Does Your Scene Include Everything It Should?

Ileana, estás bien?

Querida amiga:

Cuántas cosas no han ocurrido desde la primera vez que nos vimos, que fomentaron en mi, el querer relatar una historia para honrar una presencia.

No sabía cómo empezarla, e hice lo que hizo Frida Kahlo, en el sentido de no hablar de otra cosa que no conocía, más que de aquello que sí conocía, y conocía perfectamente: su imagen, su rostro, sus tribulaciones, sus penas. 

Todo, plasmado, en esos recuerdos innumerables de su rostro, y su persona, a travez de las variaciones y momentos de su vida que se ven representados en cada una de los obras de Frida Kahlo.

Y creo que no estuvo mal, porque no conocemos a los otros, pero sí nos conocemos a nosotros mismos sin tratar de presentar posiciones de grandeza, sino de sinceridad.

Entonces el arte, estaba en tratar de engarzar la presencia suya, en algún momento de mi camino, y la serie de sensaciones que provocó la presencia suya en ese viaje, y tratar de pintar los momentos con toda la gama de la escritura, para definirla en ese escrito. 

Me di cuenta que tenía detalles, regalos, vivencias, presencias, comportamientos, diálogos, conversaciones, y quise con ellos, plasmarlos en un escrito, dentro de un glamour que el momento entre usted y yo propició.

Sin embargo, me dí cuenta, que tengo mejores recuerdos de usted en la presencia física, que fue real, que de los que ocurrieron después, y me dí cuenta que la escritura o las presencias en línea, no pueden suplantar lo real, al contrario, desvían de los caracteres y los hacen sumirse en disertaciones ajenas a lo real, siendo lo real, como una luz que cae e ilumina los caracteres.

Déjeme decirle que tengo una hija, y recuerdo que era niña y una vez ella muy enojada por un argumento que tuvimos. Y ya sabe cómo es esto de dejarse llevar por los triggers de imágenes, cuando eres desatendido emocionalmente. Así que fui al comedor y la abracé, e inmediatamente todo desapareció.

Probablemente usted conozca de ello, conociendo de su profesión. 

Me dí cuenta que ya no es la cuestión de tener una verdad o una justicia, sino simplemente de estar, y eso tenía que ver con una presencia real, porque el contacto humano todo lo disipa, es simplemente estar. 

Y con ello le quiero agradecer su estar, en un momento especial.

5 Quotes on Editing That Will Always Be Relevant

During January of our “Now What?” Months, we’re here to give you some inspiration and resources as you dive into those daunting edits on your novel. While we usually share lots of advice with you from contemporary authors, sometimes it’s nice to take a look back through history and realize that editing problems have always been the same:

1. James Baldwin

“Rewriting [is] very painful. You know it’s finished when you can’t do anything more to it, though it’s never exactly the way you want it… The hardest thing in the world is simplicity. And the most fearful thing, too. You have to strip yourself of all your disguises, some of which you didn’t know you had. You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal.” 

Keep reading

Con motivo de la Navidad, deje permear buenos sentimientos para compartir con los demás y disfrútelos... Es un buen tiempo para sembrar cosas buenas.

Ideas al vilo con pensamientos al vilo

Se conducian con sistemas binarios 0 y 1; cero por NO y 1 por SI.
Vivian en un mundo feliz y robotizado; no sabian que la malfuncion o dano era parte de la condicion misma de la existencia del ser humano.
Pero ellos eran perfectos, y les gustaba su felicidad robotizada de 0 y 1.

There’s one thing you can absolutely, 100 percent rely on, which is that if you show five different people the same thing, they’re all going to have a different complaint or compliment. Each is going to have a different response, and you’d better know what you’re gonna do, otherwise you’re going to get confused… [H]ow much good can come from putting any time into studying how people are responding to your movies? The best case scenario is that it makes you feel flattered for a certain period of time, which doesn’t really buy you much, in life: and inevitably, it’s not going to just be the best-case scenario, so learn to spare yourself that experience, I’d say. – Wes Anderson

How to Write Bad Dialog

Writing bad dialog is almost an art form unto itself.

Recently I read a couple of stories where it felt as if the author was struggling to come up with bad dialog. So I thought I should give a few tips on how to do it properly.

The easiest way to write wretched dialog is to use dialog for the wrong things. In other words, when a scene calls for description, narration, transitions, introspection, characterization, or other things—simply do it all with dialog.

Bad Dialog in Place of Description

Let me give you an example. Our character, Joe, has just reached into the pocket of a dead man that he found washed up on a Florida beach. Now, the natural way to handle the scene would be to show the readers what Joe pulls from the dead man’s pocket. But instead you can do it in dialog, in this case, with another character, Ron:

Ron: Hey, what did you just find in that dead man’s pocket? Joe: Why, it looks like . . . gold pieces of eight, dated 1702!

Can you see how well that works? I mean, if you pulled a piece of ancient gold from a dead man’s pocket, you’d probably take a bit of time wondering what it was, studying it, and turning it over in your hand. But you can handle it faster if you simply have a character blurt a perfectly accurate description. So if you want to win awards for bad dialog, keep putting your descriptions into dialog!

Bad Dialog in Place of Transitions

Here’s how to write a terrible transition. We have just had two men meet, and one asked to meet in private. Let’s have Joe and Ron again.

Joe: Well, here we are in the Redwood National Forest. Sure is a foggy day, what with the wind coming in off the Pacific. What did you want to talk about, Ron, that made you drag me all the way out here, three miles into the trees? You afraid that our offices are being bugged or something?

In this case, the average author might start the scene with the two walking deep into a forest in the early dawn, smelling the fog off the sea, freezing from the cold. Personally, if I were Joe, I’d be a bit nervous, and I’d be wondering if Ron planned to murder me, but maybe that’s just me.

Bad Dialog in Place of Introspection

One of my favorite misuses of dialog is the spoken dialog that should be internal. For example, let’s say that Joe goes to the funeral of Ron’s mother. He walks into the foyer and is approaching the deceased, with people both ahead and behind him. He sees the old crone in her casket, dressed nicely, and then whispers to himself, “I never did like the old bag, but she looks pretty hot today. . . .”

Now, most folks would think that Joe would have to be literally insane to say something like that in public. But as a master of bad dialog, you just might get away with it. After all, I think that by now you’ve established that Joe has diarrhea of the mouth and never can shut up, so maybe readers won’t notice that you’re trying to tell your story through dialog alone.

Bad Dialog in Place of Characterization

Then of course, you can always characterize people by having one character talk about another. For example, Joe might tell Ron, “You know, my daughter Kary is so introverted, I can’t understand why she would want to become President of the United States.”

“She is introverted,” Ron says, “but you know, she also wants to save the country from fracking, and I don’t think that she can come up with any other way to do it.”

That one always works.

Just remember, if you want to become a master of ridiculously bad dialog, the first rule is to use dialog for everything—for descriptions, for internal thoughts, for narrating your scenes, for transitions and deep characterization. Wretched dialog has a million uses!

can you give tips on how to change up character dialogue? all of my characters end up sounding the same and i'm not sure how to fix it

How to Write Unique Voices for Characters in Fiction

When it comes to writing fiction, creating unique and believable characters is absolutely essential. One important aspect of character development is crafting unique voices that reflect each character’s personality and background.

Understand your characters

Before you can write distinct voices for your characters, it’s important to understand who they are. Building out a solid foundation and developing compelling backstories is one of the best ways to ensure they always have unique voices. Here are some tips for getting to know your characters:

Write character sketches that detail their backgrounds, personalities, goals, and motivations.

Conduct interviews with your characters as if they were real people, asking them about their likes and dislikes, fears, goals, and more (the Proust questionnaire is a popular way to do this).

Imagine how your characters’ past experiences will change how they speak in different situations and when experiencing varied emotions.

Use description to enhance your characters’ voices

Descriptions can be just as important as dialogue when it comes to creating character voices. Here are some tips for using descriptions to enhance your characters’ personalities:

Use specific details to create vivid descriptions of each character’s body language, mannerisms, and behaviour.

Consider how each character’s mannerisms might influence their speech patterns. For example, a character who is shy might be hesitant to speak or repeat themselves frequently.

Pay attention to how your characters interact with their environment. Do they use their hands a lot when they speak? Do they pace around the room or sit still?

Use sensory details to create immersion. For example, a character who is nervous might sweat profusely or fidget with their jewellery.

Avoid stereotypes and clichés

When writing unique voices for characters, it’s important to avoid falling back on stereotypes or clichés. Here are some tips for creating characters that feel fresh and authentic:

Avoid using dialects or accents. Not only do these often rely on stereotypes, but they also break reader immersion unless authenticity is absolutely essential to the type of book you are writing.

Consider how each character’s background and experiences might influence their beliefs and values. One-dimensional characters built on clichés won’t have unique voices.

Think outside of the box when it comes to creating distinct voices. Instead of relying on traditional archetypes, consider combining traits from multiple sources to create something new.

How to craft unique dialogue

With the basics in place, how do we convert unique character voices into dialogue? Here are some tips for writing dialogue that feels authentic and unique to each character:

Read your dialogue out loud to hear how it sounds, and make sure it’s true to how you imagine your character to be.

Give your characters a unique conversational quirk that feels natural. An example could be that they call everyone “love.”

Vary the length and complexity of sentences to reflect each character’s personality and background.

Consider how each character’s education and experiences might influence their vocabulary and sentence structure.

Use dialogue tags sparingly to avoid detracting from the actual words being spoken.

Avoid using too much exposition or explaining too much in dialogue. Instead, let the characters speak when it serves your story.

By understanding your characters, crafting unique dialogue, using descriptions to enhance character voices, and avoiding stereotypes and clichés, you can create vibrant, engaging characters that will keep readers hooked from start to finish.

Where is that noise coming from?

How to show emotions

Part I

How to show annoyance

slightly shaking their head

rolling their eyes

looking to the side

closing their eyes for a moment

sighing

taking a deep breath

clucking their tongue

huffing

crossing their arms in front of their chest

tapping their foot

How to show hurt

turning away

avoiding eye contact

closing eyes

lips pressed together

eyes filled with tears

breathing deeply

How to show anger

clenching their fists

pressing their lips on each other

breathing loudly through their nose

eyes getting smaller

clenching their teeth

clenching their jaw

looking away to calm themselves

speaking with clenched teeth

whole body is tense

screaming

throwing things around

stomping

moving around a lot, can’t keeping still

open body language, like they are ready to attack

frown wrinkles on their forehead

prominent veins

grabbing someone they are angry with to get them to understand why they are angry

becoming violent

non-stop talking, ranting

shaking their head

throwing their arms in the air

eyes either going from one point to another while ranting or completely fixating on the person they are angry with

How to show excitement

jumping up and down

not being able to stand still

clapping their hands

bright eyes

grinning

squealing

giggling

flushed face

bouncing

dilated pupils

tapping their foot

How to show boredom

biting nails

leg bouncing

sighing

playing with everything close by

twiddling your thumbs

spinning around

grumbling

staring into the distance

propping your head on your hand

Part II + Part III

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