The 12 Days of Christmas
Book Giveaway Contest~
Today's Giveaway:
Tuesday Night at the Blue Moon~
CLUE:
Ten Lords a-Leaping
From November 23 to December 21 we are hosting "The 12 Days of Christmas" book giveaway contest. You're right, there are more than 12 days between November 23 and December 21 ... but there are exactly 12 posting days on Novel Matters.
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Here's how to play. Find the last name of any author in the day's clue (ten lords a-leaping) (letters can be used in any order). Email us at novelmatters@gmail.com with the author's last name and a title of a novel by that author --- OR --- email us the title of a novel that contains one or more words from the clue.
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To be entered in the drawing, email us your answer. One winner will be drawn from the qualifying entries every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from now until December 21. Have fun!
Do you remember your diary? Mine was red with gold designs and had a lock with a hasp and a tiny key with a satin ribbon. Its pages held my secret desires, like my infatuation with Bobby Sherman, Mickey Dolenz, and "Bill" from school who was a shy boy with a pretty girlfriend and no eyes for me. Recording the ups and downs of adolescence in my diary was a valuable coping tool which helped me to deal with changing schools and being a seventh grade nobody. As an adult, I turned to using a journal which didn't have dated pages and didn't leave me feeling guilty if there were big gaps in time between entries, but was still there for the upheavals in life. It turns out that it's also a valuable tool for writers.
Journaling can provide scenes and details for a story. The stories we write often spring from our own experiences, so it follows that we could mine our journals for ideas. While writing Raising Rain, I found an entry from the time that our son left for boot camp which became a scene. It was from my encounter with a young Marine in his dress blues at Starbucks who reassured me that my son would 'do fine.' Yes, I blubbered just like Bebe (my protagonist) that my Heavenly Father loved me so much that our paths would cross when I needed it most. By writing that nugget in my journal, I was able to give a glimpse into Bebe's spiritual life. Journal entries can also provide details that lend authenticity to the story and offer answers to an editor whose job it is to verify the facts.
Journaling can provide motivation and insight for a character. Even though the story varies from your journal entry, it can still be used to give readers a look into the inner struggles of your characters. Sometimes, just reading over your entries during a certain period of life can help you write about your characters' feelings. I have never lost a child to terminal illness, as did Marty in Tuesday Night at the Blue Moon, but I have experienced the fear and mourning involved in a breast cancer diagnosis. In one of my journal entries from that time I wrote that I felt I was 'alone in a dark hallway and all the doors were closed to me.' When I wrote about Marty's loss, I revisited that dark place to try to connect with her. It was hard, but it also reminded me that God was with me in that hallway all along, a truth which Marty needs to realize also.
This is not to say that I've been particularly diligent in keeping up with my journaling. When I skim my black Moleskine, I see months and sometimes years between entries, but they are always written at times of intense emotions - and full of the stuff that drives story. If you really want to know your character, write her journal entries for significant events such as watching her parents drive away after moving her into her new college dorm, sleeping in her old bedroom on the night before her wedding, the day she gives birth, or the day she discovers a lump. You may discover more about her and her motivations than what appears on the surface.
What did you write in your first diary? Do you journal? Besides being therapeutic, how does it help you breathe life into your characters? We'd love to hear!
Do you remember your diary? Mine was red with gold designs and had a lock with a hasp and a tiny key with a satin ribbon. Its pages held my secret desires, like my infatuation with Bobby Sherman, Mickey Dolenz, and "Bill" from school who was a shy boy with a pretty girlfriend and no eyes for me. Recording the ups and downs of adolescence in my diary was a valuable coping tool which helped me to deal with changing schools and being a seventh grade nobody. As an adult, I turned to using a journal which didn't have dated pages and didn't leave me feeling guilty if there were big gaps in time between entries, but was still there for the upheavals in life. It turns out that it's also a valuable tool for writers.
Journaling can provide scenes and details for a story. The stories we write often spring from our own experiences, so it follows that we could mine our journals for ideas. While writing Raising Rain, I found an entry from the time that our son left for boot camp which became a scene. It was from my encounter with a young Marine in his dress blues at Starbucks who reassured me that my son would 'do fine.' Yes, I blubbered just like Bebe (my protagonist) that my Heavenly Father loved me so much that our paths would cross when I needed it most. By writing that nugget in my journal, I was able to give a glimpse into Bebe's spiritual life. Journal entries can also provide details that lend authenticity to the story and offer answers to an editor whose job it is to verify the facts.
Journaling can provide motivation and insight for a character. Even though the story varies from your journal entry, it can still be used to give readers a look into the inner struggles of your characters. Sometimes, just reading over your entries during a certain period of life can help you write about your characters' feelings. I have never lost a child to terminal illness, as did Marty in Tuesday Night at the Blue Moon, but I have experienced the fear and mourning involved in a breast cancer diagnosis. In one of my journal entries from that time I wrote that I felt I was 'alone in a dark hallway and all the doors were closed to me.' When I wrote about Marty's loss, I revisited that dark place to try to connect with her. It was hard, but it also reminded me that God was with me in that hallway all along, a truth which Marty needs to realize also.
This is not to say that I've been particularly diligent in keeping up with my journaling. When I skim my black Moleskine, I see months and sometimes years between entries, but they are always written at times of intense emotions - and full of the stuff that drives story. If you really want to know your character, write her journal entries for significant events such as watching her parents drive away after moving her into her new college dorm, sleeping in her old bedroom on the night before her wedding, the day she gives birth, or the day she discovers a lump. You may discover more about her and her motivations than what appears on the surface.
What did you write in your first diary? Do you journal? Besides being therapeutic, how does it help you breathe life into your characters? We'd love to hear!
