Handshakes communicate dominance, submission, or equality. When hands meet, if one person turns his or her palm facing down, it’s called the Upper Hand and means that person wants control of the meeting. The submissive handshake is from the person whose palm faces upward. In social situations, women often offer a soft handshake to men […]
Your Characters’ Handwriting
Vimala Rodgers wrote a book called Change Your Handwriting, Change Your Life. The description on the back cover, states that handwriting is “a road map to the psyche, a clear path through the winding labyrinth of our personality. Every loop and flourish reveals an attitude, each line and slant displays a quality.” Several years ago, […]
Characters’ Decisions
As writers we have to put our main character in tight spots where decisions have to be made. We make the decision harder when there are no right answers. The character has to weigh what is better between two actions where neither one is guaranteed to turn out right. The deep tension, which is more […]
Blog Hop Continues with Elaine Schmitz
In my participation in the blog hop during the last couple weeks, I tagged Elaine Schmitz whose post about her work in progress, Price of Independence, follows. You can visit her at http://www.elaineschmitz-writer.com Her previously published book, Recipes & Recollections of My Greek-American Family, is available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Elaine+schmitz&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AElaine+schmitz I’m on a blog hop! Sort […]
Five Author Quotes For Inspiration
Lisa See says, “Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.” How many of you have read her Snow Flower and the Secret Fan or my favorite, Peony in Love? I met her at the San Francisco Writers Conference a few years ago. She’s friendly and talked about how she frequently […]
When Characters Take Over the Story
If we imagine a boxing ring with our antagonist in one corner and the protagonist in the other corner, who is the referee? The writer is. Lani Longshore, co-author of Death by Chenille and When Chenille is Not Enough (science fiction genre about quilters saving the world from aliens disguised as bolts of beige fabric), […]
Character Paradoxes
In Karl Iglesias’ book, Writing Emotional Impact, he suggests using paradoxes to create complex and fascinating characters. Paradoxes in characters are conflicting traits, contradictions within themselves. For example a character wants to find true love, yet is suspicious of men. A mother might plan to retire in Hawaii, the goal of her life, but her […]