?</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’ve frequently seen “reign in” used to when the writer meant “rein in.” The verb “reign” means to hold royal office, be a monarch, or maybe hold as much power as a monarch. A character cannot “reign in his emotions.” You would in essence be saying, “George held royal office in his emotions.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The correct word phrase is “rein in” his temper because a rein is one of the leather straps attached to a horse’s bridle and used by the rider to control the horse. To stop a horse, the rider pulls on the reins, thus “reining in” the horse. If you want your character to hide or control his emotions, you would write, “George reined in his emotions.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Why a Print Dictionary?</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">It never hurts to research the meaning of a word in a reliable print dictionary, especially if you're unsure of the correct usage. A reliable dictionary will give you extensive background on a word, when it entered the English language, examples of how it is used, and all the various meanings of a word. The English language is highly adaptable and there are words used every day that didn’t exist 20 years ago. Or they had a completely different meaning.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The only cure I know for expanding your vocabulary is to read, read, read! Need I say, all kinds of stories? Just be sure they are well-written. Embrace the English language, or whatever language you use when writing your stories. </span></p>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-76156330289740886502020-11-07T11:10:00.000-08:002020-11-07T11:10:15.680-08:00Characters and Situational Awareness<p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">I was listening to National Public Radio (NPR) one day when a man began recounting an incident in his life that led to a group of teens beating him up. I didn’t listen to the complete story because I couldn’t get past the beginning.</span></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Here’s how he set it up:</span></p>
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<ul>
<li style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">It was midnight. </span></li>
<li style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">It was Brooklyn, NY </span></li>
<li style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">He was walking home alone. </span></li>
<li style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">He was talking on the phone with his friend. </span></li>
<li style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">He was wearing earbuds. </span></li>
<li style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">He was in a deserted industrial area.</span></li>
</ul>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">There were so many things wrong with this story. Rather than think, poor guy, he got beat up. I thought what were you thinking? Of course, you got beat up.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Let’s step back from his story for a moment</b>.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I worked on ten Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) handbooks–writing, editing, and proofreading chapters. One topic the FAA hit again and again was situational awareness. What is situational awareness, you ask? Pretty much what you think it is: being aware of the situation around you.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Being aware of what is happening around you deals with whether anyone or anything is a threat to your health and safety. In the big scheme of life, women are often more aware than men of threats to their safety. If your heroine is a nurse who works a night shift, she is going to be very aware of threats to her safety when she leaves the confines of the medical facility and walks to her car. The 6’ 2” male nurse who works the same shift may not be as uneasy or as situationally aware during the walk from the building to his car.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Between an early job with the U.S. Army Aircraft Accident Board and research I did while working on the FAA handbooks, I’ve read a lot of aircraft accident reports. While there may be contributing factors for accidents involving small airplanes, investigators often point to pilot error as the cause of the accident.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Today’s airplanes come equipped with computer assisted </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvCsm4sQxxh4IZEkBDnZNlJb_mvMKClFrn77AQwQvdHFF-nvwtBhysk0xbWrDmsIJSDiNar7MuhCaI1h92CnhFH9UJ40KbC_WhjFnyDgEZY64oHZBvAmJlalrB8EwzODTqHPKEFvohlSQ/s500/cody-fitzgerald-rcwv09i6A6w-unsplash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="500" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvCsm4sQxxh4IZEkBDnZNlJb_mvMKClFrn77AQwQvdHFF-nvwtBhysk0xbWrDmsIJSDiNar7MuhCaI1h92CnhFH9UJ40KbC_WhjFnyDgEZY64oHZBvAmJlalrB8EwzODTqHPKEFvohlSQ/w320-h213/cody-fitzgerald-rcwv09i6A6w-unsplash.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">instruments and often the airplane knows more than a newly-minted pilot. Which is why the FAA stresses the need to pay attention, to be situationally aware. It is not wise for a pilot to text friends or play a computer game because the sky looks clear and empty. Distractions mean the pilot is no long situationally aware. Weather conditions, for example, can deteriorate rapidly and disorient even the most experienced pilot, leading to an accident.</span><p></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">What does this have to do with the man who was attacked late at night in a lonely part of Brooklyn while talking on a phone? He set himself up to be attacked. He wasn’t situationally aware. He failed to look out for his own safety by remaining aware of his surroundings and the potential hazards he faced.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">What does situational awareness have to do with writing stories?</span></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">It adds another layer of interest to your story and characters. Different characters will have differing degrees of situational awareness. For example, a Navy SEAL will be trained in situational awareness and practice it without conscious thought. His life may hinge on being able to prevent bad things. It’s an important part of his worldview. On the other hand, a yeoman, who is an administrative clerk in the Navy, won’t need or practice the same level of situational awareness. Sure, when driving to work it’s important, but his or her work involves computers, not bad guys with guns.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Situational awareness is only as accurate as personal perception or reading of the situation. In other words, what we think is happening may not accurately reflect reality. How a person reads a situation can be influenced by many things such as personal experience, correct or incorrect information, family or work pressures, and other distractions. A person can become so absorbed in their own thoughts or problems that he or she fails to even realize they face a serious threat to their safety until it is too late.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Like our guy who was interviewed on NPR. He’s walking alone through a deserted part of a big city late at night while he chats on the phone with his buddy. To ensure he gets mugged, he plugs his ears with earbuds. Talk about lack of situational awareness…</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">A writer can fill pages of back story on a character like this.</span></p><div><br /></div>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-47031094186841552232020-09-25T17:00:00.004-07:002020-09-25T17:02:09.823-07:00Pantser or Plotter: Do Writers Have to Choose One Over the Other?<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the writing world you’re either a “pantser” or a “plotter.” Pantser derives from the well-known idiom “to fly by the seat of your pants.” It dates from the early days of aviation when pilots had little to guide them during a flight. Aviation was a new frontier, pilots didn’t have any instruments or even good weather reports to rely on when they flew.</p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Plotters are as the name implies. Writers who figure out the plot in advance of writing the story. Plotters favor spreadsheets, story grids, and in depth character charts.</p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Pop psychology says we have two hemispheres in our brain. The left hemisphere is the rational or logical side, while the right hemisphere is the creative or offbeat side. Plotter side versus Pantser side. The writers who outline and plot every scene in their novel (left hemisphere writers) and those who go blindly forth and just write, molding a story as they go (right hemisphere writers).</p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Plotter, Pantser, or Hybrid</b></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><br /></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieWhnmJKxpz4_0zIFXPzgnyXYal8ynVCBbfDgW1j_yRtjElcWStedmG2Be3mE63moZCUA_oqdVfnoB2BRhyUdIQPSY_J2O8FnK22MYyBQA32eQ7wg-O1JDxd9N195chDEf7x3n09ibPJo/s1000/aaron-burden-CKlHKtCJZKk-unsplash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="751" data-original-width="1000" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieWhnmJKxpz4_0zIFXPzgnyXYal8ynVCBbfDgW1j_yRtjElcWStedmG2Be3mE63moZCUA_oqdVfnoB2BRhyUdIQPSY_J2O8FnK22MYyBQA32eQ7wg-O1JDxd9N195chDEf7x3n09ibPJo/w200-h150/aaron-burden-CKlHKtCJZKk-unsplash.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Obviously, the fact that I have steps I like to follow consigns me to the plotter category. Oddly, I don’t think of myself as a diehard plotter. I like to think of myself as a hybrid–someone who pulls from both styles of writing. While I like to know where I’m headed, I don’t mind taking side roads to get there.<p></p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For me, the writing process often involves writing my thoughts in longhand, i.e. cursive. If you’re tied to the keyboard, you might be interested to learn there is a connection between writing and thinking. The act of manually writing down your ideas gives your brain time for reflection which is helpful when crafting a story.</p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s easy to outline and list plot points and then utilize free writing to flesh out the ideas. In free writing mode, grammar doesn’t matter, spelling doesn’t matter, punctuation doesn’t matter. What matters is getting your ideas on paper. Again, this is a rough draft. Obviously, if you’re not paying any attention to all those grammar rules English teachers pounded into your head, you won’t want to share this draft with anyone, especially an English teacher.</p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>The Plus of Being a Hybrid Writer</b></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I think relying on both styles of writing helps to keep the story fresh while reducing the time lost in rewriting. Over the years, I’ve often read articles by pantsers who bemoan the fact their story sprawls all over the place. They basically spew it out and then spend a lot of time in edit and revision modes to obtain a story that makes sense.</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Then again, plotters often bemoan the loss of spontaneity, because they think they’ve lost their creativity in the planning process. Some types of writing demand detailed plotting. For the mystery novelist, a well-plotted story is essential. How else can she plant red herrings at the right time? How else can he sprinkle the clues that lead to the villain–something the mystery novelist knows from the beginning, but tries to hide from the reader?</p>
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<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Whatever your approach to writing, it’s important to keep in mind that each of us have a natural mindset that influences the way we write. It behooves you as a writer to experiment until you find your own path. The best way to achieve that goal is to write!</p><p> </p>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-36549088443992273412020-08-13T13:05:00.013-07:002020-08-26T11:20:59.912-07:00 Title Control: Coming up with a Title for Your Story<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I hope you enjoyed my <i>Story Steps</i> series. I’ve decided to wander back into writing more randomly about writing. If that makes sense? The idea behind the <i>Story Step</i>s was to help you get started with a project. Now I’m going to return to random topics that I hope you will find helpful.</span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">As usual, I had a little more to say about my experience with story titles than in my Story Step 6 blog. Disclaimer: I’m not the world’s best title maker upper. Although I am proud of several of my titles, they are usually hard fought battles as I try to find the one that best reflects the story I’m telling.</span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In Story Step 6, I wrote about choosing a title for your work in progress. My advice being that if you’re struggling with a title, don’t let that sidetrack you from writing the story. It’s not uncommon for traditional publishers, as I also mentioned, to change the title of a contracted book if they don’t like your title.</span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">My thoughts wandered back this way because the rights to a short story reverted to me last month. The editors had retitled it when they published it. I didn’t care for the title and it even got pinged in a review, justifiably so. Most readers, and I guess many reviewers because they are readers, don’t realize an author doesn’t have control over elements such as title or cover with traditional publishers. Especially with early books.</span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">When I was writing <i>Ransom’s Bride</i>, a Victorian era novel, I titled it <i>Champion’s Bride</i>. Then one of my valuable beta readers told me it sounded like a horse’s name. Oh dear! I dropkicked that title out the door, choosing to use the hero’s first name instead of his last. It was a good move because the editor who bought the manuscript kept the title.</span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">That isn’t always the case.</span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">If you’re new to the crazy world of writing, keep in mind that traditional publishers aren’t always on the mark with titles. It broke my heart when the editor, without any input from me, retitled my first book <i>Tennessee Waltz</i>.</span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I felt like Tom Hanks’s character in a <i>League of Their Own</i> and wanted to say “There’s no waltzing in this book!” The title seemed downright cruel because the heroine was lamed by a fall from a horse when she was a young girl. There was no dancing in her life.</span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I called the editor and told her why I thought that wasn’t a good title choice. Especially since Kensington already had a book by that name in their catalog! She told me to come up with other titles and she’d see if it could be changed.</span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I brain stormed with my agent, we sent a list, but no, it was too late. The covers were already made. To avoid confusion, they removed the other author’s book from their catalog. I always felt guilty about spurring them to take that action, but the book was about 6 years old and probably out-of-print. (The Good Ole Days!)</span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Way back when I began writing the story, I titled it <i>Destiny’s Reveng</i>e. As the story took shape, I realized the word revenge probably didn’t belong in a romance. I retitled the story <i>Destiny’s Angel,</i> but then decided I liked <i>D’Angelo’s Destiny</i> better. I think it was a good title because under that guise, the manuscript won the Historical Romance Category as well as Best in Show in Authorlink’s New Author’s Competition. I was treated to a cash award and a free conference at the Harriette Austin Writers’ Conference at the University of Georgia.</span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">When I got the rights back to this book and decided to Indie publish it, the first thing I did was change the title.The book revolves around different people stealing a horse named Destiny and finally the perfect title popped into my head: <i>Stealing Destiny</i>.</span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVkbPd7mxJtIDDCQt7p3DXSUaGNf7l-Ua980iphXA_Tht3pzg9_RqZgy-A0gYq5WMaXJlkirzKgUj3_iwhdYAmQTO7smOJv0B7mqRalHxTQxlaqjD2HYv-TYVxykcSszp_GDJQNvik3HE/s655/StealingDestiny-1.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="655" data-original-width="500" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVkbPd7mxJtIDDCQt7p3DXSUaGNf7l-Ua980iphXA_Tht3pzg9_RqZgy-A0gYq5WMaXJlkirzKgUj3_iwhdYAmQTO7smOJv0B7mqRalHxTQxlaqjD2HYv-TYVxykcSszp_GDJQNvik3HE/w250-h328/StealingDestiny-1.png" width="250" /></a></div><p></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">This title feels right. It fits the story better than the title of a country song about a woman losing her honeybun to another. Just remember, you wrote the story, you know it better than anyone else. It may take awhile, but if you follow Goldilocks’ lead and try different titles out, you’ll eventually find the title that’s “just right.</span><span>”</span></p><div><br /></div></div><br /></div>
<p style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-11937091655361615932020-06-16T10:08:00.002-07:002020-08-21T11:05:35.695-07:00Storyboarding: A Useful Writing Management Tool<div style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"><i><b>Story Steps 10</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: x-large;">Suppose you decided to use my Story Steps to get started on your latest project. Let’s recap them:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: large;">the idea for a story </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">a theme or message you want the reader to take away </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">compelling characters </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">a working title </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">the essential story ingredients of a story–protagonist, antagonist, situation, motivation, goal, and conflict </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">appropriate character names </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">writing a narrative synopsis</span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Today, we’re going to look at storyboarding, a technique that helps with the actual writing of your book. For starters, let’s look at the definition:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"><i>Storyboarding is a sequence of pictures created to communicate a desired general visual appearance. Although storyboarding has been traditionally associated with cinema, its beginnings can be traced back to Leonardo da Vinci, who put his ideas on a wall and examined the layout prior to producing the final painting.</i> (She Sat, He Stood: What Do Your Characters Do While They Talk?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"><b>Popularity of Storyboarding</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Storyboarding has become popular in many professions. If you’ve seen any documentaries on making a film, such as <i>The Mandalorian</i> docuseries, you’ve seen examples of story boards. I discovered storyboarding way back when I took a web design course. It made me realize one doesn’t have to be an artist to utilize the story board concept.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">It helps to own a computer and have access to the Internet which abounds with pictures of everything you might need. Need a character? Plenty of photos of all types and ages of people are available. Need the picture of a space ship? The photo of a Bernese Mountain dog? There are millions of photos from which to chose as you visualize your story.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"><b>Writing Management Tool</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Here’s a little background on my storyboarding evolution. I used the old fashioned 3” x 5” index card system for a long, long time. What is this system? You use an index card for each scene. This tool helps you see the big picture in small doses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The size of the cards makes it easy to shift them around as you’re trying to decide the best way to tell your story. You can design them to reveal whatever information you want. And of course, the neat typed cards often end up with hand written notations all over them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">My transition to computer generated cards was gradual. At first, I wrote story information on the cards. I would cut character photos from magazines or newspapers and copy photos of period clothing from library books, journals, or my own library. All this pictorial information was kept in file folders because the index cards were too small for them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Then, I learned how to set the page size and run off computer generated 3x5 cards. At first, I continued as before and the cards were text only. But as I became comfortable using computer graphics, I started adding small pictures pertinent to the scene: a carriage, a pretty hat for my heroine to wear, or a piece of antique furniture. Items that helped set the scene for me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Here’s a sample index card from Scene Two of <i>Butterfly Bride</i> (Saderra Publishing, 2019).</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil_v0jumVgZ5OiIBHWeqdn2R7CEj1HP-4Q0_L3HA5x04AzrYV93bYTvUOBzqFiyVyoMn5FEBUC7yn4abdttryNWo4dpyrXXi_Yz9JI-oTOS6RdINiY5R1ULjURlWAMwEfrvSdO-ywMtog/s1600/Scene2Bride.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="345" data-original-width="500" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil_v0jumVgZ5OiIBHWeqdn2R7CEj1HP-4Q0_L3HA5x04AzrYV93bYTvUOBzqFiyVyoMn5FEBUC7yn4abdttryNWo4dpyrXXi_Yz9JI-oTOS6RdINiY5R1ULjURlWAMwEfrvSdO-ywMtog/s400/Scene2Bride.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">As you can see, the lack of artistic talent doesn’t prevent a writer from using this technique. Storyboarding is a fun way to better visualize your story and it’s easy to tailor storyboarding to your needs. </span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">However you chose to use it, storyboarding is an excellent writing management tool.</span></div>
Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-59762520049246437092020-04-30T13:10:00.000-07:002020-05-04T12:16:14.129-07:00Narrative Synopsis: A Tool for Story Writing<div style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"><i><b>Story Step 9</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Writing a short narrative synopsis of my story is another step I take in this process. What’s a narrative synopsis? According to the <i>New Oxford American Dictionary</i>, a narrative is</span><br />
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<li style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">a spoken or written account of connected events</span></li>
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<li style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">a brief summary or general survey of something.</span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">In my mind, a narrative synopsis is a summary of the connected events that will take place in my story. I like to think of the synopses as short stories of my novels written in a compelling format that will catch editor or reader interest.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7WhfUiQotQdGPjGMcuEwLDgMe315vhf4M1ZWJrvvu5XH2f4B5W2DKU9Vtl-2FfLhvNx5vs0K2-z52lgRP3Qz77ZMY1QC999KsKzIG7HPG27V3qfQQ4Ygc1ys4Duv00G1LmRZYUPRu4qI/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7WhfUiQotQdGPjGMcuEwLDgMe315vhf4M1ZWJrvvu5XH2f4B5W2DKU9Vtl-2FfLhvNx5vs0K2-z52lgRP3Qz77ZMY1QC999KsKzIG7HPG27V3qfQQ4Ygc1ys4Duv00G1LmRZYUPRu4qI/s200/Untitled.jpg" width="160" /></a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Many writers dislike writing a synopsis and save it for last. I followed that school of thought in the beginning of my writing career. I didn’t write the synopsis until I finished the manuscript. Eventually, I began writing a short narrative synopsis during the early stages of my story writing. Now I see the synopsis as a powerful preliminary writing tool, because it makes you pare the story down to the essentials. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">More importantly, it unveils the theme.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">How can a synopsis do all this? Think about it. If you’re planning a 100,000 word novel and condense it into 500-1,000 words, you have to strip the story down to its essence. The exercise helps you find the dreaded “theme,” because to find the core of the story, you must think in terms of one overriding idea which, of course, is the theme.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The seven essential ingredients I mentioned in Story Steps Seven (protagonist, antagonist, situation, motive, goal, conflict, and resolution) offer a good starting point for writing a narrative synopsis. It’s also helpful to have major turning points or plot points in mind. These are the obstacles or events that are going to cause your characters to “turn away” from the path they were following. It always helps to have some idea of why your main character(s) can’t reach their goals easily.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Remember this is a short story of your novel. It should contain the prerequisite beginning, middle, and end.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">A narrative synopsis provides material from which to draw your pitch for that all important editor or agent meeting. Or to write the 100 words or less ad. Or hook visitors into reading an excerpt at your website. Or write press releases and advertisements.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"><b>Six Reasons I Love the Narrative Synopsis</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Here are six reasons I love to write the narrative synopsis:</span></div>
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<li style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">It gives me the opening paragraph or hook for my query letter.</span></li>
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<li style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">It makes me think about the story from beginning to end which helps me organize the story line.</span></li>
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<li style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">It forces me to create interesting characters with viable needs, goals, and flaws.</span></li>
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<li style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">It makes me think about the middle of the book.</span></li>
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<li style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">It gives me vital turning points so I have specific places to go with my story.</span></li>
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<li style="font-family: georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">It gives me an ending to write toward.</span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">What I love most about the narrative synopsis is that it eradicates the problem of blank pages. Each sentence in the synopsis is a scene waiting to be written. I now have the bare bones of a story just waiting to be fleshed out.</span></div>
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Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-41737525220986896162020-03-28T09:56:00.001-07:002020-03-28T09:58:31.682-07:00What to Call Your Characters<div style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>Story Step 8</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">In Story Step 6, I suggested you don’t need to have the perfect title before you write your story. Working titles are fine. Stumbling across the perfect title during the process is always fun.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">On the other hand, choosing names for your characters is an important early step when writing a story. Assigning names helps you bond with your characters better than calling them Male #1 or Female #2.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Names carry a lot of weight. This is as true in real life as it is in a story. Choosing the right name for your characters is important.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">I love names and have a spreadsheet of several hundred male and female names I’ve collected over the years. I’ve visited cemeteries to record names and life span dates from gravestones. I’ve found unusual names in obituary columns and news articles, and I’ve plucked names off the identity badges of sales clerks.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m not shy about name gathering or asking the story behind an unusual name. After complimenting a person’s name, I often ask him or her about its origin. The stories vary, but often their parent is paying homage to a relative or friend, or they’ve taken the name from a story by a favorite author.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">I also regularly access the U.S. Social Security Administration’s baby names web pages. This site comes in handy for researching the popularity of names by the decade. Did you know the girl’s name “Emma” was not only the most popular name for 2018, it was also the top contender in 1880?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">I write historical romances and one way to keep characters’ names true to a certain time period is to check the bibliography of nonfiction books. <i>Mary Chestnut’s Civil War</i>, a memoir edited by C. Van Woodward, offers a treasure trove of mid-nineteenth century American names. Historical biographies or memoirs from any time period provide the writer with many choices for character names.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">When selecting the names of your characters, be sure you have a variety of names that begin with different sounds. If you pepper your story with too many alliterative names, it can be confusing to the reader. Your goal is to keep your reader reading, not confuse him or her. If you’ve ended up with a Polly, a Paula, a Patsy, and a Petunia, you need to rethink your characters’ names.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now, I realize parents sometimes get a little carried away when naming children and some love the idea of all the names beginning with the same letter. But think about the classic <i>Little Women</i> for a moment. By giving the four sisters completely different names (Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy), Louisa May Alcott ensured we’d be able to tell them apart as we read their story.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Another pitfall for writers when naming a character is to pick hard to pronounce names. To be honest, if I can’t figure out how to pronounce a name, I just come up with a nickname to use. I know I’m not the only one who substitutes an easier version when faced with an unpronounceable name.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">My suggestion, think twice about wasting a lot of time coming up with a name your readers can’t pronounce. If you just can’t let go of an odd name, you have two choices: use it on a supporting character or supply its correct pronunciation as soon as possible. If you chose option two, weave it into the story. Perhaps another character stumbles over the pronunciation and the main character corrects him or her. Using an easy to pronounce or well known word as a synonym will probably help readers the most.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">For example, this character’s name is Terry Lough.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Ms. Luge?” The nurse looked up from the file she was reading to scan the waiting room. The mispronunciation of her name grated across Terry’s nerves. She stood and headed for the nurse. As she drew closer, she said, “Not the toboggan race. Lough, as in a tree log.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Always remember, your goal as a writer is to write a story that captivates readers. When the reader gets hung up on the pronunciation of a character’s name, unwillingness to continue reading is the more likely response.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/index.html">https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/index.html</a></span></span></div>
Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2756057931617872837.post-34777727329852719182019-11-19T09:09:00.001-08:002019-12-26T08:29:00.581-08:00Essential Story Ingredients<div style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Story Steps Seven</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">You’ve got an idea for a story, some characters with interesting backstories, a general idea of your theme, and a working title. Now what?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Personally, I like to write a synopsis of my story. I see it as an opportunity to sketch out the major events of the story. It’s not written in stone, but it gives me an idea of where I’m going. It can also clue me into weak points or details I may need to further research. A synopsis offers any writer the opportunity to see if the essential story ingredients are there.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Say what?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Essential story ingredients, you ask? What could those be?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Well, a story needs at least one <b>protagonist</b>–I mostly write romance so we have two: the hero and the heroine. The word protagonist originated in Greek drama and means the main character–or two characters in a romance. This is the story character you want the reader to like, to cheer on, and become the most emotionally invested in whether or not he or she succeeds.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then you’ll want an <b>antagonist</b>. This just a “writerly” word for adversary or opponent. Someone who doesn’t want the hero and heroine to achieve their goals. While the antagonist is usually another character, it could be a natural event such as a flood in the man against nature stories. Or the whale in Moby Dick.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then a good story needs a <b>situation</b> that bumps the characters out of their current rut. The situation needs to be something that forces the main character(s) to act. In my recently released Regency novel, <i>Butterfly Bride</i>, the hero returns to England and discovers his wife has initiated divorce proceedings. This situation forces him to act.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Another important ingredient is <b>motivation</b>. The hero in <i>Butterfly Bride</i> is motivated by the need to avoid scandal. Plus, he’s motivated by the potential loss of his wife’s dowry. A divorce would mean repaying monies he doesn’t have which will ruin him financially.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">The situation and motivation provide a <b>goal </b>for characters, another important component of a story. Due to the situation and motivation, my hero adopts the goal that he must convince his wife not to divorce him.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Every well written story has <b>conflict</b>. For my story, the hero faces conflict because his cousin has fallen love with the heroine. The cousin encourages the heroine's plan to divorce the hero because then she will be free to remarry him. There are, of course, many other obstacles for the hero to over come. A writer cannot make things easy for the main characters or the reader will become bored with the story.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Last, but not least, the story has to have a satisfying </span><b><span style="font-size: large;">resolution</span></b><span style="font-size: large;">. In other words, the story needs to resolve the issues in such a way that satisfies the reader.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Ensuring I have all the essential ingredients in the synopsis helps me figure out any holes that might exist. A writer needs to keep in mind that people have been telling and listening to stories for time immemorial. Good storytellers accept that readers bring certain expectations to the reading experience. Expectations you must meet to keep your readers reading.</span></div>
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Ginger Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040939075878662399noreply@blogger.com0