Describing Emotions in Novels - novelwritingsite The definition of excellent story telling is transporting the reader into the minds of the characters within. If the reader feels no emotional empathy with the characters, the story will fall flat. Describing emotions effectively will bode well for the novel. How to Describe Emotions An abstract noun is the labelling of a cerebral concept that is not solid and cannot be seen. Creative Story Writing with Emotion Words The word "love" has many connotations. Rather than take the easy route of using abstract nouns to describe an emotion, it would be a better idea to describe exactly what it feels like without using the label. "Jess sat in the small room feeling anxious and claustrophobic. Here, the reader has been spoon fed labels for the sensations but not what they felt like: claustrophobic, anxious, panic attack, frightened. "Jess knew she had been held in this room for almost a month but didn’t care to know the exact number of days. Suspense Writing Clichés must be avoided at all costs.
Fiction Technique Tip: Writing Clearly As you write your novel, always remember that it is for your readers. That sounds obvious, yet many novelists are not considerate of their readers. What do I mean by being considerate? 1. which character you’re writing about the time the place It is especially important to do this in a novel with multiple viewpoint characters. At six o’clock Monday morning, Mark was pulling into InterCom’s parking lot. Ellen gazed up at the soaring office building, wondering which floor Darren’s office was on. 2. Here are two examples from the novel Disclosure , by Michael Crichton. Example #1: He looked over his shoulder. Example #2: . . . “Call him back.” The most important thing to remember as you write your novel is that it’s not only OK but vital that you be clear at all times . . . and that it’s also OK to be straightforward about it. Readers will complain when a novel is too complicated or unclear.
100 Best Novels ULYSSES by James Joyce Written as an homage to Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, Ulysses follows its hero, Leopold Bloom, through the streets of Dublin. Overflowing with puns, references to classical literature, and stream-of-consciousness writing, this is a complex, multilayered novel about one day in the life of an ordinary man. Initially banned in the United States but overturned by a legal challenge by Random House’s Bennett Cerf, Ulysses was called “a memorable catastrophe” (Virginia Woolf), “a book to which we are all indebted” (T. S. Click here to read more about ULYSSES THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Set in the Jazz Age, The Great Gatsby tells the story of the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby, his decadent parties, and his love for the alluring Daisy Buchanan. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce Published in 1916, James Joyce’s semiautobiographical tale of his alter ego, Stephen Dedalus, is a coming-of-age story like no other. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov U.S.A. In E.
How To Write Character Emotion: ANGER JOIN THE DISCUSSION AT "Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been before--it takes something from him." ~Louis L'amour According to Webster's Dictionary, anger is: "a feeling of displeasure and hostility resulting from injury, mistreatment, opposition, etc." Synonyms include: animosity, annoyance, antagonism, exasperation, fury, hatred, indignation, ire, rage, and violence. Even with a brief look at quotes, definitions and synonyms, it's easy to see that anger has many sides. So how do we write anger to show these differences? The easy way out is to tell: "Jim was angry." The next easy way out is to express anger in tired cliches: mad as an old wet hen, mad as a hornet, etc. Even when using body language and facial expression, it's easy to fall back on tried and true phrases: yelling, slamming doors, pounding fists, lips drawn into a thin line (one of the big hangups in my own writing). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
National Punctuation Day How to Plot a Character Driven Book in 3 Easy Steps | Historical Romance Author Robyn DeHart, Legend Hunters , Ladies Amateur Sleuth Society Theme & Premise: Or How to Plot a Character Driven Book in 3 Easy Steps It is said that there are two types of writers: plotters and seat of the pants writers (or fly into the mist writers). Obviously the majority of us fall somewhere in between. Step 1 – THEME. To define your theme, you need to know what theme is, so what is theme? But how do you come up with a theme out of thin air, especially if you’re doing this with a book you haven’t even written yet? So now you have your theme, let’s move on to Step 2 – PREMISE/CHARACTER LESSON. This is the biggie for me when I’m doing my prewriting. Character lesson or premise is just what it sounds like: what does your character need to learn? Which brings me right into Step 3 – CHARACTER ARC. Now comes the plotting. So you have a character who is at Point A (believing her past dictates her future) and needs to get to Point B (accepting her past and allowing herself a future). That’s it. Let’s face it, writing will never be easy. Share this page
Ink - Quotes about writing by writers presented by The Fontayne Group Writing "I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark." Henry David Thoreau "Writing is an adventure." Winston Churchill "Know something, sugar? Stories only happen to people who can tell them." "Whether or not you write well, write bravely." "The first rule, indeed by itself virtually a sufficient condition for good style, is to have something to say." How To Write a Death Scene | Writerly Life People often visit Creative Writing Corner searching for answers about how to write a death scene, so it’s about time that I gave my thoughts about it. I was first given the assignment to write a death scene as a stand-alone piece when I was a freshman in college, in my very first creative writing class. I chose to write a creative non-fiction piece about a relative of mine. The piece ended up being fairly successful; it was published in my college newspaper and I received a lot of very kind comments about it. Here are a few things I learned from that writing experience: For someone witnessing the death of a beloved person, the scene is not just about the way the person is going. After the jump: more things to do in a death scene. It’s very easy to get cheesy in a death scene, instantly robbing your story of its tenderness and emotion. What made people respond to my written piece and call it poignant weren’t the heavy-handed bits or the sweeping generalizations, but the details.
Quotable Quotes on Writers and Writing These quotes come from a variety of sources, and due to my laxness, I haven't bothered to document their origins (nor am I likely to start now). If you'd like to find out who said what when, there are several on-line sources, as well as print sources (i.e., Bartlett's) for that sort of thing. Otherwise, you'll just have to take my word for it that I didn't just make them up. Remember: this is the web, not a refereed literary journal or the New York Times. To view the quotes, either scroll down the page, or if you're looking for a quote by someone in particular, click on the first letter of his or her last name. If you've got a good quote you'd like to contribute, if you see a shameless typo on my part, or if you've just got a comment to make, send it to jon@logicalcreativity.com. I love deadlines. - Douglas Adams There are two kinds of writer: those that make you think, and those that make you wonder. - Brian Aldiss A writer should say to himself, not, How can I get more money? - Anonymous
Novel Writing Tips & Fundamentals – Storyfix.com short stories at east of the web A game of Scrabble has serious consequences. - Length: 4 pages - Age Rating: PG - Genre: Crime, Humor A semi-barbaric king devises a semi-barabaric (but entirely fair) method of criminal trial involving two doors, a beautiful lady and a very hungry tiger. - Length: 7 pages - Genre: Fiction, Humor ‘Bloody hell!’ - Genre: Humor Looking round he saw an old woman dragging a bucket across the floor and holding a mop. - Length: 3 pages Henry pours more coal onto the hearth as a gust of wind rattles through the cracked window frame. - Length: 14 pages - Genre: Horror ulissa Ye relished all the comfortable little routines and quietude defining her part-time job at The Bookery, downtown’s last small, locally-owned bookstore. - Length: 8 pages - Age Rating: U The forest looked ethereal in the light from the moon overhead. - Length: 15 pages - Age Rating: 18 Corporal Earnest Goodheart is crouched in a ditch on the edge of an orchard between Dunkirk and De Panne. - Genre: Fiction - Length: 20 pages