A good story is told; a powerful story is felt. In every scene you write ask yourself what your viewpoint character is feeling, and if your viewpoint is deep or immersive enough so readers can feel it too. Breath by breath. Limb by limb.
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Jessica Page Morrell' Category
First paragraph: Happiness Falls: A Novel by Angie Kim
Chapter One Lock, Bach, and K-pop We didn’t call the police right away. Later, I would blame myself, wonder if things would have turned out differently if I hadn’t shrugged it off, insisted Dad wasn’t missing but was just delayed probably still in the woods looking for Eugene, thinking he’d run off somewhere. Mom says it […]
Read the rest of this entry »First Paragraphs: The Paper Palace, Miranada Cowley Heller
Things come from nowhere. The mind is empty, and then, inside a frame, a pear. Perfect, green, the stem atilt, a single leaf. It sits in a white ironstone bowl, nestled among the limes, in the center of a weathered picnic table, on an old screen porch, at the edge of a pond, deep in […]
Read the rest of this entry »So when people say poetry is a luxury…
So when people say poetry is a luxury, or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or that it shouldn’t be read at school because it is irrelevant, or any of the strange and stupid things that are said about poetry and its place in our lives, I suspect that people doing the saying […]
Read the rest of this entry »Inspired Openings
The day is starting under a smudged sky and I’m happy to report rain arrived last week–a lovely relief in our baked, thirsty part of the world. And autumn is in full swing–halleluja. Yesterday I walked along leaf-strewn paths on a small nearby mountain and while it’s covered mostly in Douglas fir trees, the big […]
Read the rest of this entry »Marie Kroyer: an artist’s tale
In case you needed some quiet beauty today, this painting is called The Orange Glass Jug and Green Cutting. It was painted in 1894 by Marie Kroyer Let me pass along some information about Kroyer. I’ve been learning about the Skagen Painters lately and am fascinated by this flourishing artist colony who were part of […]
Read the rest of this entry »Make Your Character Out of Sync and Uncomfortable
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 »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, […]
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