How did you determine what to name your characters? Did the names just pop into your head? Did you change the names often? Did you look up their meanings? In my multidimensional novel, Norman in the Painting, I choose the first or second name that came to me. I decided to look up their meanings […]
Rhetorical Device Chiasmus
The Rhetorical Device, Chiasmus means repetition of ideas in inverted order. For example: “It is boring to eat; to sleep fulfilling.” Chiasmus frequently uses the pattern above which is present participle-infinitive; infinitive-present participle. Other examples: “The instinct of a man is to pursue everything that flies from him, and to fly from all that pursues him.” (Voltaire) “Bad men live that they […]
Music and Memory
When I taught elementary school and special education classes, I used music in the background most of the day and rhythm music with the younger students to learn ABC’s, months of the year, math facts, etc. Research has shown that music helps memory. On Thanksgiving, we had lunch with a friend and her extended family. […]
Black Friday Shoppers
Margaret Atwood Quotes
“Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like paté.” -Margaret Atwood, novelist and poet “In the end, we all become stories.” “In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” “Water does not resist. Water flows. When you […]
Mystery Dinners at Restaurants
Have you gone to a mystery dinner at a restaurant? I’ve been to two in the last decade. My first experience was great. The dining room had booths on all sides with tables in the center. The actors walked around the diners, clearly advancing the plot with clues about “who done it” and a bit […]
Is Your Character Addicted to Being Right?
If any of your characters are addicted to being right, they would rather be right than happy. They have to have the last word in an argument and proving their point of view takes precedent over listening to others. Even after being shown they are wrong, they still search for ways to prove their point […]