Can fragments be used in creative writing, or should complete sentences always be the rule? Reading the comments during a recent on-line discussion on the subject left me thinking about how I handle them, and why.
When I first ventured into creative writing, one of the first decisions made was which POV to use. It was made based on what I prefer as a reader, a story told in the first person. I am pulled much deeper into the story if the main character is also the author, the storyteller.
This preference probably comes from a childhood when real live storytellers were still around to provide an evening’s entertainment. The storyteller’s tale was often about a personal experience, a first person POV.
I attended several sessions at local museums that keep the storytelling tradition alive to renew my familiarity with the art form. Good storytellers do no speak in complete sentences. They speak fragments. These fragments, when spoken in the context of physical movements and facial expressions, become part of the storyteller’s persona.
What I call my first rule for using fragments grew out of this experience. Describe what the reader cannot see. Give the reader a description of the main character’s physical movements and facial expressions. Establish his or her persona, one that would make the use of a sentence fragment during dialogue acceptable.
Establishing a persona for the main character also does the same thing for the author (the storyteller) since they are one and the same. The storyteller should present the narrative portion of the story consistently with how the main character is presented. They can “speak the same language,” including sentence fragments when appropriate for emphasis.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Why Add Romance to a Mystery?
Karen McCullough is the author of ten published novels in the mystery, romantic suspense, and fantasy genres. She has won numerous awards, including an Eppie Award for fantasy. She’s also been a four-time Eppie finalist, and a finalist in the Prism, Dream Realm, Rising Star, Lories, Scarlett Letter, and Vixen Awards contests. Her short fiction has appeared in several anthologies and numerous small press publications in the fantasy, science fiction, and romance genres. Her most recent novel is A GIFT FOR MURDER, published by Five Star/Gale Group Mysteries.
WHY ADD ROMANCE TO A MYSTERY?
If you’ve looked at my website, you’ve probably noticed that I write in a lot of different genres, but one thing my stories all have in common is a romantic subplot.
Purists often object at having their genre tainted with hints of other genres, and romance is particularly disliked. I’ve actually heard science fiction readers-and the occasional writer-get positively irate about it. Some mystery readers are the same way. They want their stories pure and untainted.
So why write romantic mysteries, romantic suspense and romantic fantasy?
Well, first of all it’s fun. Okay, that’s probably not a good enough reason.
The truth is, I like the way you can use a romance to reveal and extend your characters. You don’t NEED it for that. Certainly there are other ways to achieve the purpose, but it offers some reveal advantages.
Because mystery and detective stories are often told from a tight and sometimes impersonal point of view, readers may not feel like they know or sympathize with the main detective character. In having a pair of characters in the process of getting to know each other and being attracted, you can show (rather than tell) much about that character you otherwise can’t. It lets readers see your viewpoint character from an outsider’s perspective.
Having a romantic subplot also offers a way to bring emotional depth and resonance to genres that often get overly intellectual. Traditional mysteries are basically puzzles, and the plot, per force, has to focus on delivering the pieces of the puzzle.
The detective is frequently an outsider, someone who knows enough of the milieu to understand its norms and discern the motives and manners of those who participate, but one who doesn’t exactly belong to it either. That can mean the situation leaves little room for showing growth and development of the detective character.
Finally, it can make a great way to raise the stakes in the story. In A GIFT FOR MURDER, my Five Star release debuting the end of this month, the murderer threatens my heroine’s love interest, forcing her to pull out every clever idea she can in order to rescue him as well as herself from a dire situation at the end.
Of course not all readers want to know or care about the detective character that deeply. Personally I feel a bit cheated if I read a book and don’t get any sense of who the main character is or what drives him or her. I want to be able to relate and sympathize with their problems.
Not everyone agrees. De Gustibus….
Oh, and hey, post script time. I’ve just debuted a new website look. I’d love some feedback on it if you get a chance.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
What Should be Responsible Blogging When The Whole World Is Reading?
I have been cobbling together postings for a blog on a non-regular basis since April 2008. However, nearly three years later, I am still somewhat awed on Mondays when looking at the previous week’s statistics.
This sense of awe stems from my beginning as a word cobbler for a weekly county newspaper many years ago. Eight to twelve people worked five hard days to produce a newspaper than distributed its message to the citizens within the county, an area of 314 square miles. At the time, I thought this was a vast readership.
Today, utilizing little more time than it takes me to compose a posting on a single subject, it can be read around the world. People from thirty-four countries, on every continent except Antarctica, have stopped by over the past twelve weeks to see what had been posted.
An exact number of how many US citizens are currently writing a blog seems to be an impossible number to determine. The estimate ranges from 6.5 to 12 million.But even with the smaller number, this is a tremendous number of citizens who are exposing themselves, or at least their thoughts, ideas, and photos for all to see.
We have a group of elected and appointed national leaders who are working to project an image of this nation to the word. What is the impact of these millions of personal blog postings on the national goal?
Do they create a collective impression that truly reflects our country, and supports our goals as a nation. Or are they a collective impression equal to that made on the world by the movie, “The Ugly American.”
This sense of awe stems from my beginning as a word cobbler for a weekly county newspaper many years ago. Eight to twelve people worked five hard days to produce a newspaper than distributed its message to the citizens within the county, an area of 314 square miles. At the time, I thought this was a vast readership.
Today, utilizing little more time than it takes me to compose a posting on a single subject, it can be read around the world. People from thirty-four countries, on every continent except Antarctica, have stopped by over the past twelve weeks to see what had been posted.
An exact number of how many US citizens are currently writing a blog seems to be an impossible number to determine. The estimate ranges from 6.5 to 12 million.But even with the smaller number, this is a tremendous number of citizens who are exposing themselves, or at least their thoughts, ideas, and photos for all to see.
We have a group of elected and appointed national leaders who are working to project an image of this nation to the word. What is the impact of these millions of personal blog postings on the national goal?
Do they create a collective impression that truly reflects our country, and supports our goals as a nation. Or are they a collective impression equal to that made on the world by the movie, “The Ugly American.”
Saturday, January 8, 2011
A BROOKINS BOOK REVIEW
BIRD LIVES!
Author, Bill Moody
Publisher: Walker
ISBN: 0-8027-3327-1
pub. date: 1999
248 pages, hardcover
Another fine novel in the Evan Horn series. A smoothly written psychological thriller. it’s tight, fast-paced, and should greatly please fans of this type of novel. It will also please fans of jazz music which today have nearly faded into oblivion.
We aren't talking about fusion jazz or the highly commercialized, big-venue stuff. In fact, the practitioners of those kinds of highly commercialized music are the targets of a killer, the killer who forces piano player Evan Horne to become a detective, on pain of more killings. Horne is reluctant but he allows himself to be cajoled into taking on the assignment, first by Cooper, his detective friend, then by the FBI which cannot match Horne’s knowledge of jazz, a key element in the story. Horne is really trying to make a comeback as a piano player after a serious injury. Cops and Robbers is not a gig he wants to play right now. The book is a compelling look inside the life of the performer who works the small clubs, as well as into the mind and psyche of a killer.
The title refers to Charlie "Bird" Parker, arguably one of the greatest saxophone players whoever lived. Moody evokes memories of a time when acoustic jazz was played in small smoky clubs all over the world to audiences of deeply dedicated fans who were as obsessed with their music as hip-hoppers are today. It was a time with roots from early Armstrong, from Coleman and Coltrane, when Brubeck and Joe Williams, Count Basie and singers like Chris Connor and Anita O'Day were on the charts.
But, whether the music and the artists draw you, or whether you like well-written crime fiction in any setting, here's a story that will draw you in and satisfy your need. Moody is a knowledgeable master of his element. I give this one a firm positive recommendation.
Carl Brookins
www.carlbrookins.com, www.agora2.blogspot.com
Case of the Greedy Lawyer, Devils Island,
Bloody Halls, more at Kindle & Smashwords!
Carl Brookins
www.carlbrookins.com, www.agora2.blogspot.com
Case of the Greedy Lawyer, Devils Island,
Bloody Halls, more at Kindle & Smashwords!
Author, Bill Moody
Publisher: Walker
ISBN: 0-8027-3327-1
pub. date: 1999
248 pages, hardcover
Another fine novel in the Evan Horn series. A smoothly written psychological thriller. it’s tight, fast-paced, and should greatly please fans of this type of novel. It will also please fans of jazz music which today have nearly faded into oblivion.
We aren't talking about fusion jazz or the highly commercialized, big-venue stuff. In fact, the practitioners of those kinds of highly commercialized music are the targets of a killer, the killer who forces piano player Evan Horne to become a detective, on pain of more killings. Horne is reluctant but he allows himself to be cajoled into taking on the assignment, first by Cooper, his detective friend, then by the FBI which cannot match Horne’s knowledge of jazz, a key element in the story. Horne is really trying to make a comeback as a piano player after a serious injury. Cops and Robbers is not a gig he wants to play right now. The book is a compelling look inside the life of the performer who works the small clubs, as well as into the mind and psyche of a killer.
The title refers to Charlie "Bird" Parker, arguably one of the greatest saxophone players whoever lived. Moody evokes memories of a time when acoustic jazz was played in small smoky clubs all over the world to audiences of deeply dedicated fans who were as obsessed with their music as hip-hoppers are today. It was a time with roots from early Armstrong, from Coleman and Coltrane, when Brubeck and Joe Williams, Count Basie and singers like Chris Connor and Anita O'Day were on the charts.
But, whether the music and the artists draw you, or whether you like well-written crime fiction in any setting, here's a story that will draw you in and satisfy your need. Moody is a knowledgeable master of his element. I give this one a firm positive recommendation.
Carl Brookins
www.carlbrookins.com, www.agora2.blogspot.com
Case of the Greedy Lawyer, Devils Island,
Bloody Halls, more at Kindle & Smashwords!
Carl Brookins
www.carlbrookins.com, www.agora2.blogspot.com
Case of the Greedy Lawyer, Devils Island,
Bloody Halls, more at Kindle & Smashwords!
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Innovative Church Leader Weds Tradition with Modern Technology
A centuries-old religious tradition and modern technology came together recently in London at the Church of England’s St. Lawrence Jewry, a house of worship that dates back to the 11th Century.
Plow Monday, an observance that can be traced back to medieval times, is the first Monday after Twelfth Night. The tradition on this day was for farm laborers to bring a plough to the door of the church to be blessed.
But as the church’s recently appointed leader, the reverend Cannon David Parrott, told the press, “When I arrived a few months ago I looked at this service and thought, ‘Why do we have a Plow Monday? Men and women coming to his church no longer used ploughs.”
Mindful of the Church of England’s efforts to be a meaningful part of modern society, Cannon Parrot designed a special blessing for Plough Monday. On the church’s altar, in addition to the traditional items, were four smart phones and two laptop computers.
According to an article in the London Sunday Times, the Rev Canon David Parrott began the special blessing by telling the congregation, “I invite you to have your mobile phone out ... though I would like you to put it on silent.”
The congregation raised their mobiles and iPods above their heads and Canon Parrott began the blessing. “May our tongues be gentle, our e-mails be simple and our websites be accessible. By your blessing, may these phones and computers, symbols of all the technology and communication in our daily lives, be a reminder to us that you are a God who communicates with us and who speaks by your Word. Amen.”
The reaction to the blessing drew mixed reactions from both the congregation and the newspaper. A man who works in Internet Technology said that he had been pleased to be remembered directly in the prayers. Did he sense the presence of God within the operations of mobile phone software? “Certainly it has a mind of its own sometimes,” he said. “Whether that’s God or not I don’t know.”
The Lord Mayor was delighted, however. “My BlackBerry is two years old but it’s a fantastic model. Now it is also a blessed instrument. I was asked whether I had a message during the service. I will check later, though I don’t suppose He has provided the message.”
To the Lord Mayor’s comment, the Times reporter added, “Even on a good day, the Vodafone network does not stretch quite that far.” But it was the Times’ headline for the story that may speak to us all in this modern time.
“Blessed be the mobile phone users
and those called the children of iPod”
Plow Monday, an observance that can be traced back to medieval times, is the first Monday after Twelfth Night. The tradition on this day was for farm laborers to bring a plough to the door of the church to be blessed.
But as the church’s recently appointed leader, the reverend Cannon David Parrott, told the press, “When I arrived a few months ago I looked at this service and thought, ‘Why do we have a Plow Monday? Men and women coming to his church no longer used ploughs.”
Mindful of the Church of England’s efforts to be a meaningful part of modern society, Cannon Parrot designed a special blessing for Plough Monday. On the church’s altar, in addition to the traditional items, were four smart phones and two laptop computers.
According to an article in the London Sunday Times, the Rev Canon David Parrott began the special blessing by telling the congregation, “I invite you to have your mobile phone out ... though I would like you to put it on silent.”
The congregation raised their mobiles and iPods above their heads and Canon Parrott began the blessing. “May our tongues be gentle, our e-mails be simple and our websites be accessible. By your blessing, may these phones and computers, symbols of all the technology and communication in our daily lives, be a reminder to us that you are a God who communicates with us and who speaks by your Word. Amen.”
The reaction to the blessing drew mixed reactions from both the congregation and the newspaper. A man who works in Internet Technology said that he had been pleased to be remembered directly in the prayers. Did he sense the presence of God within the operations of mobile phone software? “Certainly it has a mind of its own sometimes,” he said. “Whether that’s God or not I don’t know.”
The Lord Mayor was delighted, however. “My BlackBerry is two years old but it’s a fantastic model. Now it is also a blessed instrument. I was asked whether I had a message during the service. I will check later, though I don’t suppose He has provided the message.”
To the Lord Mayor’s comment, the Times reporter added, “Even on a good day, the Vodafone network does not stretch quite that far.” But it was the Times’ headline for the story that may speak to us all in this modern time.
“Blessed be the mobile phone users
and those called the children of iPod”
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