Wednesday, August 26, 2009

My Progress


A short note to say, yay. I'm progressing well. Though my word count seems to be decreasing the story line is much improved. I've added what I hope will be a fun character. Jack now has, not only a domineering paternal grandmother, he also has an eccentric maternal aunt. Aunt Elvira travels the world chasing messages from her secret service husband who uses alias names. When she arrives as his prearranged rendezvous, there is always a mysterious messenger to deliver the message in a, ahem, meaningful way. She shows up at Jack's house after hearing about Jack being shot, and dismisses grandma who, of course skulks away, humiliated.

Hopefully, I'll be able to bring some humor into the story with a couple colorful characters that will bring out my main characters' personalities.

I believe the secret in lightening a heavy story is to add humor and the best way to do that is to include some quirky characters. It won't take away from the gravity of the situation, but will, hopefully, unwittingly or maybe even, oddly, knowingly, add an epiphany that will help unravel the mystery.

How's that for a paragraph?

Well, gotta go to work now. So to all my followers, God bless and keep you.

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8 comments:

  1. My male protag's name is Jack. How funny! Congrats on your progress.

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  2. I also have a Jack--awesome! I must say I agree with this, having some fun characters can really help show your MC's true colors. Great job with thinking that out!

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  3. My latest book had heavy themes, bur fortunately I managed to keep the story light.

    Congrats on the progress!

    L. Diane Wolfe “Spunk On A Stick”
    www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com

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  4. I like your insight on using a quirky character to lighten the heavy load. I did that without realizing I had. It made my critique buddies laugh at appropriate moments, and I realized I'd done a good thing to the story. Congratulations on work well done.

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  5. Hi! Thanks for reading my blog today! In the smoothies, I don't measure the flax seed or wheat germ, but I'd say maybe 2-4 tablespoons of each, if I'm making a whole blender's worth of smoothie.

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  6. Congrats on your progress. Every little bit counts.

    Lynnette Labelle
    http://lynnettelabelle.blogspot.com

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  7. Hey thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment today. I enjoyed and appreciated your post. Don't worry about the word count dwindling. Less is more. My self-appointed writing style mentor, Stephen King, says in his book "On Writing," that when you edit your first draft to polish it and get it ready to pub, the word count should be reduced by at LEAST 10%. Cut the fat and get to the meat of the story.

    Cool blog! I'll be back.

    Marvin D Wilson

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  8. Good for you! I've always thought it would be cool to write a book, but I've never known where to start. I think the best thing to do, is just start. I see you've done that and then some.

    Dad

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