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Black History Month Book Recommendations
For Black History Month, I thought I’d give some book recommendations of some of my favorite books by black women authors. Many of these are classics, and heart-breaking, but I love them.
- How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon
- Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall
- Passing by Nella Larsen
- Corregidora by Gayle Jones
Short Summaries of Each Book Rec
How It Went Down
How It Went Down is a very quick read, but also heartbreaking. I read it for my book club. “When sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson dies from two gunshot wounds, his community is thrown into an uproar. Tariq was black. The shooter, Jack Franklin, is white. In the aftermath of Tariq’s death, everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events line up. Day by day, new twists further obscure the truth.”
Corregidora
Amazon describes Corregidora as the tale of blues singer Ursa, consumed by the hatred of the slave master who fathered both her grandmother and her mother. And that sentence alone gives me chills. I read this in college and still remember it vividly.
Brown Girl, Brownstones
I discovered Paule Marshall and absolutely LOVED Brown Girl, Brownstones. Maybe because it was set in New York and because my mom firmly believes in buying a brownstone in NY. I remember waiting anxiously for Marshall’s new releases. I was so excited when Daughters came out.
Brown Girl, Brownstones is about a Barbadian immigrant family living in Brooklyn. The protagonist is a ten-year old girl who strives to define her own identity “as she struggles to surmount the racism and poverty that surround her.” Her father wants to return to Barbados and her mother is trying to save money to buy a brownstone in Brooklyn.
Passing
Passing was published in 1929. (I love books set in the Roaring ’20’s). Set primarily in Harlem, “the story centers on the reunion of two childhood friends—Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield—and their increasing fascination with each other’s lives. The book examines each woman’s approach to passing for white. Irene, who is insecure, seems to envy Clare’s confidence and also resent it.” She fears that Clare has made a dangerous mistake by pretending to be white to her racist husband. (from the Wikipedia summary).
#TBR Pile for YA Black History Month Book Recommendations
I have both these books in my #tbr pile as well as The Hate You Give. My daughter recommended One Crazy Summer and the rest of the series.
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia is “the heartbreaking, funny tale of three girls who travel to Oakland, California in 196 in search of the mother who abandoned them.”
The Young Landlords by Walter Dean Myers: “They were out to save the world–and were lucky to save their skins.” A bunch of young kids buy a building.
#TBR for Romance Books
And on my #TBR for more fun reading: The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory and In Rhythm by JN Welsh.
The Proposal: “When freelance writer Nikole Paterson goes to a Dodgers game with her actor boyfriend, his man bun, and his bros, the last thing she expects is a scoreboard proposal. Saying no isn’t the hard part—they’ve only been dating for five months, and he can’t even spell her name correctly. The hard part is having to face a stadium full of disappointed fans… At the game with his sister, Carlos Ibarra comes to Nik’s rescue and rushes her away from a camera crew. . . “
I love the cover too! I bought In Rhythm because the protagonist is a female DJ. And she actually falls for a Dutch guy. (I’m half-Dutch). “With a shared passion for music and an intense mutual attraction, the pair should be totally in sync. Instead, Zazzle’s reputation has Velvet hitting Pause.” I just started reading it and I love the way JN Welsh writes. Her dialogue is so realistic. But it does have a content warning that it deals with addiction.
Let’s Talk
Do you have any book recommendations?
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Happy Valentine’s Day 2020!
Happy Valentine’s Day 2020!
Yes, these are dolls. My husband refused to model 🙂 I personally like spending Valentine’s Day reading or watching a good romcom. Although if some attractive guy wants to make me breakfast in bed, I’m all for that too!
Yummy! Plus all that unruly hair! Until I met my husband, I don’t think I ever had a date for Valentine’s Day. It was Galentine’s Day for me. When my daughter was due in February, I was really worried that she’d was going to be born on Valentine’s Day. A friend asked, “Why?” And I said, “I gather you’ve always had a date for Valentine’s Day!” (Thankfully, my daughter was not born on Valentine’s Day.)
Fallen Chocolate Cake Recipe for a Happy Valentine’s Day
Fallen Chocolate Cakes in Ramekins. Image from FamilyStyleFood (with another recipe I will have to try) Here’s my go-to recipe for Valentine’s Day: the fallen chocolate cake from Cooks Illustrated. In my draft MS, my protagonist Audrey makes this for Jake when she wants to impress him with her cooking. He is duly impressed. 🙂
Ingredients
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), plus extra for ramekins
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped;
4 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon table salt
½ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour plus extra for ramekins
Butter and flour (or use cocoa powder) eight 6-ounce ramekins.
Instructions:
Melt 8 tablespoons butter and chocolate in medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of almost simmering water, stirring until smooth; remove from heat.
Beat the eggs, yolk, vanilla, salt, and sugar until the ribbon stage – the color will be pale yellow and the volume is nearly tripled. The mixture will drop from the beaters in a heavy thick ribbon. This usually takes about 10 minutes with the hand held mixer.
Pour egg mixture over melted chocolate and butter; sprinkle flour over egg mixture. Gently fold egg and flour into chocolate until batter is completely mixed.
Pour batter into prepared ramekins. (At this stage, you can put them into the fridge for about 8 hours. They’ll need to come back to room temperature [about 30 minutes] before you bake them)
Bake in a 400 degree preheated oven for about 12 minutes or until the the cakes have risen over the rims. They’re done when they have a thin crust and the center jiggles when you tap ramekins.
Run a knife around the edges to loosen the cake (didn’t need to do that last night cuz Kellie had buttered so enthusiastically) and invert onto a plate. Let the cake cool for about a minute before removing the ramekin.
When Adam Met Evie
When Adam Met Evie by Giulia Skye And if you’re looking for a fun escape read, my friend Giulia Skye just published her book When Adam Met Evie. Woohoo! We met on the train to the Romantic Novelists Association conference in Leeds several years ago.
I highly recommend When Adam Met Evie. The characters are very believable and engaging, the story hooks, and the setting is the Australian outback–what more could you ask for?
Here’s the blurb:
“When former Olympic Swimmer, Michael Adams—now reluctantly Canada’s hottest reality TV star— insults his fake showbiz wife on social media, he escapes the ensuing scandal and jumps on the first flight to Australia. Desperate to experience ordinary life again—if only for a few weeks—he becomes “Adam”, just another tourist traveling through the Outback. But with a reward out for his safe return and his fame’s nasty habit of catching up with him when he least expects, he needs a disguise… and he’s just found it.
Sweet and scruffy British backpacker, Evie Blake, is taking a year out of her busy London life. Tired of lies and liars, she’s looking for adventure to heal her broken heart. So when the hot Canadian she meets at the campground offers to be her travel partner through Western Australia’s wild Kimberley region, she grabs the chance, unaware he’s got the world out looking for him. He’s just a down-on-his-luck traveler, right? ” From Goodreads.
Let’s Talk
What do you like to do on Valentine’s Day? Do you have any romcom or romance book recommendations? Any recent romcom movies you’d recommend? Happy Valentine’s Day 2020!
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“Everybody Reads” Week Diorama for Library
My son’s public school has an “Everybody Reads” week where authors come in to speak to the students, and so I created a library diorama for the library.
“Everybody Reads” Week Library Diorama
“Everybody Reads” Week diorama for public school library How I made it
Our local hardware store cut the plywood to my requested size. I made the bookcases out of Balsa wood and matte board.
I made the books with various miniature book printables from friends and from the internet. L’Eggo Waffles also has a free giveaway of books during the summer for points and the packages pictured many of the kids’ favorite books. I also Xeroxed the copies of some of their favorite books and shrunk them to 1/12 size. I then glued those around foamcore or the edges of magazines.
The floor is contact paper glued on top of the plywood. I bought the back white bookshelf and the rocking chair on eBay. The librarian usually sits in a rocking chair and reads them a story before the children search for books to take out. The banner is construction paper with handwritten letters on string.
Close-Up Pictures of the Library Diorama
Here’s a close-up of the books in the white bookcase on the rear wall.
For the left side, I made mostly filler books.
And here’s the right side of the library. It has some favorites like Charlotte’s Web, Dragon Masters, The School for Good and Evil, and of course, Harry Potter.
The Right Side. Can you find Harry Potter? I want to add mini books by the authors who are coming to give book talks, but I didn’t have time this year. I figure each year I can add a few more shelves and favorite books, so it keeps up with the times.
The kids really love it. They gather around looking at it. It’s fun overhearing them find some of their favorite books in mini, like Harry Potter or the Owl Diaries. I’ve explained how they can make their own mini books. As an example, sometimes even the Scholastic book flyer has pictures of books in the right size.
Let’s Talk
What are some of your favorite children’s books?
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Three Lessons on Internal Conflict from Story Genius
Here are my three lessons on crafting internal conflict from Story Genius by Lisa Cron. I just finished reading it and Wow! I highly recommend it.
Three Lessons on Internal Conflict from Story Genius.
- “[T]he protagonist’s internal struggle is the story’s third rail, the live wire that sparks our interest and drives the story forward.” (p. 18)
- Write the “Origin Scene” – the scene in which your protagonist’s misbelief originated– and three Turning Point scenes “where her misbelief was the deciding factor in a decision she made” and which confirms that misbelief as “right.” (p.114)
- In each scene, what connects that scene to that third rail? What is the “story-specific emotional component to give it meaning and drive it forward?” (p. 247) Why does what happens matter to your protagonist? How is it slowly changing the misbelief?
Of course, these three lessons are just the tip of the iceberg. Crafting these four scenes made me really focus on my protagonist’s internal conflict and gave me backstory to insert into the novel. It showed me how what’s happening is making her change her “misbelief” and how to tie my scenes more closely to that third rail.
I started reading Story Genius because I am taking an online class by Linnea Sinclair called “Inside Out: Crafting your Character’s Internal Conflict.” She recommended reading it. This is my second course with Linnea and I highly recommend them: https://www.facebook.com/Linnea-Sinclair-75135631090/. They’re fun and chock full of writing tips for your toolbox. And completely affordable. So much value for your money.
Now I also have to figure where I am going to input the snippets of backstory that I wrote as part of the Story Genius exercises, without it seeming like a backstory information dump.
Book Recommendation: Gabriel’s Ghost (RITA winner)
I also just finished reading Gabriel’s Ghost by Linnea Sinclair (RITA winner, Paranormal Romance) because reading authors is another way to learn the craft. It was my first paranormal romance and it was so good. I highly recommend it, for readers and writers alike. I couldn’t put it down and just bought the next in the series.
Let’s Talk
What do you think is a story’s third rail? Do you think it is inner conflict? Have you read Story Genius? And have you read Gabriel’s Ghost? Are there any books you recommend?
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Three Lessons from The Writing Life
In the Algonkian novel writing course, which I highly recommend, we had to write book reports and list lessons from each craft book we read, so here are my three lessons from The Writing Life by Annie Dillard:
- Keep a Journal
- Put your Good Stuff in Now
- Writing is Hard.
I found compelling her advice to put your good stuff in now. And look how she writes it!
“One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.”
The Writing Life by Annie DillardBut I will note that if my good stuff doesn’t work in my current manuscript and I have to cut that scene, then I am saving it with the hope that maybe it will fit another manuscript better. And hoping that it doesn’t turn to ashes.
Kind of similar to giving a cat a bath The book also helped me as a writer because it showed me how intense writing can be. I read this in the beginning of the Algonkian novel writing course and then returned it to the library, but what I recall most vividly is her description of flying in the plane with the stunt pilot (and her description of her writing room without any comforts). Her writing is brilliant, but she was also a bit intimidating about the writing process. I actually really enjoy writing.
Why Three Lessons from The Writing Life by Annie Dillard?
I like limiting it to three lessons because I find that more manageable, although of course, so many lessons and tips can be learned from each craft book. I also think that different lessons will occur upon re-reading a craft book.
So, as I read writing craft books, I hope to continue this practice of identifying three lessons learned.
Thoughts on the Algonkian Novel Writing Course
As far as the Algonkian novel writing course, I highly highly recommend it, although it is only if you are highly self-motivated to complete it by yourself because it is intense, but there’s no feedback until the end. I learned so much, though, and found the lessons invaluable. Also, for me, it was great that I could complete it at my own pace.
Questions?
Have you read The Writing Life? What were your three lessons? What are your thoughts on keeping a journal? If you are a writer, do you sometimes save your good stuff or do you try to use it all in the current WIP?
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Create More Action and Tension in a Manuscript
I labeled my scenes action vs. dialogue per my earlier post, so now I think I need to create more action and tension in my manuscript.
How can I add action when my protagonist is sitting in an office? I can’t invent a space ship or aliens attacking her. (Well, I can, but I’d be in another genre.) She accidently staples her fingers?
So now I’ve added another antagonist who is metaphorically trying to staple my protagonist. Mwuah hah hah.
I also turned to my craft books for advice.
Creating More Action and Tension in a MS Per Dwight Swain
Dwight Swain’s Advice – Add Feeling, Action, Speech
I read Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain, recommended by Linnea Sinclair and I found what I needed to do.
1) To add tension, you need to show the character’s reaction to an event.
2) The character reaction is “feeling, action, speech.” (p. 56).My character usually talks in reaction, which made me realize I‘ve been leaving out the feeling and the action. I definitely haven’t been using all the “glandular and muscular reactions” (at p. 72). (Am I really supposed to use glandular reactions? That feels so raw.)
a. What is feeling? Dwight Swain explains:
“Panic races through you.
Panic is feeling.
Like magic, sweat slicks your palms and soaks your armpits and trickles down your spine. . .
Actions, one and all.” ( at p. 57) (Also very glandular.)Or his example:
“Hi Jill!” he called. “How’s it going?”
Feeling: A glow of warmth at his friendliness crept through Jill.
Action: She smiled.
Speech: “Just fine, thanks,” she said. ( at p. 58)He’s not recommending that you always use all three components, but rather add it to your writer’s toolbox.
Tension – Internal and External Conflict
And just as I was thinking about this, this on-topic post from https://nybookeditors.com/2019/05/how-to-raise-the-stakes-in-your-novel-and-create-a-gripping-story/ popped up. They suggest adding internal conflict among several other items on the checklist. I recommend reading article and getting the checklist. My protagonist has external and internal conflict, but I haven’t always highlighted the internal conflict.
As Lisa Cron writes,
“[T]he protagonist’s internal struggle is the story’s third rail, the live wire that sparks out interest and drives the story forward.”
Story Genius, by Lisa Cron at p. 18End In Disaster
I also re-read parts of Jack Bickham’s Scene and Structure, another craft book I also highly recommend.
“Disaster works (moves the story forward) by seeming to move the central figure further back from his goal, leaving him in worse trouble than he was before the scene started.”
Scene & Structure by Jack Bickham at p. 42.What are your thoughts?
Do you have any advice on how to create more action and tension in a MS? How do you develop your protagonist’s internal conflict? What kind of books do you like to read?
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A Matisse Art Lesson for My Son’s Class
Exhibition Matisse at the Museum of Modern Art in New York – 1992 Volunteering to Teach an Art Lesson/Project on Matisse
I thought I’d share my proposed Matisse Art Lesson/Project lesson for my son’s class. My son is in public elementary school, and this year, his school lost its art teacher due to budget cuts. The teacher asked for any parent volunteers to teach an art class. I love modern art (see https://kathystrobos.com/about-me/ ). So I volunteered to teach an art class on Henri Matisse, ending with the kids doing a cut-outs art project, following the Drawing with Scissors art lesson plan. Several other moms also offered to help, so thankfully I won’t be alone.
It’s only a 50 minute class, so ultimately that’s not that much time. (Or that could be a REALLY REALLY long time if it all goes bottoms up.) I want to do a little bit on Matisse and then let the kids “draw with scissors” to make art imitating Matisse’s Cut-Outs. I am still working on my lesson plan but I thought I’d share it here in case other parents are looking for an art lesson for their kids or for a class. Or in case anyone has any advice.
It was hard to pick which paintings to show the children as part of the art lesson. As expected, Matisse painted a lot of naked people, so I wanted to find some non-naked drawings. Since Matisse is one of my favorite artists, I bought the Museum of Modern Art Matisse Exhibition book from the retrospective in 1992. I also borrowed Art Book Matisse by Gabrielle Crepaldi from the New York Public Library.
So here’s the first draft of the lesson plan. I think we can spend 15 -20 minutes on the art history and then have 30 minutes for the art project.
Art Lesson on Matisse the Artist
Matisse was born in northern France in 1869. He trained to be a lawyer but took up painting while recovering from appendicitis.
He went to Paris to study art at the Academie Julian and he apprenticed to another painter Gustave Moreau.
This picture from Drawing with Scissors shows one of his first paintings (a stack of books). It also shows one of his last pictures, so you can see the evolution in style.
From Drawing with Scissors by Keesia Johnson and Jane O’Connor, illustrated by Jessie Hartland Fauvism
In 1905, there was a radical change in his work. While in the South of France, he began to paint with bright, clashing colors. “Honor every color without sacrificing a single one,” wrote Matisse.
This style was eventually called Fauvism, after a critic called Matisse and other artists painting in this manner “fauves”, which in French means “wild beasts.”
Here’s one painting showing this new painting style.
The Roofs of Collioure by H. Matisse (summer-autumn 1905) Matisse said that Fauvism was construction by means of color. He said that the art should convey the artist’s response to his subject. What do you think Matisse was feeling when he painted the above? Why? (If no one answers, I would say happy because he used bright colors.)
Matisse’s painting style continued to change, but he always remained true to bold color.
The Influences of Travel and Geometry in Matisse’s Work
Matisse traveled a lot and he was influenced by his travels to those different areas/countries (Russia, Morocco, and Asia).
Another element to look for in his paintings is Geometry (he has lots of shapes) and Nature. Let’s look at some of his paintings and see whether we can identify any geometric or nature elements.
Harmony in Red by H. Matisse in 1908 What do you notice about this painting? There’s part of a rectangle (a geometric element). And there are a lot of decorative elements; it looks like there are vines crawling all around the room. The red is also very intense. It looks like there is a table but it almost flat. An interesting fact is that the large canvas was initially painted in green and the painting was called Harmony in Green. Then Matisse painted over it in blue and called it Harmony in Blue. An art collector bought it. Then Matisse changed his mind again, before delivering it, and re-painted it red. (See Art Book Matisse by Gabriele Crepaldi (Dorling Kindersley) at p. 60).
Goldfish by Matisse 1911 What do you notice about this painting? I see a lot of circular shapes. Also plants (nature) and again bright colors. What do you feel when you see this painting? It’s one of my favorites.
The Piano Lesson by H. Matisse 1916 What do you see in this painting? I see a lot of triangles. The metronome is echoed in the boy’s face and the window. Also compare this to Harmony in Red – what is similar again? The swirls in the ironwork of the window remind me of the vines in Harmony in Red.
As an aside for adults, according to the Matisse Art Book, “critics have read symbolic significance into the scene, identifying the opposing elements of the creative process with emotional, irrational intuition on one side, and on the other side, deliberate rationality.” (Art Book Matisse by Gabriele Crepaldi, at p. 79). I can see that in the art sculpture in the lower left hand corner versus the woman sitting stiffly in the upper right background. It’s the tick of the metronome versus the expressive music emerging from the piano in the black swirls.
Matisse’s Cut-Outs
Exhibition Matisse (Henri Matisse: A Retrospective, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, at p. 412 In 1946, Matisse was nearly 80 years old, and painting and carving sculptures had become increasingly difficult for him. He found a new opportunity for expression in making cutouts. Let’s read Matisse’s Garden. (It depends on time if I can read this to them, but I read it to my children as practice and they were inspired to make the cut-out art after listening, so it seemed effective.)
Matisse’s Garden by Samantha Friedman, Illustrations by Cristina Amodea Drawing with Scissors Art Lesson
I found this amazing book, Drawing with Scissors, with a free art project lesson plan (http://creativityconnection.fabercastell.com/henri-matisse-art-lesson/ ) (available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/044842519X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). So we will then follow the art project lesson plan (although it recommends 2 45-minute classes). My children wanted to use pencils and I told them they had to use scissors to draw.
The Museum of Modern Art also includes a section on Matisse in its Family Guide. I am going to include their advice for arranging the shapes in my Matisse art lesson for my son’s class. See https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/learn/Education_FamilyGuide_Singles.pdf On page 18, they advise finding Matisse’s The Swimming Pool. Then they ask kids to rip out shapes and arrange them on the next page. “Experiment with placing your shapes close together, far apart, overlapping, and in different directions.” (at p. 19). There’s also this cool video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rke7RmxwfY by the MoMA.
So anyway, we will see if this works or if it all looks like the contents of the recycling bin, as one mom said. Lol.
Any advice on creating a Matisse art lesson for my son’s elementary school class? Are there any artists that you like that are good for elementary school classes? Who are your favorite artists?
Update: The kids loved it. And the art looked amazing! The teacher allowed them to do it again during their free time on Friday. Also I highly recommend using the craft pattern scissors available at craft stores or on Amazon as well as regular scissors.
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Can there be too much dialogue in a manuscript?
Two Friends Talking Can there be too much dialogue in a manuscript?
According to some, yes.
Robert McKee’s Advice on Film Dialogue
I was taken aback by McKee’s advice: “The best advice for writing film dialogue is don’t. Never write a line of dialogue when you can create a visual expression.”
As he explains in Story, “But if you write for the eye when the dialogue comes, as it must, it sparks interest because the audience is hungry for it.” (Story, p. 393). Of course this is for film, and that’s different from a novel, but I still like the notion of the audience or reader being hungry for the dialogue.
I love writing dialogue. I also like to read dialogue. I read that much faster than long paragraphs of description. And of course, the above advice is for film. So does it also apply when writing a novel?
Studying the Techniques of Other Writers in My Genre
I can see that Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes has less dialogue than my MS. Some conversations are expressed via paragraphs like this one:
“When it got to the late afternoon, Evvie poured bourbon and made snacks, and they sat on the love seat with their feet on the coffee table and listened to the new episode of the true-crime podcast they’d both been following. Dean rolled his eyes and complained that the people were clearly never going to solve the case, and Evvie passed him a peanut butter cracker and said it was about the journey.”
Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes at p. 280So I ‘m going to review my MS and see what I can re-write in this manner.
And I’m in the middle of reading Star-Crossed by Minnie Darke (and I’m really enjoying it) and studying her technique.
And here’s a conversation that you definitely don’t want to hear in detail, which is the author’s point, as neither does her character Tara. Lol.
“Tara introduced herself to the silver-haired gentleman beside her, and before long was engaged in a conversation about an unpleasant-sounding bovine condition called campylobacter.”
Star-Crossed by Minnie Darke at p. 70.What is My Dialogue Doing?
As you’ve undoubtedly read, conversations have to move the plot forward or reveal something about the characters. See https://nybookeditors.com/2017/05/your-guide-to-writing-better-dialogue/. And I realized that some of my scenes were just fun banter. But can I keep some of that if it is humorous? I think they did reveal something of my protagonist, so I kept some of it, but shortened it.
The Well-Storied blog gives this great advice to “identify the tension at the core of the scene” and craft related dialogue. That’s just one of 19 good tips at https://www.well-storied.com/blog/write-better-dialogue.
And I also found this blog post from Ride the Pen very helpful about using body language tags to express emotion and convey conflict and character. See https://www.ridethepen.com/body-language-in-dialogue/ .
Adding Action
I also found this advice very helpful from The Editors Blog: “If characters only talk, if they don’t respond to the conflict with action, then that conflict isn’t accomplishing as much as it could. ” https://theeditorsblog.net/2011/10/25/dialogue-my-characters-talk-too-much/
All of the above blog posts are great resources, so I suggest reading them in full.
Three Take-Aways
- Review dialogue in MS and see if it is moving the plot forward or revealing something about my characters. (Or if it’s funny, in which case I also want to keep it.)
- Label my scenes as action vs. talking. See if I need to add more action. (Probably.)
- In talking scenes, check if the description can be enhanced such that it creates a “visual expression” (possibly via body language).
What’s your preference when reading? Can you share any advice about writing dialogue?
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Where do you hide your holiday presents?
Taking advice from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Purloined Letter (Hide it in plain sight) Where do you hide your holiday presents? We live in a New York City apartment, so hiding spaces are few (even for when you play hide-and-seek, as you do with kids).
And we are using all almost our space. We have even put in storage space abover our bathroom ceiling. That’s one of the main places I hide presents. You need a ladder to get up there, so it’s not easily accessible.
However, even my main hiding spots are beginning to fill up. My usual spot in the basement is storing toys which haven’t been played with in awhile. But they are in the purgatory period – will my son notice that they have disappeared? If not, in six months, we can donate them. (Not that that always works.)
But I’ve found a new spot. Can you spot the hidden presents?
Where would you hide them in this closet? Feel free to post your guess below. (I can use that next year in case my daughter reads this article).
The presents are in the laundry bags! (And yes, I have a lot of black clothes. And my closet looks nothing like The Container Store closets or any designed closets. :). Although I do love the Container Store plastic boxes and highly recommmend those.
My tip is to wrap the presents in case they are found.
And then the key is to remember where you hid them. I often forget where I’ve put the presents if I deviate from my usual spaces. When I am older, I plan to spend December hiding presents for myself, so I can spend the rest of the year finding my presents 🙂
Have a great weekend! Where do you hide your holiday presents? And how do you remember where you hid them?
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Join Me on My Writing Journey
I’m embarking on my writing journey and I hope you’ll join me! I first started writing a romantic comedy many years ago; I saw such a bad one that I thought, I can write a better one than this.
Starting My Writing Journey
I started taking online writing classes (I’m a mom and I was working as a lawyer), so online was my best option. I enrolled in The Writer’s Academy Constructing a Novel, and it was so much fun. I loved writing, and I enjoyed talking about writing with other writers in the course. My writing tutor in The Writer’s Academy wrote that my scene was “sparky” and I was on Cloud Nine. An acquaintance saw me that day and said I was glowing as if I was in love.
Indeed I had found a new love: writing. Writing a really good scene makes me so happy. But I didn’t have the courage to leave my job (and source of income yet). So I tried writing part-time, but eventually I realized that I just couldn’t do it part-time. (Unfortunately, I’m someone who needs sleep too.) So I quit my job. And here I am.
Learning Writing Craft
I love attending writer’s conferences and taking writing craft courses. I can’t believe that I get to choose from course selections of “Sensual Love Scenes without Stuffing the Turkey” from Alison May and Liam Livings at the RNA Leeds Conference or “Character Torture” by Linnea Sinclair. (I highly recommend taking any courses offered by those authors.) Compare that to “Recent Developments in Securities Fraud Cases,” “GDPR Enforcement,” and “Cyber-Security and Privacy” (course selections at my lawyers’ conferences). You can see there’s a huge difference.
Which pile would you prefer to read? Not that I don’t miss practicing law at times.
Rejections and Encouragement
Because similar to my dating life when I was single, there have been quite a few rejections. But I am still plugging away, trying to improve my craft and making friends with other writers. I eventually found a great guy to marry after many dating disasters, so there’s hope! And I placed Third in the Los Angeles Orange Rose Contest for Women’s Fiction with Romance as a Central Element! They wrote that “You will be published.” (By whom? It’s like a tarot card reader who just hints at good news: “You will meet the man of your dreams. You will come into a fortune.”)
Woohoo! Join me!
So, join me on my journey! Have you changed careers? (Are you a recovering lawyer?) What do you like to read? Do you write? How did you begin your writer’s journey?