What makes plucky, spirited, gritty—dauntless—dialogue? In his book Revision & Self-Editing, author James Scott Bell states dialogue needs to push the plot forward or reveal character. For fun, let’s analyze a dialogue from my current work-in-progress, a novel called I Be Brave.
BOOK REVIEW: The War That Saved My Life
Imagine growing up, never leaving your home. Meet Ada whose mother has forced her to live locked in a one-room apartment. Her mother considers Ada’s twisted, club foot a deformity that makes her unworthy of pursuing a normal life. Ada
Conquering Mountains
Have you ever hiked a trail that turned into a trial? I’ve been caught in downpours and snow while hiking the Colorado Rockies. Enthusiasm and energy wane halfway up a 14’er (a mountain over 14,000 feet). So how do you conquer
Goosey Questions
I scanned the nearby pond and lawns. Empty. HONK. SQUAWK. HONK. The racket continued without flocks flying overhead. Jogging around the corner, I discovered the early morning culprits. Two geese stood on the tip-top peak of a two-story house. Geese?
Digging up Descriptions
How can you improve description in your writing? Don’t leave it to adjectives. Avoid adverbs. Instead, dig deeper. My favorite exercise for descriptive writing comes from James Scott Bell’s book Revision & Self-Editing. It kicks up creativity, especially for describing characters’
Alaska mud flats
Late afternoon we headed to the frozen mud flats. Heavy low clouds closed in around us. We pulled a sled and two kids jumped in and out of it, circling us with snowballs and laughter. Grandpa’s the favorite target because
Wheelchair joy
She shuffled her feet so the wheelchair inched across the room. “May I join you?” The chipper voice didn’t match the frail body, twisted by arthritis. “You seem like a nice family.” She edged into our group huddled around the
Embracing the rain
Gray clouds dripped and windshield wipers squeaked while we peered at the sky. Would it clear? It didn’t look promising. Neither did the red and green radar splotches on the phone weather ap. Sure, we’ve hiked in rain, but only
Markers
I used to snub cairns, until my life depended upon them. Since Dave and I hike on trails, I didn’t value stacked rocks left by previous hikers. On well-worn paths, cairns aren’t needed, and instead of serving as trail markers,
They called me “Grotch”
They called me “Grotch.” That’s okay because I struggled to pronounce their names: Faiso, Hawo, Fatuma, Farhiya, Yurub, Zamzam… Six years ago, I’d never heard of the country they’d fled–Somalia–and I was nervous around these East African women who wore