In February, we’re going to look at setting in Tara Ison’s novel “Rockaway.” We’ll look at whether and how the location and setting compliments or contrasts the story’s plot and creates the mood of the book. What details paint the atmosphere? In providing a home for the story to unfold, does the setting itself almost […]
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Writer’s Book Club: Simple, elegant prose
Jason Mott’s “The Returned” has been praised for it’s simple, elegant prose. A great story idea told in elegant prose is worth the read. And if it’s worth the read then we better dissect it to see how he achieved what he did. Join me and the rest of the Writer’s Book Club on January […]
Character Motivation in Memoir
Writing life as a story is akin to a sculpting a statue from a block of stone.You need some way to filter the events of your life so you know what to include and what to leave out. So ask yourself, what is my motivation for telling this story? What do I want to say? […]
Character Motivation in Fiction
Character motivation drives a short-term and a long-term goal. The short term goal is the plot goal which drives the book. What does your character want? What gets in the way (conflict)? The long-term goal can be said to fulfill the question: What does your character need? Whether your character changes or not, if you […]
Book Club – Backstory
In our September book club, we’ll tackle the issue of backstory by reading The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian, a novel that takes place in two different time periods. As the mystery of the current time period (1955) plays out, World War II 1943 and ’44 play out as events during the war […]
Show Me the Senses
“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” Anton Chekhov “Literature offers feelings for which we do not have to pay.” Janet Burroway Vivid writing makes use of imagery, description and sense feelings to show, not tell. When the writer immerses into the scene in a deep […]