Word by Word

Practical insights for writers from Jessica P Morrell

Archive for the 'Jessica Page Morrell' Category

June

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The child raised on folklore…

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 […]

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From F. Scott Fitzgerald

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May

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April

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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 […]

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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 […]

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March

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Wish I’d Written This

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