Lance Greenfield's Blog, page 73
November 3, 2015
Breathing life into your characters
I am a novice author with only one novel under my belt, but I have already experienced all of this. I used to think that authors who talked about the relationships and deep involvement that they had with their characters were just being luvvies. But I have found out for myself that it is true. I can read my own words about my own fictional character and burst into tears. I know that I am an emotional person, but it seems ridiculous. I must be crazy. I made it all up.
And it is also true about characters walking into a story and you wonder, “Where the heck did he come from? I never thought of him before I started writing today!” That happened to me in the penultimate chapter of Eleven Miles. I can’t say who it was, because that would be a bit of a spoiler if you haven’t read it yet. But if you have, perhaps you can guess?
Originally posted on Silver Threading:
Father and Daughter by susan52: DeviantArt
I’ve been thinking a lot about role models and how they influence a writer’s work; the ways this translates to our readers.
There’s a reason writers become invested in their characters, why they often refer to them as real; a living, breathing part of the world as they know it. They have a history, complex personalities, and emotional depth. For readers, if we’re lucky, this equates to a character springing to life on the page.
Regardless of the process or how much planning is involved, as writers, we draw from our environment, and our experience. We observe behaviour, ask questions, have a sensitivity to body language, and pay attention. But it’s more than that. The people we meet, those we know – we use these observations to build unique fictional people. Then we give them a place to belong.
It’s not always a conscious…
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November 1, 2015
My review- Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Prejudice is an awful blight on this world. I only have one.
See Writer’s Quote Wednesday – Prejudice.
Originally posted on Lucie Muses:
Most of us read “How to Kill a Mockingbird” and loved it, as well as the film with Gregory Peck. The author got the Pulitzer Prize for literature and the book is a part of school curriculum in many countries. Quite rightly so, it is a wonderful book.
So of course, we all got excited hearing about “Go Set a Watchman”, reported as a sequel. In fact, this is the original book Harper Lee wrote before her publisher advised her to re-write it all from a point of Jean Louise Finch -Scout-as a child.
Harper Lee listened, it was her first book. As she said in one interview: “I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told.”
The excitement about the second book soon turned into disappointment with many reviewers. The publicity was very negative. Criticism of the book being published at all, suggesting that a frail…
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October 31, 2015
NaNoWriMo 2015 – Knitting Can Walk!
One year ago, on the first of November, I embarked upon a quest to write 50,000 words in thirty days. I was nervous. I’d go so far as to say that I was scared. I wasn’t sure that I could do it, even though I had planned and plotted. As it happened, I over achieved. By the end of the month, Eleven Miles has grown to 65,000 words. I needed two more days and 5,000 more words to complete the book. It was [self-] published on 16th December and has sold quite well. The reviews on Amazon and Goodreads are pretty good too. Take a look.
Tomorrow, NaNoWriMo 2015 commences. This time, I am neither nervous nor scared. Instead, I am really excited. I have planned and plotted my second novel, Knitting Can Walk! I can’t wait to start writing about the adventures and misadventures of Calum McDougall in the early ‘seventies. It’s going to be such fun.
I’ll provide occasional updates on my blog and maybe my other blogging activities will diminish slightly. Part of my plan is to attend a three-day creative writing course at Shanklin on the Isle of Wight starting on the 20th November, followed by a few days in a cottage in South Wales with just my wife and three dogs. We’ll go walking and I will write. Success is assured.
If any authors in Southern England would care to join me for the writing course, especially if you are participating in NaNoWriMo 2015, I’d love to meet you there.
Happy writing!
Review: Dog Tails: Three Humorous Short Stories for Dog Lovers
Dog Tails: Three Humorous Short Stories for Dog Lovers by Tara Chevrestt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’d like to make two things very clear before I start my review of this excellent book.
Firstly, I am NOT thick! Just because I am Irish and mixed breed, there is no requirement to stereotype me. You humans are just too quick to do that. In fact, I am a very clever border collie, springer, and various other superior breeds, cross. You can tell that I am clever, because here I am, at nine years old, writing my first ever book review.
Secondly, I have a vested interest to declare. My Dad was sent an early copy of Dog Tails to review by his friend in Utah, who is the author, and the Mom of my three cousins, Lola, Pudgy and Jazzy. He left it lying around after he read it, and I decided that I would bound in and write up this review to save him the bother.
Well, I can tell you that I really enjoyed all three of these tail-wagging tales. Although my heart was in my mouth at times as I lived the events with the characters, I kept reminding myself that this is fiction and there was no need to be afraid. The stories really capture how we dogs feel and the things that might happen to us, day to day, if we are not careful. You have no idea!
All three were very funny indeed. I was snuffling and sniggering all the way through. At one point my large tail was wagging so extremely, that I was bruising my sides.
Humans will enjoy the stories just as much as dogs. If cats could read rather than lounge around all day, I dare say that they would enjoy reading these too. There I go: not practising what I preach. I just stereotyped cats! I am sure that there must be an active cat somewhere in the world. I just haven’t met her yet.
I have no hesitation in awarding a whole box of dog biscuits to this book. As this is a human web site, I guess I’ll just have to give it five stars too, as that’s the way you people measure these things.
I send my love to my three cousins across the ocean in Utah.
This review was pawed by Ronan (Greenfield Mitchell)
October 29, 2015
The Bush is Back and Smells Delicious
I am re-blogging this post by Chloe Thurlow, because it delights me. I have never really understood why ladies would subject themselves to such pain and irritation just so that they can look like plastic Barbie dolls or little girls who have yet to reach maturity. Bare is obscene, in my opinion. A real woman cultures a strong and beautiful bush.
Read the original post here.
The bush is back. Regrown. Soft and kinky. Neatly trimmed. A magic carpet.
Drop the lady razor in the garbage (recycling section), give the tweezers a rest and watch the garden grow.
As one who has wavered between sleek Brazilian, hairy mammoth and scalped pre-pubescent, the return of those short and curlies comes as something of a relief in every way except one, perhaps: the bank account.
Yes, the bush is back – but with new perceptions on care, attention and grooming. We wash, dry, style, mousse and fret over our hair. We are constantly nurturing our skin with unguents and oils, sun cream, anti-aging cream, eyelid cream, squirts of perfume from the Victorian atomiser…It’s not easy being a woman. Then, it’s not easy being anything else for that matter.
Jars, bottles, brushes, lipstick tubes, palettes of powder and sachets of make-up sprawl like defeated soldiers on shelves in the bathroom as if waiting for the inner alchemist to turn the base metal of the mirror’s reflection into the golden glow of Helen of Troy, the beauty whose face launched a thousand ships and plunged the Ancient World into years of war.
And yet, the frilly rug leading to our most intimate place is often snubbed, neglected, forgotten.
The Bush is Back au Natural
It struck me that the bush is back because in our consumer society where pollution is bundled in rights and traded rather than treated, where high street shops sell bras for seven year olds, where milk is poured down the drain to keep prices high, there remains a patch of humanity that had yet to be conquered by the ad man.
Ah, what irony, a girl who writes about erotica and has a conscience, who scorns new products even as she shoves her debit card into the jaws of the machine that whisks out her cash in the flick of a false eyelash. We are all prone to hypocrisy. We are all our own worst enemy. Paradox is Us.
But to get back to the bush is back, Gemma arrived from New York with a present: Fur Oil, a neat round bottle with a lemony gold emollient and a plunger like an eye-dropper that makes you think each drop is as precious as the elixir of life and it is – retailing at $39 from the website, with stores coming on board and the promise of a launch in the UK in the coming months.
Naturally, I went straight to Fur website and enjoyed the sassy introduction: ‘Few things in life are certain, but pubic hair is one of them. Fur is the first line of products that cares for pubic hair and skin.’
The three young women behind Fur – Emily and Laura Schubert and friend Lillian Tung – advise us to ‘treat our most sensitive area with more respect,’ and promise that their natural products will nourish your pubic hair… ‘and won’t stain your silk.’ That is a relief.
Note the word ‘products’ above. Along with the oil, the Fur girls have also developed a Stubble Cream for those behind the curve and still asking the question: To Cut Or Not To Be Cut?
Fur Oil smells delicious and contains nine natural oils including grape seed, jojoba, tea tree oil and clary sage seed oil – add hot water and I imagine it will taste as good as it smells. The bush is back and not before time.
I have been bold enough to re-blog Chloe’s post on my own blog and to declare my own personal preference. So now I ask you . . .
Gentlemen: Do you prefer hair or bare on your lady?
Ladies: Do you go hair or bare?
Please be bold enough to leave your comments below, even if you don’t declare your personal preference or the way that you are.
October 28, 2015
This cool track puts a wonderful image in my mind
Dylan the cool rabbit
When I was young, I loved to watch The Magic Roundabout at the end of Children’s Hour on BBC One, just before the evening news came on. My favourite character, only just ahead of Dougal, was Dylan the rabbit.
Ten years ago, Jack Johnson had a hit with Better Together. I love the song for its mood and its lyrics, but it immediately put Dylan into my mind. My vision had Dylan atop a mule, just rocking slowly in time to the music across an arid plain. He wears a hat and sucks on a piece of straw.
Cool character, cool song.
Writer’s Quote Wednesday – The Chrysalis Moment
Until yesterday afternoon, I had a quote from Sir Richard Branson lined up for Writer’s Quote Wednesday hosted by Silverthreading. I’ll keep that on in my back pocket for another day.
As I was driving home listening to the radio, I heard a quote which struck a chord with me and sent my mind whirring into its deeper meaning. Then, this morning, I spotted a blog post from Remembering Infinity which related a delightful little story from his grandmother reflecting upon that quote. You’ll find this story by following the link to Born to Fly.
I can hear you all telling me to stop waffling and give you the quote, so here it is.
What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.
Richard Bach
The quote comes from Richard Bach’s book, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, which I have yet to read. He is, of course well known to most for Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, which I loved from the moment I first read it on the train journey to commence my military training many years ago. That book is truly inspirational fiction.
It also links very well into another quote by the same author, again from Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah.
[Note to self: Read that book!]
Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished:
If you’re alive, it isn’t.
Richard Bach
And that takes me neatly back to a wonderful poem, which I recommend you turn to if every you are bereaved: Death is not the End.
So there you have my contribution for this week. The message that I take from all of this is that when all seems lost, it really isn’t. In fact, something more beautiful may emerge from the wreckage that seems to surround you. Be every hopeful.
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Remembering Infinity: Born to Fly!
Quite an amazing coincidence. Just last evening, as I was driving home listening to the radio, I heard a quote which struck a chord with me:
“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.”
— Richard Bach
Then I saw this blog post and just had to share it with you all.
Originally posted on Remembering Infinity:
Like a caterpillar, one day, we too may be surprised to find that we were born to fly!
I‘ll never forget one of my grandmother’s favorite stories–one she would often tell us grandkids when we were small. We’d usually be in the park or her rather overgrown backyard when she’d spy a wooly caterpillar on a bush or a butterfly flitting by.
“Oh,” she’d exclaim excitedly,”look at that! How beautiful!” Then she’d laugh to herself and say to us, “That reminds me of one of my favorite little stories.”
As we’d gather around to watch the little creature going about its business, she would begin.
“Once upon a time, there was a little caterpillar. Every day, he’d wake up, creep out from under the shelter of his little home among the rosebuds, and begin munching away at the leaves. Soon he’d be joined by several other caterpillars and they’d all enjoy each other’s company as they ate. Weeks went…
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Is it an Author’s Responsibility to Write a Satisfying Conclusion?
Originally posted on SC Skillman Blog:
How important is it for the ending of a novel to satisfy?
image credit writing4success.com
To what extent can an author be held responsible for this, or is it down to the heart and mind of the reader?
In 2012 I published an online article about novel endings in which I quoted Robert McKee in his excellent book Story. He describes many different types of endings, in popular films and novels. He says the main protagonist may not achieve their desire, but ‘the flood of insight that pours from the gap delivers the hoped-for emotion… in a way we could never have foreseen.’
I believe the end to a novel must satisfy, wheher it be ironic, bittersweet, tragic, creepy, heartbreaking, chilling, shocking, tantalising or fairy-tale happy.
A good end to a story may deal out poetic justice, wisdom, truth, comedy, surprise, a frisson of terror… but it should never…
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October 26, 2015
Abolish the Human Rights Act?
This is very important to the future of all UK citizens
PLEASE RE-BLOG
