Fairytales are more than moral lessons and time capsules for cultural commentary, they are natural law. The child raised on folklore will quickly learn the rules of crossroads and lakes, mirrors and mushroom rings. They’ll never eat or drink of a strange harvest or insult an old woman or fritter away their name as if […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Jessica Page Morrell' Category
Setting Details Catagorize
I’ve been sitting in my armchair with my laptop and a cup of Earl Grey watching the sunrise decorate the horizon through Douglas firs. I know the colors I’m looking at have a scientific basis–when the sun is low at sunrise and sunset, sunlight needs to travel farther through more of the atmoshphere than during […]
Read the rest of this entry »Building Storyland, 2
Place matters. With your opening words the setting signals readers that they’ve now entered storyland. Signals readers that a story— part wonder, part participation located in an ordinary or treasured or troubled realm⎼⎼is unfolding. It means readers will have a place to land and settle in. And setting helps categorize fiction–urbanfantasy, westerns, Lovecraftian, dark fantasy, high […]
Read the rest of this entry »Building an Immersive Story World, 1
Storytelling in its many forms allows readers to enter immersive, dramatic situations, where interesting people tackle intriguing and often harrowing problems. Now these problems can be sordid or heartbreaking or seemingly hilarious–I’m remembering a Sue Grafton novel where PI Kinsey Millhone illegally enters a house and crawls in through a dog door. Not surprisingly she’s […]
Read the rest of this entry »
