#NaNoWriMo2015-Get to the Heart of Your Story (writing tip #29)

I’m finishing some work at my desk tonight, listening to Eva Cassidy’s gorgeous cover of Cyndi Lauper’s aching “Time After Time”. Cassidy performed this version at the Blues Alley club in Georgetown, DC, ten months and one day before her death. She was 33 when she died from melanoma in 1996. “Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick, And think of you …” Lauper’s song and this recording by Cassidy overflow with yearning. Writers understand there is no story without yearning. Take five minutes to listen to Cassidy’s recording. It’s hard to listen only once. Look up Lauper’s lyrics …

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#NaNoWriMo2015-Get to the Heart of Your Story (writing tip #28)

When I fall in love with a book it is because I experience the story as if it lives and breathes inside me; I can summon and recall the evocative and pivotal images as clearly as if I’d been there. Because I am there, each time I dive into a story I love, I participate as a reader and the most powerful images are a dance of the visual and the visceral. Make wise use of the pivotal images of the story you are writing. What is the opening image of your story? Visualize your hero just as the story …

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The Loose Novelist

This advice from Alan Watt’s wise how-two, THE 90-DAY NOVEL: “I didn’t try to figure out the ending, but rather, imagined a sense of my hero at the end of the story. How was he relating differently to his father? What had he come to understand as a result of his journey? How was the dilemma resolved? What was the visual metaphor, the image that captured the essence of my story at the end? As I pondered these questions, ideas came to me, and I realized that they were a goldmine of images for what preceded the ending. Imagining our …

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While On Vacation

This year’s beach read–Horton Hatches the Egg–inspired by daughter Pearl, reminds me of the value of studying children’s stories for classic structure. Cinderella is the usual choice, but I recommend Horton as a great example of “only trouble is interesting”. Horton undergoes countless trials as he waits for the egg to hatch. In the end, still loyal 100%, Horton emerges a true hero–and a Dad to boot! From the northern California coast, wishing you happy creating.

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Attachments,Yearning, and Chocolate Bunny

My five-year-old daughter took a camping trip with her dad this weekend. They returned home early–both with colds–in part because it never stopped raining. This morning, when we searched for Chocolate Bunny, Pearl’s most treasured stuffy was nowhere to be found. Pearl tearfully remembered that she and her five-year-old friend Hawk had taken Chocolate Bunny out to play just before departure from the campground. And, yes, she thought he might have been left behind. It was a heart-rending moment for all of us. Pearl began to weep, her grief deep and real. We went into action, calling a company in …

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