Why people can’t hear you OR how to write wicked dialogue
1. Fancy words hide your message Marie Forleo’s video, 5 Reasons People Don’t Take You Seriously, shows how we get in the way of our message, and what to do about it. My writer-mind couldn’t help thinking how to use these tips in reverse. Inside a novel, conflict built on miscommunication is quite fun. Here […]
Why we need broken things: lowering the risk of creation
Accepting imperfection is part of what makes us human. I’ve watched this video about the beauty of mistakes about five times already. I first saw it in a great Coursera course about creativity. Neil Gaiman’s commencement address says something similar: make mistakes and make good art. Moving from one country to another with my family, […]
Think, Act, Speak: What order makes character reactions feel real?
Download graphic Infographic for Motivation Reaction Units. The best order for character reactions is feeling/thought, action (involuntary or voluntary), speech. You don’t have to include all the reactions every time, but they should be in this order. The reader will be able to take in the story with the least amount of friction. Do you […]
Exploring the Imagination: Fictional Characters From Art Museums
See the trailer for the exhibit here: https://youtu.be/tTFOSzpqaPI/ The stunning poster drew me in for the latest exhibit in Düsseldorf’s Museum Kunstpalast. It was called “Zurbarán: Meister der Details” [Master of Details] and features 16th-century full-size portraits by the Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664). My first reaction to the poster was: “There she is!” […]
A Novel Way for Young Readers to Relate to Faith?
Last week, my husband and I visited Marburg, the town where we first met. In 2017, Marburg joined many cities in Germany in a celebration of Martin Luther and the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Belief, politics, power all mixed together to shape Europe’s history. Events were planned all over Germany. The Playmobil company even […]
5 New Publishing Tools from the 2015 Frankfurt Book Fair
The International Self-Publishing and Author Programme at the Frankfurt Book Fair was on Saturday, October 17th. Here are five new tools I discovered: (1) BookTrack is a tool that lets you add a soundtrack to your story or novel. Here’s a YouTube overview of how it works and a brief sample of what it feels […]
What’s in a reversal? Exploring Leigh Bardugo’s RUIN AND RISING.
What bubbles to the surface? Geothermal activity at Maria Laach caldera in Germany. ©Laurel Decher, 2015. Just finished reading Leigh Bardugo’s RUIN AND RISING, the 3rd book of her Grisha trilogy. If you haven’t read it, go read. (Note: This is a YA, not a middle grade title.) SPOILER ALERT. Last night, I stopped reading […]
Exploring the world of Angie Sage’s MAGYK and FLYTE
What is reading but wandering inside of other people’s magical spells? Join me in this exploration of middle grade books (ages 9 to 12): Magyk by Angie Sage, Flyte by Angie Sage, and Jinx by Sage Blackwood.
Four Paintings for Writers in Cologne’s Wallraf Museum
The magical inscription on this painting reads: “We cannot lay her in the dark earth,” said the dwarfs and so they had a transparent glass coffin made so that she could be seen from every side laid her in it and wrote on it her name and that she was a kings daughter. Then they […]
Solve writing jitters the same way you solve speaking Jitters
Writing jitters mean that what you are writing is making you nervous or uncertain. Jitters go away when you move to let the energy out. Then you can come back to your project, refreshed, and start again.
Pitches and Promises: making our writing visible
Pitches and promises that align the story, the agent, the publisher, the reader and ourselves will make our work visible. Last year, I participated in some writing contests for queries and for pitches and for the first 250 words and 5-page excerpts. Agent feedback surprised me: “If you use a comp title I love, I […]
Writing Process Blog Tour
It’s fun to follow the epic and perhaps infinite Writing Process Blog Tour backwards. My favorite description is by Bethany Hegedus. “[T]his collection of blog posts offers tips of the trade, confessions on what makes a writer’s process unique.” Thanks to Jenni Enzor who tagged me for the Tour. Jenni’s a member of the Society […]