Yvette Keller's Blog, page 23

Wien…er, schnitzel

Overcoming jet lag by adding a quick two-day visit to Vienna probably wasn’t the best plan. It just made me sad to leave. The visit was relaxing, welcoming, and left me desperately wishing I had more time to spend.

Mark and I waved goodbye to our driver in CA on a Tuesday afternoon. We arrived midday Wednesday to the most user-friendly airport ever. Look at the couches!

Vienna Airport Couches

We took a cab to our hotel, which turned out to be near the Russian consulate and within view of a b...

The Picture Game: A Sample Entry

I thought I would start giving you more samples of my writing. To be honest, I wrote for 10 and edited/added for 20 minutes. Here’s an example of what I write when I’m playing the picture game.

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The Picture Game is a daily writing exercise for anyone who wants to participate. The rules are easy.

1 Pick a picture posted on the page.
2 Set a timer for 10 minutes.
3 Take no more than 30 seconds to just look at the picture.
4 In a notebook or new word pro...

Trust the Process. Follow the Process. Do NOT skip any step in the process.

In my work-life, I continue to learn the difference between an amateur voice actor and a professional one. Amateurs may “know” what to do, but haven’t repeated the process enough times (or recently enough) to do a task without a checklist, cheat sheet, or laborious pre-work.

Professionals have gone through the process so frequently and fastidiously that they couldn’t skip a step even if they wanted to. They get a sinking feeling in their guts that tells them, “Hey! Heads-up! Something’s miss...

What’s Casper The Friendly Ghost Got To Do With This?

A day after my post about ending friendships and not wanting to be “ghosted,” the brilliant Emily wrote a piece offering an opposing viewpoint. I’m reposting it below and coining a new term: Diablog. (might not be new. didn’t bother checking)

I strive to be fair and have open discussions about important things. Like childhood cartoons.

What was Casper’s problem?

He desperately wanted friends, but everyone was scared of him because he was a ghost. I relate to that so deeply. I mean, I wasn’t...

Writing Out (of) Friendships

“A friend is someone who helps you move.

A good friend is someone who helps you move a body.

A best friend brings their own shovel.”

-Unknown Author (but wow, internet, a lot of people have used it for a long time)

 

Choked up, chest constricted like the onset of a heart attack, my eyes popped open. I rolled onto my side, cuddled the warmth of my sleeping husband, and reviewed the nightmare, breathing deeply.

It isn’t a good way to wake up. Terrified by self-loathing and an avalanche of depr...

Finnemore Fridays: Interdivention

 

Anything we humans can do, we can do a little too much of. This week, a blogger friend, Emily Randolph-Epstein, wrote a post asking for help with her tendency to hyper focus, sometimes on the wrong things. I replied in the comments, and she found it useful. Her post, and my response to it, made me think of this sketch. And not only because Emily might be one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, but because sometimes we need our close friends to give us much needed perspective. Or…maybe we...

More Castles with Emily Randolph-Epstein: My Life as a Fairy Tale Character

If you are subscribed to my monthly newsletter you’ve seen a few snapshots of Mark and me touring castles in Germany and heard what I thought about cruising. If you are not a subscriber, you can sign up here, or read the wonderful post below about someone else’s experience of the castle tour.

My over-simplified view is that castles were built atop hills across Europe for two main reasons: 1) power base 2) safety. Defensible structures of stone, with 360-degree visibility, allowed the Haves t...

Story Prompts for Non-Verbal Thinkers, Part 2

I don’t experience the same hesitation with verbal prompts that Mark does. Generally, words of any kind spring to life as pictures in my head. However “image inspiration” is one of my favorite approaches to writing prompts. When Mark wanted to offer tips about what works for him, I knew I could jump in with some suggestions of my own.

Flickr
Mark says, “I sometimes go to the Flickr.com “explore” page, and just scroll around, or do a search for a particular thing or idea, or even a character’...

Finnemore Friday: Narrative Protection

This is still a blog about writing and narrating, so this week let’s talk about those things. I have a book to narrate that is set in England, filled with British characters. Listening to John Finnemore and his team makes me slightly less terrified as I consider prepping for the job. They are amazing examples of the highest quality acting and voice work. I can pick apart the performances: What was the attitude there? How did she change that placement? Oooh, I know that voice, but the pace is...

Story Prompts For Non-Verbal Thinkers, Part 1

This week’s guest post is courtesy of Mark Bessey. Mark is renowned among his acquaintances as a teller of funny stories. Lucky for us, he has finally decided to write them down. He blogs about software issues at Another Day in The Code Mines.

 

It’s accepted wisdom, maybe even a truism, that writers love words. But some writers are not inherently verbal thinkers. For me, whether I’m trying to work out a plot point, or imagine a scene, I usually start with a visual impression. I see a little...