Saturday, January 28, 2006

Wish You Were a Fly on the Wall?

I had lunch and a great chat with Peggy King Anderson this week. Peggy is my ultimate writing mentor. She's read my books, given me feedback countless times and basically led me to the voices of two of my books. Today we talked about how to create fiction -- of how to be truly inside the character and retain a detailed viewpoint at the same time. We both shared how we utilize details to strengthen story.

We also discussed the value of story journaling. She does this on paper. I just walk around talking to my characters, probably scaring the neighbors. We also talked about not wasting a secondary character. I think the consensus is that great stories don't have cardboard placeholder characters in the secondary or even tertiary positions.

We discussed the danger of defeating yourself mentally by worrying about not making as many sales as peers or not keeping the submission mill at high speed. The idea was to be yourself.

Brings me back to my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Crabtree.

"Molly, be yourself, but don't talk so much." Mrs. Crabtree.

BTW, Eggs keep wobbling.

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