Tag Archives: focus

Blues in Week 3

Posted by Kat on

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Week 3 of National Novel Writing Month has begun, and, as always around this time, I’m feeling kind of wrung out with the entire enterprise. Buckling down and pounding out words for a rough draft isn’t exactly new for me. I can’t say that it’s always been easy, but it can be done. I know because I’ve done it before. I did it for (most of) Ravens and Roses, the first book in the Mariner Sequence. I did it for my Dark Crystal novel contest entry, “Search of the Sun-Child.” I did it for the fantasy / romance / steampunk / political intrigue hybrid that is Courting the Moon.

So why is Seahawks and Storms giving me so much trouble?
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I Dare You

Posted by Kat on

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This is a little exercise that David Greenshell shared with me the other day.  Take a few minutes and watch the video below.  DO NOT SCROLL DOWN UNTIL YOU HAVE FINISHED!

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“What do you protect?” Storytelling Shifts Focus

Posted by Kat on

A few days ago, I was listening to the song “Hail the Hero” by Celtic Thunder, and something in the lyrics struck me:

“Hail the hero, strong and true,
Who fought the fight, and saw it through,
Who swore he ne’er would be a slave
And gave his life our land to save.”

Do you see it?  No?  Look at this line then:

“And gave his life our land to save.”

There’s been a subtle shift in the focus of what is being protected in a story.  It used to be that the hero was trying to save a land, a world, or a people as a whole rather than being devoted to an individual.  They gave everything “for the land.”  Often, rulers were tied to the land in some way, either through mystical means (having a literal bond with the earth) or through responsibility as a prince or princess, a king or queen.

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