tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47645432622478853012024-03-14T02:40:32.490-05:00Literally YATeens writing? Sounds like YA to me.Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-36800726952426359542013-03-18T14:58:00.000-05:002013-05-11T13:08:15.057-05:00Interview with Caitlin Hensley<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">I’m sure it’s obvious I’ve had to put the blog on hiatus for now, but I had to temporarily lift that so I could point you guys to an amazing new book I love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paranormal Legacy </i>just released, and its wizard author, <a href="http://authorcaitlinhensley.blogspot.com/">Caitlin Hensley</a>, was kind enough to let me interview her as a sort of celebratory thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was excited for that, because I really loved her book—and that’s saying something, since I normally hate paranormal stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyways, here’s the blurb for her book from <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17289444-paranormal-legacy">Goodreads</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';"><em>“After moving to a rural Pennsylvania town, cynical teen Haily Long soon discovers that </em></span><em>the<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span>next-door neighbors are paranormal creatures of darkness. Despite this little quirk, the Knight family seems friendly enough, especially handsome Nathan. Nathan is well-mannered and polite, your typical boy next door . . . except for the fact that he turns into something else once a month. In a matter of days, Haily is drawn deep into a shadowed world of danger and deceit, and learns startling truths about her own past. When sinister strangers come sniffing around town for Nathan, and Haily gets pulled into the resulting chaos, she must discover how to unlock her true heritage if she wants to survive.”<o:p></o:p></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">Sounds stellar, right? And then there’s the part where I got to interview Caitlin:</span></div>
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<u1:p></u1:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">Who are some of your writing influences?</span></b></div>
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<u1:p></u1:p><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">I think a lot of writers have influenced me, actually. Two of the main ones are probably Richelle Mead and Cassandra Clare, since their books are some of the very first books with paranormal elements that I ever read. Another book that really influenced me was called “How Not to Write a Novel.” There were some great tips in there that taught me a lot about writing.</span></div>
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<u1:p></u1:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">Do you have a schedule you stick to with writing—whether that’s concerning plotting or just the time and place you write—or are you move of a “let’s wing it and see what happens” person?</span></b></div>
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<u1:p></u1:p><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">I try to write every single day, and get it done before I log on Facebook or my email account. And usually, I write without an outline. I used to plot extensively before beginning a book, but then it started to bore me, like I was writing the same book twice in a row—the notes and the actual book. So now I write out a few paragraphs about where I want the story to go, write brief character bios, and then drive right in.</span></div>
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<u1:p></u1:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">What’s your main character like? How are you like her, and how are you two different?</span></b></div>
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<u1:p></u1:p><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">Haily Long is the main character in PL. I’m not sure how much we’re really alike, except that we both have brown hair and like to read. I tried to make her as different from me as possible; for example, she’s obsessed with coffee, but I can’t stand the stuff. And while I use sarcasm occasionally, it seems like almost every word out of Haily’s mouth is some kind of snark.</span></div>
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<u1:p></u1:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">Who’s your favourite character in your book—and why?</span></b></div>
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<u1:p></u1:p><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">Jake West is definitely my favorite character. He’s a slightly sarcastic hawk shifter. As for the reasons why I like him, I like how layered his personality is; it takes Haily a while to slowly unwrap the different layers and find out what kind of person he is. Also, I have a thing for the bad boy-type characters.</span></div>
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<u1:p></u1:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">And the wrap-up question: What’s the most potentially incriminating thing you’ve ever Googled?</span></b></div>
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<u1:p></u1:p><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">I always Google a bunch of crazy stuff. Recently, my search history lists things like “humans who eat human livers,” “bus station interior,” “witchcraft,” and “all about the embalming process.” And then of course there’s the much less suspicious “how do you make that thumbs-up sign on Facebook.” (For those who are curious, it turns out you just have to type “(y).”)</span></div>
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<u1:p></u1:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">For the record, Jake’s my absolute favourite, too. I love that he can’t take anything too seriously for too long. It seems like it’s a coping mechanism, which makes it that much more endearing, and he literally made me laugh out loud on several occasions. By this point I’ve decided to quit being objective and fair, and I’ll tell you: Jake trumps Nate any day.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">So.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you’re interested in more <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paranormal Legacy</i>—the sequel is supposed to be released later this year, which I’m already excited for—you can find it at the aforementioned <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17289444-paranormal-legacy">Goodreads</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Paranormal-Legacy-Caitlin-Hensley/dp/1480287326/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1363184604&sr=8-2&keywords=paranormal+legacy+caitlin+hensley">Amazon</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, there’s <a href="http://authorcaitlinhensley.blogspot.com/">Caitlin’s blog</a>; if <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paranormal Legacy </i>catches your interest, you could stop by to let her know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’d be cool to make a debut author’s day, right?</span></b>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-26599261361402283012012-10-19T13:48:00.000-05:002012-10-19T13:48:03.409-05:00Loki, Back When He was More...Low-Key<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';"><o:p>Sorry about the title. Couldn't resist. </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">One thing you need to know is, I’m a superhero freak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I write superhero fiction, chose a superhero theme for my room when we moved this summer (which weirded my mom out, since I’m a seventeen-year-old girl), and carry around an X-Men encyclopedia with me on a regular basis (I also have a DC version, but Marvel dominates).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So within five days of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Avengers </i>coming out on DVD, I’d watched the film and its commentary several times.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">Possibly I have a problem, but it does come in handy sometimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After analyzing the heck out of this movie, I’m still only finding the same flaw that bugged me throughout my first viewing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">Whedon turned Loki into a complete [insert preferred synonym for “jerk” here].<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">Granted, he wasn’t exactly Little Miss Sunshine in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>He did all sorts of unpleasant things to Thor in his first movie, like getting his brother banished, telling him he was responsible for their dad’s death, and coming about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this </i>close to killing him—but despite all that, I still found the trickster god a little bit likeable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">The way I see it, there are three main, semi-connected reasons for that:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">He was sympathetic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">He may be a royal Norse god, but at the end of the day, he’s also quite insecure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s the younger brother, physically quite a bit weaker than both Thor and all the other warriors running around his world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Asgard is obviously a warlike place, so that’d make being scrawny even worse.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>He finds out he’s a Frost Giant by birth—Frost Giants being the Asgardian’s biggest enemies—and originally just adopted by his dad, Odin, in case that could help bring about peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That doesn’t help his outlook much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He feels used and betrayed, ashamed of himself for what he really is, and like everyone thinks he’s worthless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the audience—at least, everyone with a soul—can feel sorry for him about that.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">He was relatable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">This one ties in with the sympathy thing, but it’s a little deeper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On a baser level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because even if we’ve never tried to get our brother out of the picture so we can take his throne, most of us can relate to being in someone else’s shadow—and wanting out of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Absolute power may not be your thing, but most of us have really, really wanted something—a position or role or even some sort of object—only to be turned down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot of people can relate to his insecurity, because that’s part of being human.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only can we sympathize with him, we can <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">empathize </i>with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And because of that…<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">We understood the reasoning behind his motives.</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if we can’t agree with or condone what Loki does to reach his goals, even if it wasn’t always good for him, it all made sense from his viewpoint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For his situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All he really wanted was the throne, to prove himself to his dad—quite possibly because of the aforementioned Frost Giant insecurity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Probably the most obvious example of this is when Odin discovers everything Loki’s done, discovers his son hanging from the bifrost bridge, plans ruined, and Loki calls up, “I could have done it, Father!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you.</i>”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And for me, at least, that’s when it hit home—when I realized exactly why I liked the Elizabethan-talking punk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All these reasons combined.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">So.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anything I missed?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And how do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you </i>feel about Loki?</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thor, </i>he was actually one of my favorites, but my mom disliked him even from the beginning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Who are some other characters you like, even if you feel like maybe you shouldn’t?</b></span></div>
Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-84782647759540746712012-10-15T06:00:00.000-05:002012-10-15T06:57:30.332-05:00Separating Your Foils (Not a cooking lesson, I swear)<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">Sometimes I feel like I blog more about Catherine Fisher’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Incarceron </i>than about anything else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if I do, it’s definitely for good reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But while I obviously love the book, I love its sequel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sapphique</i>, even more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I figure that’s partly because my favorite character gets more screen time (page time?), but also because most of the supporting characters are fleshed out quite a bit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">Throughout most of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Incarceron, </i>Finn was the viewpoint character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s great—I love Finn—but in a way, his supporting cast just serve as foils for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the second book, Finn gets separated from Keiro and Attia, and I feel like it allows all three of them to grow as characters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keiro is deeper, more complex and conflicted, than he seems at first—his indifferent cool guy mask slips a little, and he shows some redeeming qualities, even if reluctantly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Attia also becomes less one-dimensional: instead of being some slightly pathetic, awestruck girl dedicated to protecting Finn, she turns out to be clever and resourceful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And now that Finn isn’t always around and Attia’s more exposed to Keiro’s harshness, we get to see that she has more than enough fire to hold her own against him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">Happily, the character development is a come-one, come-all sort of thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Away from his posse, Finn’s more confident, less self-conscious—even while Keiro’s leaving Finn’s shadow, Finn is able to leave Keiro’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of those cheery, “everybody wins” situations, yes?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">All in all, I figure that’s the best thing about this lesson in foils.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s an example we can apply to our own stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you have a secondary character who’s coming off a bit flat, try to find some way to separate him from your MC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if it ultimately doesn’t work out plot-wise, it’ll probably teach you something about both that character and your main one, and you can incorporate that later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rah, character development.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">So, what do you think?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have you ever tried an exercise like this before—how’d it work out?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If not, do you have any other examples of an author separating her foils for the better?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-63733288616016279982012-02-05T22:49:00.000-06:002012-02-05T22:49:32.445-06:00Deep POV, as Opposed to -- What? -- Shallow POV?<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This weekend, I read a book I wasn’t too impressed with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe that’s not so unusual, but I was surprised—the premise was great, it put an original spin on a classic story, and it had this amazing line on the cover: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Fantasy just declared war on reality.”</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I won’t tell you the author’s name, but his initials are Frank Beddor.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 55.5pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So why didn’t it live up to my expectations?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe a little of it had to do with style, but for the most part, it was because he had issues with head-hopping.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know I must’ve read books with the same problem before, and maybe even to a larger extent, but this is the first time it’s actually distracted me—I guess I’m getting used to reading books that don’t head-hop.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">That got me thinking, I guess, because I went through my notes on blogging points and found this stuff on deep POV:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Go through and eliminate any instances of showing-vs.-telling. </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Look for “was”s and “felt”s, and figure out if they’re of the offending type, and if so, kill them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No mercy.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Remember, you can’t see anything your viewpoint character can’t see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So she might hear the footsteps or feel like she’s being watched, but she knows something or has eyes in the back of her head, she’s not aware of the attacker behind her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Same thing with the other senses and all kinds of information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think it’s easier to stick with this one with first-person POV, but that’s probably because that’s what I write with.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Another thing I don’t like—adverbs</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">on speaker tags.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>(Besides them being outlawed anyway.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Like when a character, who isn’t the MC, “says uncertainly.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>I know adverbs are evil anyway, but besides that, how does the viewpoint character know what the other character’s feeling anyway?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She doesn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the most you can do is pull a “he sounded worried.”<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">End of rant.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Anybody ever read any <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Looking Glass Wars </i>books</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I’m going to read on at some point, because of the aforementioned interesting premise and the fact that I find Dodge’s character growth development interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Any deep POV tips to share? Anybody not hate Mondays?</b></span></div>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-15314890255274465872012-01-19T17:48:00.000-06:002012-01-19T17:48:57.111-06:00On Staying Intense and Gazelle-ish<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Last year in school, my whole grade had to take a semester of Financial Literacy—we used the Dave Ramsey course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that probably doesn’t seem very relevant (um, at all), but one expression he used stuck with me and reminds me of writing.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He always said that when a person is in debt, s/he needs to use “gazelle-like intensity” to get out of that debt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I use the phrase for my writing, when I’m struggling with free time or motivation or deadlines or whatever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Sure, we all need breaks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all need time for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">other </i>part of life, and the people and things who fill it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But whenever I’m having trouble—especially when the goal is so close, and I can see the end—I have to remember that and push toward the end.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It’s ridiculous, the analogies my brain likes to keep around.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Anyways, here are a few tips for staying intense and gazelle-like:</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Think of why you started writing this in the first place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>Even if it’s just as a personal hobby, there’s still a goal involved, isn’t there?</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Read what motivates and inspires you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Maybe it’s an interview of an author who went through a lot on her/his way to publication, struggled with the book itself, or just signed with an agent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe it’s an amazing book you love to read over and over again to remind yourself what you can someday attain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe it’s the not-so-amazing book you know you can do better than—and it got published, didn’t it?</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Deprive yourself of food, drink, and sunlight until you’re finished.</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That way—</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Well, scratch the last one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But still.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">What are some of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">your </i>tips for maintaining the gazelle-like intensity and meeting deadlines, goals, etc.? </span></span></b></div>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-90246636577959071472012-01-15T19:30:00.000-06:002012-01-15T19:30:06.678-06:00You Put the Comma In, You Take the Comma Out...<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Bonus points to anyone who read the title of this post to the tune of “The Hokey Pokey.” </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Anyway, the inspiration for this post comes from the brilliant Oscar Wilde, whose <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Picture of Dorian Gray </i>is one of my all-time favorite books:</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.”</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I guess Oscar just must’ve been having one of those<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t we all?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I tend to have these moments more along the way than in final editing—I get all OCD with the minor wording, and my backspace button probably hates me for being a slave driver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(When I go old-school and write by hand, I usually end up with at least 25% of the lines marked out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If my laptop’s backspace button probably hates me, trees <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">definitely </i>do.)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The OCD approach saves me a little time in the long run—less editing to do later on—but also kills some of my effort when revisions set in and scenes get slashed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d consider trying to reign in the internal editor for a bit, since that seems like the wise thing to do, but I’ve never been wise and I’d rather just stick with my writing flow, idiosyncrasies and all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which begs the question.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Have you ever had one of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">those </i>days, full of scribbled lines or extra bonding time with your backspace button?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which describes you—“obsessive-compulsive” corrector or “I locked my internal editor in the closet (gagged and bound)” kidnapper?</span></span></b></div>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-47261356368169445562012-01-08T18:26:00.000-06:002012-01-08T18:26:19.003-06:00Apparently, Enough is Enough<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">For the most part, we all know the more routine clichés—but you should also be on the lookout for some of the newer offenders.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Every year since 1975, Lake Superior State University in Michigan has released a list of overused words/phrases for each year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And while you may have already seen this, I couldn’t help but pass on <a href="http://hotword.dictionary.com/banished/">this list for 2011</a>.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Realistically, I know this list doesn’t mean much—if you’re going to use the term “baby bump,” there aren’t exactly a ton of alternatives, and I think “ginormous” is a pretty rad word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s still amusing to see what words the public tends to get sick of.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">You can read about the history behind the banished words lists <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/01/01/144546187/an-amazing-trickeration-banished-words-for-2012?ps=cprs">here</a>, by the way.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>So, what about you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any words or expressions you’d<em> </em>like to kill off? Any words <em>you</em> have a tendency to overuse? </strong>Because I'll admit, I'm guilty of using "pretty much" and "not exactly" too much.</span></span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-64249788658533454172012-01-05T18:01:00.000-06:002012-01-05T18:01:53.612-06:00Come On -- We Know You Have Them<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Resolutions, that is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now that the new year’s rolled around and everyone’s swapping 2011 calendars out for shiny new ones, most people are also working toward personal goals.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">That’s right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The New Year’s Resolutions are upon us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A whole nother year of opportunities. One of mine is to blog consistently and on schedule this year: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Thursdays</b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sundays</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That means no more long, unannounced blogging vacations—sorry about that, but I needed to focus on rewrites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll be visiting your blogs more regularly, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scout’s honor.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Realistically, I know a ton of people have a ton of resolutions that never pan out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that I’m usually one of those people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that doesn’t keep me from setting them, because A) it’s always nice to have something to work toward and B) I’m always up for a good laugh.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">And like countless other writers, I’ve got some writing-oriented goals in mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I figure you probably do, too, so here’s a quote from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the </i>Walt Disney to keep us motivated and inspired:</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“Get a good idea and stay with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dog it, and work at it until it’s done right.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So even if you quit your diet, don’t succeed with your plans for world domination, or fail on the whole “be a better person” concept, remember—stick with your writing resolutions as best you can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go all Walt Disney on those things.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Any writing resolutions you’d like to share?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking back at 2011, how’d similar resolutions work out for you last year?</span></span></b></div>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-35520286309453214162011-11-14T19:27:00.000-06:002011-11-14T19:27:22.841-06:00There's Always Something to Learn from Rowling, Right?<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Everyone's heard the story of Harry Potter's birth -- the train ride, the cafe, all that jazz. Right? By now, it's morphed into something of a legend. And sometimes you have to be careful with legends, becayse it's easy to lose the moral of the story in them.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> I mean, I'm not a huge fan of morals in stories -- not obvious ones, anyway. All too often, they ruin the story, and we can't have that. Still, J.K.'s lesson has a pretty important point in it:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <strong>Always </strong>have something with you to write on, and <strong>always </strong>write your ideas down, no matter how stupid or inconsequential those ideas might seem. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> It doesn't matter if you're writing on paper, a McDonald's sack, your hand (or arm, for those massive, detailed ideas), or typing it out on a cell phone. (For the record, if you don't have a pen or notepad app, I learned a couple of years ago that you <em>can </em>text yourself. This also means explaining to others why you have yourself saved in your contacts, but whatever.) Anywho. Most writers always have portable means to write with; I don't really need to say much about that part.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Back to that "no matter how stupid or inconsequential" bit I mentioned earlier. You know those tiny thoughts that sometimes flit through your subconscious -- the ones that don't make much sense, or seem incredibly random, or not even slightly important? Like "Taj Mahal" or "death by elevator shaft" or "what if..."? Probably a good idea to write those down, too. You never know when one of those thoughts could connect with something else, some bigger, and turn into your next Big Idea. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> There's nothing worse than having some almost-memory tickle the edges of your brain, only to realize you've forgotten what that oh-so-wizard idea was.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> So what about you? What's the oddest string of words you've ever written down as an idea trigger? Have you ever had one of those random thoughts merge with a bigger-scale idea? </span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-10814751829751600452011-10-03T20:38:00.000-05:002011-10-03T20:38:23.923-05:00Why Happily Ever Afters Don't Make Me So Happy...<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Okay, so this post may make me sound like a total pessimist. Glass half-empty and all that. Acknowledged, but I have a point to make here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> First thing's first: the perfect ending doesn't exist -- for me, anyway. Because if it really is a perfect ending, in the conventional "everything's wrapped up and happy" sense, it's automatically imperfect for me. I don't want a happy ending -- I just want it to be tolerable. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> By "tolerable," I'm not saying I think endings should stop at acceptable, that they should just be ho-hum. Definitely not; I like explosions and betrayal and fight scenes as much as the next reader. But I want endings to be bittersweet and slightly painful -- I want the "we missed Happily Ever After by about ten miles" version. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Everything can't just <em>work out. </em>That, unfortunately, is what Disney movies are for. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Maybe that's why I don't like the happy endings so much. Maybe I watched too many Disney movies when I was younger, where Sleeping Beauty and Snow White woke up and Prince Charming found the shoe and Beast turned back into a human, and everything worked out. (Extra points go to <em>Pocahontas</em>, since John Smith got hurt and shipped back where he came from. Negative points go to <em>Pocahontas 2</em>, because that movie was moronic and nobody likes John Ralfe or whatever that punk was named. I guess you can tell I'm more of a John Smith fan.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Anyway, some more examples of endings that had some element of bittersweet in them? I think <em>yes. </em>Technically, I guess I can't talk about the endings if you haven't read them already, because that would just ruin life, but it's understood that I highly recommend the books listed below. </span><br />
<ul><li><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em>A Separate Peace </em>by John Knowles. Love this book. I'm normally not into this genre or time period, but this is tied for first in my All-Time Favorites list. (Team Phineas all the way.)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em>The Great Gatsby </em>by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Lots of people probably read this in school, so the ending's not as big of a secret, but I thought it was <em>so </em>refreshing that it didn't end very well. How many other stories out there had an ending to a similar effect? Plus, it had characters like Jordan and Gatsby. Nick wasn't bad, either. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em>The Cay </em>by Timothy Taylor. My mom read it to me when I was sick in the fifth grade. I hadn't thought about it in a while, but when I was thinking of bittersweet endings, it popped into my brain. Must reread this....</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em>Island of the Blue Dolphins </em>by Scott O'Dell. This was one of my favorite books. I need to read this one again, too. </span></li>
</ul><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Okay, that's probably enough, because I think you get the point. At this point, I'll also slip in a quick apology for my blogging failures in this past month. Bad me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Do you agree, or are you more on the Happily Ever After side? What are some books with bittersweet endings you've read, and did you think the books pulled them off?</span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-45360093856148221272011-09-03T15:36:00.000-05:002011-09-03T15:36:08.929-05:00Apprehension and Swagger<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This year I was old enough to sign up for evening classes at the local vo-tech, so I went for the fiction writing class. I didn't really know what to expect, but I figured even if it didn't cover anything new, it'd still be worthwhile. Being around other writers, chances to learn new stuff . . . I was pretty excited.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> The first thing the teacher/instructor had us do was describe a character. Randomly. Then we had to pick three random character names. And then write an opening scene. She stopped everyone after a certain amount of time and have us read what we'd gotten down so far, so it was sort of a "write really fast with no clue where you're going and try to get stopped mid-sentence" sort of thing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> And it's a blast. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> What with the time restraints and all, I was just trying to get something down, but it's quickly evolved into something legitimate. I'm pretty excited about it -- throughout revisions, there hasn't been much raw writing, and I've missed it. This has definitely shown me that it's not a bad thing to be working on a new project while massively editing something else. It keeps the writing fresh, you know?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Anyway, now I bring you this quote from A. M. Rosenthal:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> "If you don't have a sensation of apprehension when you set out to find a story and a swagger when you sit down to write it, you are in the wrong business."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Well said, Rosenthal. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Now I'm working on balancing the revising -- priority number one -- and the plotting for the new project, but either way, I'm pretty optimistic about this new project. The whole apprehension/swagger bit A. M. was talking about, I guess, plus it's still in that happy stage where everything seems simple.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> So what about you? How do you feel when you start a new project -- and how long does that happy, simple stage last for you before the real work starts?</span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-10834898980676737492011-08-20T13:37:00.000-05:002011-08-20T13:37:34.686-05:00Actually, Go Ahead -- Judge Away<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">"Don't judge." </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> It's an expression I hear quite a bit, mostly in joke -- but let's face it. Whether we want to or not -- whether we realize it or not -- we judge people and characters. And a lot of the time, one of the first impressions is actually a name. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Names are obviously important -- they need to match the character's personality, time period, social status, and so on. Eugene Fitzherbert isn't a great name for an adventure-loving thief, and I'm sure Flynn Rider would back you up on that one. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> But even though names are important, they don't necessarily make or break a character -- that's all up to the characterization. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Example time --</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Four from <em>Divergent </em>by Veronica Roth. I mean, anyone else ever read a character with a number for a name (besides the temporary title Boy 412 had in <em>Magyk </em>by Angie Sage)? Yeah, not really. And somehow it seems like Four makes a natural name, whereas, I don't know, the name Three or Five or Eight would just be ridiculous. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> It's the same way with Dustfinger with <em>Inkheart </em>by Cornelia Funke. At least Four is a nickname -- Dustfinger's kind of stuck with his name. Still, he's an awesome character, and if you focus on him and don't consider his name too deeply, he manages to make "Dustfinger" a pretty cool name. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> A lot of high-fantasy books are the same way. Who would've ever thought Aragorn or Frodo or Legolas could've been names? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> These are only a couple of examples, but I the point's pretty clear -- any more would be overkill. Have you come across any other names that at first sounded riduculous, but ended up seeming rad once the characterization had done its job? </span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-89412519188127615842011-08-12T10:02:00.000-05:002011-08-12T10:02:20.681-05:00Wisdom from Kathryn Stockett, Author of *The Help*<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Okay, so if you haven't already, you really need to read <a href="http://shine.yahoo.com/event/poweryourfuture/kathryn-stocketts-the-help-turned-down-60-times-before-becoming-a-best-seller-2523496/">this</a>. It's an article by Kathryn Stockett -- she talks about her book, <em>The Help, </em>and everything she went through to get it published. More specifically, everything she went through to get an agent.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Her book was rejected 60 times. The 61st letter was an offer of representation. She kept trying for three and a half years before she got an agent. Now her book's a bestseller and has its own movie. Nice turn of events, right?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Anyway, if you're querying or going to be querying in the future, I hope you'll keep this in mind, maybe even print it out. Even if you're not writing, if something else is your passion, it's a great reminder to never give up. Plus, bonus: The way she writes is sort of hysterical. That never hurts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> A lot of people claim J.K. Rowling as an inspiration. She is, no doubt, but in the "agent rejection" respect, her story never really encouraged me much. I mean, sure, she got rejected by multiple publishers before her book sold, but she got representation from the first agent she queried. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> On the other end of the spectrum, Kathryn Stockett got representation from the sixty-first agent she queried, and won over the first publisher she tried. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> What sort of stories encourage you?</span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-64802454035090802982011-08-09T18:13:00.001-05:002011-08-09T18:14:55.843-05:00Liebster Award -- A.K.A., I'm a Cheater<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">First thing's first: Thank you, <a href="http://kvbriar.blogspot.com/">K.V. Briar</a>! (Now is the part where you follow her if you haven't already. You know, not to be bossy or anything.) Also, an apology to her: I'm sorry I took so long to get this posted. Back to school stuff and excuses and all that.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rRplwlGPQ24/TjGBOvX2OuI/AAAAAAAAAI8/4sdV_m_URzM/s1600/Liebster+Image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rRplwlGPQ24/TjGBOvX2OuI/AAAAAAAAAI8/4sdV_m_URzM/s1600/Liebster+Image.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> I've already made a Liebster post, but since the award's meant to highlight up-and-coming blogs, I figured it'd be okay if I posted again and shared five more blogs. (Does that make me a cheater? Not sure. Anyway, I come from a very competitive family, where boardgames are cutthroat and the occasional display of cheating happens -- you especially have to watch my 12-year-old sister. Let's just say there's a reason we don't play Monopoly much.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Here's a quick glimpse of the rules:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">"</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The goal of the award is to spotlight up and coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers. The rules of the award are:<br />
<br />
1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.<br />
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.<br />
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.<br />
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.<br />
5. And most of all - have bloggity-blog fun!<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Aaaand here we go (remember, no sales pitches -- it's for your own good):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <a href="http://aderumoro.blogspot.com/">AderuMoro's Too Many Ambitions</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <a href="http://thethoughtsofabookworm.blogspot.com/">Eat...Sleep...Write</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <a href="http://morganlyfe.blogspot.com/">Keep on Writing, Keep on Dreaming</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <a href="http://livetowrite1.blogspot.com/">Live to Write...Edit when Necessary</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <a href="http://shieldmaidenthoughts.wordpress.com/">Thoughts of a Shieldmaiden</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Okay then, I'm off to alert these blogs like a responsible blogger. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> For the record, if you laughed/scoffed at me for that last sentence, no worries -- my feelings won't be crushed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-31519449844244772792011-08-02T10:28:00.000-05:002011-08-02T10:28:46.389-05:00"Good designers can create normalcy out of chaos...." --Jeffery Veen<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">In the above quote, replace "designers" with "writers". Because writers are just people who design with words, right?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> About a week ago, I finally got around to reading <em>Divergent. </em>(I know, I know, it took me long enough.) It was great in general, but one of the things it did reminded me of the <em>Inkheart </em>books -- both Roth and Funke use simple, everyday occurences -- even the most mundane of things -- to give the reader a sense of normalcy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Example time -- first, from <em>Inkheart</em>:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <span style="color: #073763;">" 'And, Meggie,' [Mo] said over his shoulder, 'you go back to sleep.' Then, without another word, he closed his workshop door.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Georgia;"> Meggie stood there rubbing her cold feet together. Go back to sleep. Sometimes, when they'd stayed up late yet again, Mo would toss her down on her bed like a bag of walnuts. Sometimes he chased her around the house after supper until she escaped into her room, breathless with laughter. And sometimes he was so tired he lay down on the sofa and she made him a cup of coffee before she went to bed. But he had never <em>ever </em>sent her off to her room so brusquely."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Georgia;"> "Dustfinger must have been waiting in the road beyond the wall. Meggie had picked her precarious way along the top of that wall hundreds of times, up to the rusty hinges of the gate and back again, eyes tightly closed so she could get a clearer view of the tiger she'd imagined waiting in the bamboo at the foot of the wall, his eyes yellow as amber, or the foaming rapids to her right and her left."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Georgia;"> "Meggie was just throwing [the sparrows] the breadcrumbs she had found in her jacket pocket -- left over from a picnic on some long-forgotten day -- when the door suddenly opened."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <span style="color: #073763;">"It was a strange feeling to be spying on Mo. She couldn't remember ever doing it before </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Georgia;">-- except the night before, when Dustfinger had arrived. And the time when she had tried to find out whether Mo was Santa Claus."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Georgia;"> <span style="color: black;">Throughout these bits of story -- most of them slipped seamlessly into the main narrative of the novel -- you get a real sense of how life was <em>before</em>. Before the characters' lives went crazy, before the story itself started and everything changed. You get a glimpse into how close Meggie and Mo's father-daughter relationship is, how Mo isn't exactly the most responsible parent, but he loves Meggie and makes things fun. You see how Meggie used to climb the fence and imagine she was on adventures -- who hasn't played in their yard as a kid? -- and that she goes on picnics and leaves crumbs in the pockets and tried once to determine whether her dad was Santa. In these paragraphs, in relatively few words, Funke establishes the characters' lives before, to better show how they change after, and again, sets a normal background that makes it easier to believe the fantastic, sometimes unrealistic things that're going to happen. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <em>Divergent </em>did the same thing for me:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <span style="color: #073763;">"We walk together to the kitchen. On these mornings when my brother makes breakfast, and my father's hand skims my hair as he reads the paper, and my mother hums as she clears the table -- it is on these mornings that I feel guiltiest for wanting to leave them."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <span style="color: #073763;">"[M]y brother made breakfast this morning, and my father made dinner last night, so it's my turn to cook."</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Georgia;"> "We sit at the table. We always pass food to the right, and no one eats until everyone is served. My father extends his hands to my mother and my brother, and they extend their hands to him and me, and my father gives thanks to God for food and work and friends and family."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Georgia;"> <span style="color: black;">And then there's the example Tris goes back to the most -- her mother trimming Tris's hair. It's mentioned several times, so I won't pick an example. Throughout <em>Divergent, </em>these pieces of background information show how her family interacts and works, which is really complex, given their dystopian world's customs and standards. Family plays a large part in <em>Divergent </em>and <em>Inkheart</em>, and I think that shows.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Both authors managed this well --- a light-handed sprinkling of background information, of the characters' pasts, that isn't forced or heavy. It feels so natural that it also makes the world seem normal, real, and to me, that's important in a book. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Agreed, or no? What books have you read that had the same effect as these?</span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-77158826470133184792011-07-30T13:28:00.001-05:002011-07-30T13:29:46.682-05:00Liebster Blog Award<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">First off, here's a huge thanks to <a href="http://www.findingthewriteway.blogspot.com/">Jenna Cooper</a>! If you haven't already, go follow her blog.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rRplwlGPQ24/TjGBOvX2OuI/AAAAAAAAAI8/4sdV_m_URzM/s1600/Liebster+Image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rRplwlGPQ24/TjGBOvX2OuI/AAAAAAAAAI8/4sdV_m_URzM/s1600/Liebster+Image.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Here's all the Liebster stuff:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The goal of the award is to spotlight up and coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers. The rules of the award are:<br />
<br />
1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.<br />
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.<br />
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.<br />
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.<br />
5. And most of all - have bloggity-blog fun!<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">"</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> <span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;">Got that? Good. Let's go. </span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;">Here are the five blogs I'm passing it on to:</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"> <a href="http://thestoryqueen.blogspot.com/">The Story Queen</a></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"> <a href="http://beyeager.blogspot.com/">Ink-Splattered</a></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"> <a href="http://helloworld-life-people.blogspot.com/">Hello, World</a></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"> <a href="http://amaranthineforever.blogspot.com/">Amaranthine Forever</a> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"> <a href="http://scribblesandinkstains.blogspot.com/">Scribbles and Ink Stains</a> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"> Granted, I think I was technically supposed to write up a short line about each blog, and I honestly tried. But I make a horrible salespitch, and they all sounded forced and robotic, so...I know there aren't descriptions, but don't take it out on them! Go visit and comment and follow, agreed?</span></span></span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-66676018322829681522011-07-27T14:11:00.001-05:002011-07-28T22:11:08.425-05:00The First Sentence -- Hook, Please<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">First off, if you saw the title of this and thought it'd be remotely helpful . . . yeah, sorry about that. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> It won't be. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> But it's amusing, and in my book, amusing is always a plus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Apparently, there's a contest every year -- called the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest -- to see who can write the worst opening sentence for an fake novel. (Anyway, I <em>hope </em>these are fake. Eek.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> The 2011 grand prize winner is Sue Fondrie, a professor from Wisconsin. This is her entry:</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> "Cheryl's mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories."</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Pretty bad, eh? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> There are different divisions within the contest -- you can read a few of them, and the original article where I learned all this brain-enriching stuff, <a href="http://shine.yahoo.com/event/backtoschool/wisconsin-professor-wins-2011-bad-writing-contest-2516062/">here</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Really, I don't do morals of stories, but I guess the main lesson is this:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> If you're having trouble nailing the opening sentence of your novel, be sure to keep all the attempts -- the more laughable, the better. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> You could always enter next year's contest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> So now I have to ask: What's the worst opening sentence you've ever read? What made it so bad -- or is it wince-inducing and self-explanatory?</span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-86767458066262597132011-07-21T21:01:00.000-05:002011-07-21T21:01:43.135-05:00The Only Constant in Life is Change, or Something Cheesy Like That<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">"Only the extremely ignorant or the extremely wise can resist change." -- Socrates</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> If we've heard it once -- and we've <em>all </em>heard it once -- we've heard it one-point-three million times: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <em>Characters need to face significant growth by the end of a novel. </em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Well, sure. I'm not denying that. After all, if Scrooge had been a total cad at the end of <em>A Christmas Carol</em> and let Tiny Tim (<em>"God blesh us, ev'ry one!"</em>) die, the story probably wouldn't make such a warm, fuzzy Christmas movie/play. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <em>But. </em></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Not all characters are Scrooge, you know what I'm saying?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Characters need to change. Like Socrates said, only morons and brilliant people resist change -- and a lot of main characters don't fully fit into either category. Practically everything that makes characters themselves are their personalities, actions, reactions, quirks. And if you remove all of those traits from the equation, what's left? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> A boring imposter-of-the-original character that, quite frankly, I don't want to read about. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Example time -- and that means if you haven't read the books about the bolded characters, I don't know if you'll want to read their paragraphs. I'm not spoiling plot events, exactly, but I do go through the character growth in the books.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <strong>Artemis Fowl</strong> changed throughout his series, making friend and becoming less cold and ruthless. But he's still sly and calculating, and unafraid of lying or manipulation. If he'd become a total softie throughout the books, I wouldn't like his character anymore (because really, he's really more interesting when he's being cold and ruthless). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <strong>Maximum Ride</strong> became softer throughout her series, too. Sometimes against her will, she became warmer, friendlier, and more emotional. She isn't always exactly happy about these developments, but her character has changed -- <em>grown </em>-- so she deals. I don't always like Max's weaker side -- slightly annoying, if you catch my drift. <em>I'm the tough one, I don't know why I'm crying, I can count the times I've cried in front of these kids on one hand, blah, blah, blah. </em>But it's usually fine. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <strong>Tally Youngblood </strong><em>(Uglies series</em>) -- okay, this one's kind of a doozy, and it's not even completely Tally's fault. (This one actually has spoilers. Close your eyes if necessary.) In <em>Uglies</em>, thanks to society standards, Tally considered herself worthless and hideous, but knew she'd be amazing once she got the pretty-making operation for her sixteenth birthday. By the end of the book, after a nice little visit with some rebels, she decides she doesn't need any operation and that real is beautiful. However, she also volunteers to be turned pretty so she can test a cure -- and thanks to the surgery, forgets all about her whole "natural beauty/brainwashing is bad" epiphany. She's a vapid, self-absorbed pretty now. Once she gets the cure -- cough </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">-- she's back to her pre-surgery, post-Smoke self again. Then she gets turned into a Special, and she's arrogant, ruthless, and cold, determined to keep everything under the city's control. She cures herself from being Special and finally finds her own way of thinking, free from any surgery or city-manufactured thinking. Major growth-rollercoaster there. Three- steps-forward-four-steps back-five-steps-forward kind of thing, yes? Even though I halfway hate Tally for what she inadverently did to Zane (who's one of my listed Favorites), I still like her and her growth arc okay. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <strong>Katniss Everdeen</strong> (<em>The Hunger Games</em>) used to be a happy little girl. Then her dad got blown up and her mom turned worthless. It was up to Katniss to ensure her and her little sister's survival, and she ended up cold and hard, a total survivor. (Spoilers coming from here on out.) She ended up softening a <em>tad </em>around Peeta, then slightly insane after her sister's death, and back to her normal, less-distant self again. One could definitely say her growth arc is more of a wave, though not as erratic as Tally's.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <strong>Dustfinger </strong>(<em>Inkheart</em>) was a roaming fire-eater in his own world. He had a wife, two daughters, and a stellar way with flames -- and then Mo read him out of his world. To get back home, Dustfinger's willing to lie, cheat, steal, manipulate, and generally throw morals out the window. But he's only doing it to get to his family again, and he tries to fix the problems his double-crossing starts. Basically, he's good if you're helping him, bad if you're not, a character with flexible morals and a generally good heart. (He's a Favorite, too.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Characters usually change in their stories -- sometimes drastically, sometimes subtly -- but not too much. Because if they <em>do</em>, they lose what makes them <em>them</em>. I'm not saying your Twihard-axe-murderer protagonist should still be going around chopping people up at the end of the book(s) -- certainly that first bit needs to change. But maybe your jewelry thief should still have a weakness for emeralds; maybe your MC still chews other characters out. (Lame examples there, I know. Oh well.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Do you agree with this, or are you for the characters being reformed by the end of the story? </span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-88215801854184676402011-07-16T21:05:00.000-05:002011-07-16T21:05:30.720-05:00You Heard the Man<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> "They say, best men are moulded out of faults,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> And, for the most, become much more the better</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> For being a little bad."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> -- William Shakespeare, <em>"Measure for Measure"</em>, Act 5 Scene 1</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Today, I think we'll take it from an expert. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> All of my favorite characters on the All-Exclusive All-Time list are definitely flawed. (Peeta's on that list, which almost dashes the continuity there, but I think Snow and a certain venom took care of that.) </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Maybe that's just a personal preference of mine, but I think it raises a point. We all know that no one likes perfect characters, and most normal people don't like purely awful characters either. Society tends to frown upon that -- but then again, I frown on society, so who knows.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> All of my Favorites have some sort of quirk that makes them interesting -- and not necessarily nice -- and influences the story line.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> A great example of this is Artemis Fowl. He's not one of my Favorites -- I mean, he's a great character and all, but he's not on <em>The List</em> --, but he's quite flawed, thank you very much. He can be ruthless, manipulative, completely full of himself. (The fact that he's the biggest supergenius out there doesn't exactly hurt matters, either.) He ends up showing gradual growth -- peachy -- but he doesn't completely lose his flaws in the process.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> What about you? Is there a common thread between all your favorites -- or do you even <em>pick</em> favorites? (The notion is completely foreign to me, but my mom actually doesn't pick favorites . . . except for Peeta, that is.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> And what scale should the characters be on -- way flawed or, in the words of Shakespeare, "a little bad"?</span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-6743222444925156362011-07-11T22:39:00.000-05:002011-07-11T22:39:26.939-05:00Do Everyone a Favor -- Skip the Lecture<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">For me, there are several things a writer can do to ruin a book:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> 1) Mention a vampire</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> 2) Mention a werewolf</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> (Thank you, Twitlight. But that's beside the point.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> 3) Turn the book into a preaching platform</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> There we go -- today's topic. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Really, people don't read fiction to hear the author's opinion on anything other than what pertains to the story. It's annoying, it's something that everyone can't agree with, and it totally interrupts the plot. I don't read to learn anyone's stand on global warming or environmental awareness (ahem, <em>The Final Warning </em>and <em>MAX: A Maximum Ride Novel, </em>both by James Patterson. Max is still great, though), politics, the economy, etc. -- unless it directly relates to the story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> That said, I think it's amazing when books teach us about important life issues -- when it's done right. Some of my favorites do this, without ever outright saying "War is bad" or "Be true to yourself". Not only are these stereotypes (not all wars are bad; being yourself is great and all, unless you happen to be an axe-murderer or cannibal or Twihard), they need to be handled with more subtlety. Here are a few of those favorites, in no particular order:</span><br />
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<ul><li><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em>A Separate Peace </em>by John Knowles. Of course, being slightly biased, I consider all my favorite books amazing, but this one is especially so. That's mainly because of my favorite character, Phineas, but the book also touches on deeper subjects, especially the darker side of the human nature. (Really, we aren't so nice.) While it takes place at a boy's school during World War II, the focus is more on internal war. And while I would've judged the book by the cover (and synopsis and setting) and expected it to be boring, probably not even giving it a chance, it's now my favorite. I'm primarily a fantasy reader, so that's definitely saying something.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em>The Hunger Games </em>trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Most people have read this one, so I don't have to go into as much detail -- but the way she handles themes like war, violence, and freedom seems so effortless, so smoothly integrated, it never ceases to amaze me. Okay, the gushing is over.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em>Uglies </em>trilogy/series (I guess it depends on your opinion, and whether or not you include <em>Extras</em>) by Scott Westerfeld. It <span style="background-color: white;">hits a whole range of themes, from self-acceptance to society's place and influence to, again, freedom. Even with all that going on, it doesn't seem too busy, and the world-building's fabulous.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em>Harry Potter </em>series by J.K. Rowling. Again, this is an obvious pick, which is part of why I couldn't leave it out. Good and evil, fighting over power (of the ruling <em>and </em>magic variety) -- it's all there.</span></li>
</ul><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Of course, there are countless other out there, and you can find morals or symbolism to almost anything, if you try -- but what are some of your favorites? What themes/lessons do they express? Do you think it's okay to preach in books, or do you also feel like it's a no-no?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <em><span style="font-size: x-small;">This lecture on lectures was presented in blog form, so I decided to ignore the irony and go with it. </span></em></span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-68442055807403076772011-07-05T14:31:00.000-05:002011-07-05T14:31:59.776-05:00Rewriting: It's Kind of a Love/Hate Situation<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Well, I'm still very much in the clutches of rewrites. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Yeah, I have been for a while now. And to be honest, I haven't been working on them as much as I should've for most of June. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> But it's July now. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> So I'm pulling myself out of this whole "writer's drought" issue and getting the rewrites done. I've actually got most of the drudge work done, and now it's actually entering it all into my computer and then bridging the scenes together. Since I've done a ton of rewriting on this book (it's changed a <em>lot </em>throughout its almost-three-year-lifespan), I've pretty much got my method down. It goes something like this:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> First, I printed the manuscript out. Slasher -- my neon-pink editing pen, which miraculously hasn't run out of ink -- and I got to spend lots of bonding time, since I need to cut at least 27,000 words from the book. Ideally, I'll cut more (which looks like it's going to be easy enough) so I can go back and bridge the scenes. More on that below. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> When I'm cutting words for an overhaul on this scale, I have to look at each individual word, the sentence it goes with, and the paragraph it's part of. If it doesn't <em>have </em>to be there </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">-- if it doesn't bring something incredibly important to the story -- it bites the dust. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> In some chapters, there's more to be scrapped than there is to save. When that's the case, I go through and highlight anything worth keeping. I'll type up all the rest of the edits directly into a document -- there's not enough of the original document left to bother with --, but I'll completely rewrite any chapter I used the highlighting method with. Since I had to pick out threads of paragraphs that could stay, there won't be enough left to salvage anyway.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> After I arrange all the chapters in the right places, including the rewrites, I can go through and bridge everything together. I'd cut out plenty of extra words in the first stage, so now I can go through and add some, making transitions smoother and reinserting some of my details. I can't go crazy, of course, but the bridge work makes the writing seem natural again, taking away the stilted sound that the bare-bones version has. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> The biggest thing in cutting out words, for me, is that "What does it add to the story?" question. In this way, I find that lots of things, from words to paragraphs and even whole scenes, can be removed. For example, towards the middle, my MC gets generally broken. Another character heals her, but the main thing is that MC gets broken, then healed. By establishing that, I can go back and cut out chunks of details about the healing process, probably even have my MC unconscious or something for most of it. I actually had lots of little moments like this, where I'd written in unimportant pieces instead of just hitting the main idea. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> After it's all "done," I can make a draft specifically targeting speaker tags. Like I've mentioned before, I used to have a huge problem with tags other than "said," and I'm still working on that. I'll go through and check all the tags and beats. I'll read through it one more time to see if I can catch anything else, make sure it makes sense, and then I'll have people proof-read it for me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> For general editing, I listed some tips <a href="http://literally-ya.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-im-cutting-27k-words-from-my.html">here</a>. Have you ever had to completely rewrite something? If so, any method you'd like to share? </span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-4876350463281437932011-07-01T22:50:00.000-05:002011-07-01T22:50:48.181-05:00-Cue Shakespeare's Cliche Rose Quote-<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Yeah, I'm totally not going there. I can barely stomach <em>Romeo and Juliet </em>as it is. (More of a <em>Julius Caesar </em>girl, see?) But as I'm considering names today, that was the natural allusion to make. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> So. Names. Incredibly, ridiculously important, right? Socially acceptable or not, whether we admit or even <em>realize </em>it or not, we all judge books by covers -- and <a href="http://hotword.dictionary.com/names/">people by names</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Some authors like to pick names with meanings that connect with their characters -- J. K. Rowling and Suzanne Collins are two popular authors who do this. J.K. employs this, especially with Latin, more than any author I've ever read. (Here's <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/mi3/cookarama/namemean.html">a list</a> of character names and meanings behind them -- it doesn't have all the characters, but a lot of them, and it probably does a better job handling it all than I could.) And in Collins' case, Katniss was mentioned in the book as a plant that the character was named after, but "Katniss" also means "belonging to an arrow" in Latin. Peeta's name sounds just like "pita" bread -- fitting, since he comes from a family of bakers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Of course, there are other authors who pick names specifically for the meanings -- and tons who don't. In my current project, I just went with random names I liked. But if I can find a name that I like the sound/look of and applies to the story, I'd definitely be open to doing that in the future. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Just for fun, I looked up a few name meanings. My first two names -- Jenna and Blake -- mean "light" and "dark" (depending on which language/search engine or website you're consulting). My MC's named Mallory, which apparently means "ill-fated" and "unlucky". Kind of makes me wonder . . . . </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Anyway, how do you pick your characters' names? Have you ever looked up their names </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">-- or yours?</span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-80251417416567121382011-06-28T07:29:00.000-05:002011-06-28T07:29:33.006-05:00Speaker Tags: Like the Plague<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Semi-recently, I stumbled upon the first draft I'd ever written. I'll spare you the shameful and wince-worthy details, since there are some things you just shouldn't put people through, but among all its issues, my speaker tags were rampant.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> I'm not just talking about using tags other than "said" -- that's another post, and it has a lot of different facets. (Though I had that problem, too. When you use the word "queried" instead of ask in the attempt to change things up, you know things are bad. But it's all in the past, right?)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Nah, I'm talking about attaching speaking tags in general. <em>Especially </em>when there's already an action tag in place. Suzanne Collins is pretty much the queen of this -- I love <em>The Hunger Games </em>and its trilogy, I've made it painfully obvious and redundant in the past, but yeah. She'll set an action tag, lay down the dialogue, and then -- no, no no. <em>A speaker tag. </em>And usually "I say" at that. Eek. Talk about pet peeves.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> But hey, like I said. Suzanne Collins can do -- well, some wrong, but not a whole lot. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Besides avoiding my annoyance, cutting all unnecessary tags has another shining benefit: slashing the word count. And if you're anything like me, Word Count is the enemy. (Otherwise, you're lucky. Word-by-word editing is a major pain.)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Here are a couple examples of speaker tags not only done right, but kept at the barest minimum:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <em>Her horse was panicking; he took a deep breath and ran from cover, grabbing it by </em></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em>the bridle. "Get down!"</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em> She jumped, and they both fell. Then they were squirming into the bushes, lying flat, breathless. Around them the forest roared with rain.</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em> "Hurt?" </em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em> "No. You?"</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em> "Bruised. Nothing serious."</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em> Claudia dragged soaked hair from her eyes. "I can't believe this. Sia would never order it. Where are they?"</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em> </em>This is from <em>Sapphique, </em>by Catherine Fisher. I think it's excellent -- there's no tag at all from the first line to the last, and even then, it's action-tagging. She doesn't spell out who says what, and she doesn't have to -- as a reader, it really isn't rocket science to figure out. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Here's one more example, from <em>A Swiftly Tilting Planet </em>by Madeleine L'Engle --</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> <em>Sandy paused, a handful of forks in his hand, to grin at their mother. "Thanksgiving dinner is practically the only meal Mother cooks in the kitchen --"</em></span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> "--instead of out in the lab on her Bunsen burner," Dennys concluded.</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> "After all, those Bunsen-burner stews did lead directly to the Nobel Prize. We're really proud of you, Mother, although you and Father give us a heck of a lot to live up to."</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> "Keeps our standards high." </span></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><em> </em>Sure, this one uses more tags, but I still felt like it was a good example. I'm not exactly loving the phrase "a handful of forks in his hand," but I still love how the twins are always interrupting each other, so I'll let it slide. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Okay, there it is. Speaker tagging -- something better left in small doses. What's your opinion? Speaker tags or action tags? I think a good mix of both is important to keep a natural-sounding balance; do you?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-47058502154032838122011-06-25T11:11:00.000-05:002011-06-25T11:11:53.326-05:00You Know What This Means?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5sSrY71_Mss/TgYG_yBF1ZI/AAAAAAAAAA4/QbXCp3Evff4/s1600/Battery.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" i$="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5sSrY71_Mss/TgYG_yBF1ZI/AAAAAAAAAA4/QbXCp3Evff4/s320/Battery.JPG" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Yeah. Fresh battery. I got it last night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> The laptop's alive again. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Pure. Happiness. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Meh. I'll make a real post later. I'm too deeply rooted in laptop world right now to do anything else, so this'll have to do for now.</span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764543262247885301.post-39606640955472059982011-06-22T14:43:00.001-05:002011-06-22T14:49:25.422-05:00Typed-vs.-Handwritten<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Sad news. My laptop battery's dead. Like, <em>dead </em>dead, as in <em>This thing won't charge even if I plug it in, and I am officially going to die. </em></span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://laptopreviewshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/dead_laptop_battery.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://laptopreviewshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/dead_laptop_battery.jpg">[Photo credit link]</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Scratch that. It's been like this for about a week now -- we couldn't order my new battery while everybody was at Falls Creek, so it got pushed off. I'm pretty sure it's been ordered, but by now I'm half-dead. It's like some natural extension of my hands has been lopped off, you know?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Okay, so I probably seem a little . . . I hesitate to say "dramatic," but sure, something like that. Really, though, this is a majorly bad situation. I write with my laptop. Blog with it. That's where all the pictures I've taken go (I take a <em>lot </em>of photos), and I can't upload more and clear out my camera's memory card until the laptop's back. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Basically, everything revolves around the laptop. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> So all this woe's got me thinking. I used to do everything by hand, before I got my computer. I could've used the house computer, and I occasionally used the desktop that used to be in my room -- but I usually chose to do things by hand. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> On one hand, that makes some sense. I wasn't committed to a single story concept back then, so I never really typed things to print them out. Obviously, notebooks are a heck of a lot more portable than desktop computers, so there's that. And I was only writing for myself at that point -- no one else ever read my stuff, which I'm thankful for now --, so there was no reason to type it up to print. (Not to mention the issue of trying to blog with a notebook. Let me know how that one works out, all right?)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> But now I simply can't function without computers. Instead of scribbling out whole lines of handwriting, I say hello the the Backspace button. Copying, pasting, spellcheck. Emailing the document, and not having to type it all out again later on after writing it in my notebook. I can type faster than I can write things out, and there's always the plethora of fonts out there to choose from. I'm a total font nerd, so that makes most of the decision for me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> I've heard that writing by hand gets your creative juices flowing better than typing, but that doesn't hold any weight for me. Maybe it's because I'm used to all things digital, but things just seem smoother with typing. It's easier, less of a hassle. Especially on laptop keys -- my fingers are a lot more prone to stumble when I'm using a regular keyboard. And while I really don't care about it, I'm sure I make tree-hugging hippes proud of the paper I save.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Until I print it all out, of course. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> Of course, I'm not saying I don't like doing things by paper. I always print my manuscript out for editing -- I catch a lot more mistakes that way --, and if I'm writing poetry, I actually prefer paper. (Not sure why, but whatever.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"> But everyone's different. What do you prefer -- keyboard, or notebook? </span>Jenna Blake Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12348472716158899465noreply@blogger.com3