Tension must be intricately laid throughout a story, not just appearing in moments of distress or while a character strives for a goal. A great trick for inducing a constant underlying tension is to portray your protagonist as uneasy, uncomfortable, or at odds in each scene. She can be hot, cold, bored, nervous, lonely, hungry, […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Jessica Page Morrell' Category
It’s a Calling, Margaret Atwood
It’s not a profession, this track you’re on. It’s a vocation – a calling. There’s no pension plan, there are no guarantees, and there’s no magic potion. What you’ve chosen to do is brave and risky, but it’s also necessary – increasingly necessary as we move into a future for which no one, right now, […]
Read the rest of this entry »Stories are Like Life Rafts
Autumn is whispering to me. It reached 92 today and 100 is forecast for tomorrow, but regardless of the coming temperatures, the seasonal change is beginning around here with burnished colors. Last week I camped–in a tent–and woke early with the temperature a brisk 46 degrees. Unfortunately, campfires aren’t allowed now in Oregon parks because […]
Read the rest of this entry »Leaving Home, Portals and Thresholds
After a fabulous thunderstorm last weekend, the weather quieted and more rain arrived, a rarity in August. Be still my grateful heart. I’ve even kept my windows open all day a few times. I’m gardening in the mornings and battling moles–and if I might add, they are worthy adversaries. During the last heat wave I […]
Read the rest of this entry »You could be writing the book that changes your life. The spark could be starting a fire for you as well. You don’t know, and you can’t know. That is the thrill of being an artist, of working for yourself, and of telling the stories you want to tell. Don’t give up. ~ Brandon Sanderson
Read the rest of this entry »Blue Sturgeon Moon Wonderings
I was moon gazing last night because I couldn’t sleep so plunked down on my front steps looking up at it’s pearly face and endless mystery. I’d recently returned a manuscript and memo to a client and so my thoughts drifted to her story and characters. And just for fun, I imagined Kate the protagonist […]
Read the rest of this entry »Secrets are the enduring motor that make fiction run: what you aren’t telling me, what I’m keeping from you, what the neighbors know about the love affair. ~ Rebecca Makkai
Read the rest of this entry »August–how are you going to spend your one wild and precious life?
The Summer Day ….I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doen’t […]
Read the rest of this entry »As this world becomes increasingly ugly, callous and material it needs to be reminded that the old fairy stories are rooted in truth, that the imagination is of value, that happy endings do, in fact, occur, and the blue spring mist that makes an ugly street look beautiful is just as real a thing as […]
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