Showing posts with label descriptions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label descriptions. Show all posts

March 29, 2019

Writing a AH-HA moment.

the insecure writers group
Help - just deleted my whole post - I'm going off to cry for a while and will be back to rewrite!

So a couple of days have passed, of course I forgotten what I was writing about the AH-HA moment. YES!

What scene do I always want help describing without giving away the ending and to keep the read interested.

The scene in every story, the scene where the character is hit, smacked, or dumped on the head by the premise of the whole story, The moment the character realizes, why the journey, mystery, adventure, or the quest in the first place. How all the bumps, detours, battles, arguements, and questions make sense. Why character is driven for a conclusion. The moment the whole fits together for the character without giving the plot away, and the audience stays connected to the stroy until the end!

Read other blogs on IWSG.
I have designed a fact sheet as my helper.

At the defining moment of AH-HA describe the charater:

What does the character look like?
What is the character doing?
How does the character move?
What does this character feel?
How are the feelings conveyed?

This 'FREEZE FRAME' moment is the character seen by the storyteller, writer, or film director and not the audience.

December 21, 2017

Interview, Part 9 - FIRE, the Hunger

The best question, how does the storyteller work up their stories.

First to find stories liked, then print them out, and read over and over to see if plots are suitable. Then I make what I called a ‘Summary Page’: how long the story is, my first sentence, my last sentence, a summary of the plot, and where I told the story, adding notes about the telling that I need to remember. 


If I have enough stories on a theme like the FIRE stories, I make a frame, bridge, or a segue through them. That means I plot out each story; have 'character bios' as on FIRE, humans, gods, hummingbird, beaver, Grandma Spider, monkeys, hunters, Bertha Digby. Then make a 'motivation sheet' on each character about their driving concerns that moves the plot forward to the next story. 


The beginning, the gods have FIRE and humans and animals want its warmth and light. So, the middle events: Hummingbird gives to the Pines, Beaver gives to all trees, Grandma Spider throws light to the night sky. Until the climax event, a hunter steals the FIRE from the monkeys to the final event, FIRE burns up the forest. The ending conclusion, Bertha Digby replants the forest for all of us.

If you join my newsletter called the EVENTING. . ., I talk about writing and storytelling. As a new subscriber, you receive the Story Charts used for plotting, character motivation, scenes, framing or the segue, with the bonus of the hero’s journey. There are 12 charts in all. The charts were compiled from storytellers, who shared how they organize their stories. I give this information to whoever wants to craft their best stories to tell or write, please honor this.


November 7, 2016

Interview on wattpad.com

Interview by Seth_Kiven, Cortlan Blakely, on wattpad.com

1) What is your favorite genre to read?
Wattpadian Interviews
My favor genre in non-fiction nature, ancient cultures, and modern places, things, and ideas. Non-fiction opens the doors to many possibilities. To balance this genre, I read traditional folktales, faery tales, and legends and myths from around the world.

2) What is your favorite genre to write?
Fantasy is my favorite because I can create a world and characters that fit a theme or premise I want to speak about or prove, and the readers enjoy the metaphors and analogies plus they can view the story through a world they created.

3)   How did you find Wattpad?
 All started out at RedBook, out of San Francisco, one of the first website for authors to show their works, bio, etc. Of course, I was slow and my first book, Rhyonna's Fright, took a long time to write and in the meantime, RedBook (Craigslist owned them) sold to a Canadian company and became wattpad.com as we know it. I came on board as an add-in, 'join or not.' So I joined and has taken me a long time to learn how to use with all the different updates. There is Scribd., which does same and more with a controlled looks and felt hard, too much from too many, so I stayed with Wattpad.com.

4) What are some of your interests outside of Wattpad.com?
My interests outside of wattpad.com. First, is my family, husband, son and daughter their marriage partners, my grandchildren, my brother, his wife, their children, and my pets: dog Elvis, and cats Agarus and Sasha! Next is outside in the air to experience: nature, weather, gardening, walking, and just sitting and working in a garden, which is a form of my exercise. Then my friends are very important; they show what I know and where I’ve been and where I’m going.
  
5) What kind of music do you listen to?
Music, there are so many styles. Music, I think helps with the story theme and genre. For Rhyonna’s Fright, I listened to Celtic and Irish music, which gave a faery feeling; then for the horror scenes Tangerine Orange; the lively scenes Reggae, and for flying a more flighty feeling with NewWave music.

6) What is your dream job?
My dream job is to be a famed Artist, in mixed media. When I readied for college, my mom would not hear of me applying to an Art School as a graphic artist, which was not women’s work and would not make money. A teaching certificate was only possible. So, out went the artist in come the teacher! I did take as many art classes as I could. I lasted about 13 years as a teacher: first grade, Kindergarten, art teacher, then a home pre-school teacher. I stuffed art into whatever I taught. Now art is in my writing. Creating is important in our lives and keeps us balanced, no matter what type.

7) Who is your role model or who would you want to be?
My role model was my sixth-grade teacher, Miss Owen; she had an art studio in the back of her room. I started reading then. Who would I be if I could, of course, the altruistic person: professional, considerate, educated, open-minded, cheery, authentic, understanding, trusting, giving value to others, famous, an authority in creativity.

8) In your opinion, what is the coolest thing in the world? (Object, Activity, Person, Place)
The coolest, fun thing in the world is movement: dancing, swimming, walking, skipping, hiking, climbing, sweeping, raking, walking up stairs and down, biking, not running! I wish I could fly. I do fly in my head; most of my dancing, I performed inside my imagination.
 I good!

9) What's the backstory to ‘Rhyonna’s Fright’?
When I was a child in Colorado Springs, CO, I live by Fountain Creek, which is now a freeway. My brother and I with friends would swing across the creek on metal cables hung in the cottonwood trees by the workers who laid the Golden Cycle Railroad from the mill up to Cripple Creek, CO where the gold was. The mill then closed was on the hill up beyond the creek, now with houses sitting on moving sand from the milling. At the creek, the faeries flutter with the other woodland spirits beside horses, frogs, snakes, birds and the little minions that lived there. That is where I met my faery who has traveled with me. I got her on paper after about 35 years of trying to get her to settle, which she did on a dandelion, and her name became Rhyonna.

10) Why do you like to write on Wattpad.com, and what drives you to finish?
The community talks to each other with personal comments. One wonderful place to meet all ages, all genres --> writers, all wording rough draft stories. My followers drive me to a finish a book because they are interested in reading, vote, and leave constructive comments, must different that other social media sites.

 Seth_Kiven’, Cortlan Blakely, on wattpad.com receive Rhyonna’s Fright FREE from Smashwords.com  with the code, ZN72G (not case-sensitive). 


August 1, 2016

Describing fantasy characters or beasts!

in the air, a plant seed spirit floats
in the air, a seed spirit floats
the plant spirit lands and sets out roots
landing, the spirit  grows
When describing a fantasy character think movement. Move their wings, feet, arms, faces, ears, eyes, heads around in your mind as you see the beastie. Then think of the voice or noise it makes. Best of all, become the creature; you are the actor: stand up, and talk, move as you want the creature to act. The more you move, the more you speak as the character or beastie, the better your description of the character in your verbal telling as well as your written words. When you charge the looks or emotions of a fantasy character, put in hints of the movements and voice, you visualize. Seed us clues along the way to create surprise. (Remember, do not describe all at once, which is boring and has no suspense). All of us have some idea how to visualize a griffin, dragon, monster, wizard or witch, warrior or princess in our minds; we need just a bit of your imagined details and off we go into our minds to enjoy your story.