“So there’s nothing more provocative than taking a genre that everybody who’s cool hates – and then making it cool.” ~Lady Gaga
https://pixabay.com/en/users/Comfreak-51581/
Genre’s have branches on branches on branches with leaves fluttering in all directions. I just listed a few of those genres.
The sky is the limit on types of Genre.
https://pixabay.com/en/users/kellepics-4893063/
Adventure
Chit lit
Classics
Contemporary fiction
Diaries
Dystopian
Family
Horror
Historical fiction
Mystery
Poetry
Paranormal
Romance
Science Fiction
Steampunk -is a sub-genre of science fiction
Verse novels
Ya –young Adult
“My theory on genre is that while there are people out there who believe that genre tells people what to read, actually I believe that genre exists as a marketing tool to tell you what to avoid.” ~Neil Gaiman
Middle-Grade
Women’s fiction
Afro-American
Christian
LGBT
“To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness” ~The Importance of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde
The list of Genre’s has blown up. Here are just a few of the ‘Humor’ genres:
Alternative comedy:
Anecdotal Comedy”
Anti-humor
Dark comedy
Blue comedy
Character Comedy
Cringe Comedy
Deadpan Comedy
Heritage Comedy
Improvisational comedy
Insult comedy (which nowadays can get you fired)
Mockumentary
Musical
Obersavational
On-line-joke
Physical
Prop
Sketch
Spook
Surreal
Satire
Word play
“But when I hear a great song, I can’t help but be inspired by it, regardless of whatever genre that song falls under.”~ Taylor Swift
I walked out into a gloomy cloudy day. The clouds had dropped so low I felt as if I were walking inside them. A grey chill spread from the wet ground and met the dreary clouds, pinning me inside that painful air pressure
By the timeI got my mail, the cold dampness found its way under my coat. My head was aching. The change in air pressure heralded in a warning of impending rain. The world was covered in water; all the rain that fell the past week had overflowed into my shed.
Last night, that water pushed toads up the drain and into the house. One of my cats -Enishi- brought one to me. He dropped it at my feet. I didn’t act happy. I took the toad outside and spent the rest of the evening cuddling with Enishi, trying to make up for my mistake. If I could edit out my reaction, I would have. What I should have said was, “Good Boy!” then took the toad outside. Instead of getting worried and telling him not to touch it, he didn’t understand why, and he seemed to deflate, but he listened.
I was worried he would get an adverse reaction if he decided to chomp on the toad. Some toads can be toxic to cats. This little toad was no bigger than a quarter and I didn’t take its picture, so I couldn’t identify it.
Pexels.com
“Toad venom can be toxic for your cat. Fortunately, toad venom toxicity is rare in cats. Still, being natural predators, it is common enough for cats to pounce on toads and come into contact with their toxin, which the toad releases when it feels threatened. This highly toxic defense chemical may enter the eyes, resulting in vision problems, or it may be absorbed through the oral cavity membrane. Its effects are lethal if not treated immediately.” ~ Petmd.com
I edited my reaction after I put the toad outside. But my cat wasn’t buying it. And I had to carry him around telling him he was a good cat and a mighty hunter. I need to edit my reaction for the next toad he brings me.
This brings me to NaNoWriMo. This is the 5th day. The day of ‘E’ for edit.
Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels
My top ten
1) Editing is writing. Stop thinking of it as a way to cut up your creativity. 2) Cut overused words; you know, like, that, even very, anymore, only, usually, etc. Words you tend to overuse. Make yourself a list so you can find them in your text. 3) Read your creation out loud, you will hear mistakes. 4) When you askpeople to read your work ask them questions. Example: What words did I overuse? Or, do you like my main character? 5) What Point of view did you write in? What tense? Does your pattern match -through out your novel? 6) Does all your dialogue move the story forward? 7) Does each scene move your story forward? 8) Do your word choices match your scenes? Scary, happy, sad, lonely, dark, light etc. 9) Now, write your plot line. Are all the acts in order? 10) Write down each scene on an index card. Boring or just the right amount of drama? Does each one advance the story? Advance the chapter?
This morning as I headed out to get the paper I noticed that Mother Nature had a party in my yard. My yard isn’t neat. To imagine my yard you have to think, ‘horror movie.’ Tallgrass leaning over so thick at your feet it will trip you up before you take two steps; this is a great place for chipmunks, rabbits, moles, and any creature that decides to make my yard his home. And they do.
It was a small patch of flattened grass, around the base of a tree. A deer lay. They can get up and wander across the yard and eat the fallen pears and nibble on seed pods, trees, branches and still green grass, poking up and around the naturally coiffed blades.
The climax of their night was scattered around in piles of clumped pellets and a trail of un-clumped pellets that shattered apart as they decided to leave the area, these trails lead off in all directions.
***Deer pellets are larger than rabbit pellets.*** Sorry I wasn’t chasing that rabbit picture today.
Is it just meor do those deer, the ones hanging out under my trees, resemble partying teenagers in a cornfield? The only thing missing from the deer’s gathering is beer and a fire pit.
That climatic party happened without anyone seeing. It was a build-up of details, which will end with the start of a new story in about 200 days.
Today’s letter is ‘C’. Mmmm! Cookie? More like a climax. That part of your story near the end, where everything hits the fan and you are in the battle that ends the story. When everything changes. When the protagonist wins or the antagonist wins. That last fights for power or life. Where the main point of your plot is resolved. Whatever your main character was looking for he found. Or fought for and won. Or lost.
Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels
This climax ends your protagonist’s quest. think about it, why would you keep looking for something you already found?
Just like those partying deer. Their story ended (Oh, I had so many other words to use than, ended) with a nighttime party in my front yard.
Hmmm! Why do I have a taste for cookies? At this point, I need to stop and allow my cookie hunt to happen… ‘after’ I finish today’s word count. My reward.
Cookies, Coffee and Nanowrimo
Time to workon day three of NaNoWriMo.
If you are interested I found a delicious cookie recipe HERE.‘Coconut Oil Amish Sugar Cookies’.
I tweaked the recipe a bit. I didn’t have powdered sugar or crème of tartar or vanilla and almond extract (I used some coffee creamer) and I only used 3 cups of flour. I did freeze the extra.
I do have a full month of NaNoWriMo to get through and I don’t want to be cookie-less.
www.pexels.com
Truth be told.I stopped writing and made cookies. Then I finished this post….now, I need to get my NaNo words in for today. My reward for making cookies. 🙂
I am on track, 2,018: two-thousand-eighteen-words for today.
Today is ‘B’ day. Backstory.
Pretty obvious right? The backstory is all the things that happened before your main story. That Backstory will explain why your character hates spinach or is afraid of the dark or hates worms.
Do you need any of this? I do.
The great thing about NaNoWriMois that you can get out all that backstory. It will help you to work out your characters.
Working on yourbackstory you can mind-map your character’s family tree.
No info-dumping!
Pexels.com
Use what is relevant to the story!
It helps so you can see why your character behaves the way he/she/it does.
You can even see the connections your character has to their parents, or aunts and uncles.
Photo by Nicholas Santasier from Pixels
Example: If I need to see ‘why’ my character needs to carry a toad in his pocket. Maybe to remember the pond he fished in as a kid, and it was there that the bully named -Toad Killer- killed his pet toad.
I will write that story- that backstory for myself. Then, I will know why that character protects every toad he sees or why he hates ‘Toad Killer’. I won’t have to tell the reader the whole story, maybe just a mention of that backstory. Or it can be a complete story that starts with that backstory.
We see the backstory in every book.
Within J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books we find out his parents were killed and by who. (Whom?) Through the series, we learn more backstory; dished out in spoonful’s that keep us reading.
pixabay.com
Don’t overthink- just write.
Thiswas my take on ‘B’backstory. Great back to writing!
When Melania Trump used ‘some of the words’ in Michelle Obama’s speech from 2008. The internet, haters, news media, everyone went crazy. We can see Melania used some phrases, they are the same.
But was it really Plagiarism? Or a big etiquette, Oooops?
In 2008, I wondered about the sound of Michelle Obama’s speech. Parts sounded very staged and filled with motivational quotes. Quotes that ended up being sent around the Internet and became attributed to her and her alone. Quoted soooo many times.
Go ahead, do a Google search on ‘Michelle Obama quotes’
Google search on Michelle Obama quotes
Was this a plagiarism fiasco? I decided to pick it apart. My all time favorite thing to do. {Wink-wink}
First I need to get on my soapbox and say,- I am not for plagiarism, nor am I for censorship. Both are equally offensive.
Now, let’s get on with it.
I was impressed by Mrs. Obama’s use of motivational quotes that were then attributed to her. We all know that speechwriters write political speeches.
They do right… Well, maybe not this last year’s worth of Donald Trump’s speeches. For me, I found those hilarious. He spoke from the hip – to be clearer- he said what he wanted to say. And ‘if’ he had a speechwriter, the poor guy (man or woman {SMILE}) probably had a heart attack trying to keep ‘The Donald’ in line.
Now…
Great speech in 2008, Mrs. Obama! Equal kudos to, Melaina Trump for 2016 for her speech. {Smooch!}
Let’s get down to business. I only used Michelle Obama’s piece, to be fair, I posted the same section of Melania’s speech at the end. Melaina’s writer accepted responsibility for the plagiarism in her speech. We can all agree, it should have been edited better. And a big wave should have been sent out to Michelle, and we all know that wasn’t done. Well, not right away.
Emily Post would have agreed that this was bad etiquette.
I pulled the words out and found the quotes.
Here is part of Michelle Obama’s speech from 2008:
“….And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond(1)and (2 & 3)you do what you say you’re going to do; that you (6)treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them.
And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children — and all children in this nation – (*) to know that the only limit to the (4)height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your (5)willingness to work for them.”~Michelle Obama
(1) “Your word is your bond.” ~Melvyn Douglas
(2)“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.”~ C.G. Jung
(3) The number one, most important, get-this-or-fail short lesson for both work and business: Do what you say you are going to do, when you said you where going to do it, in the way you said you were going to do it.~ Larry Winget
(*sound like) “Success is measured in terms of reaching your goals, dreams, and expectations. Your success is determined by hard work, persistence, and determination. If you are going to be a success in life, it is up to you… it is your responsibility.” ~ Will Horton
(4)The height of your accomplishments will equal the depth of your convictions.~ William F. Scolavino
(5) How do you go from where you are to where you wanna be? And I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal. And you have to be willing to work for it. ~Jim Valvano
(6)“There is overwhelming evidence that the higher the level of self-esteem, the more likely one will be to treat others with respect, kindness, and generosity.” ~ Nathaniel Branden
(*)“The only real limitation on your abilities is the level of your desires. If you want it badly enough, there are no limits on what you can achieve.”~ Brian Tracy
Here you go, the same piece from Melania Trump’s 2016 speech.
“My parents impressed on me the values: that you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise. That you treat people with respect. They taught me to show the values and morals in my daily life. That is the lesson that I continue to pass along to our son.
And we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow. [Cheering] Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”~ Melania Trump
Lesson 11 ‘Writing Dialogue, Friday’s with James Patterson’s Masterclass
James Patterson’s Masterclass
“All of your key interchanges with your characters, I mean, they gonna be good, bad or indifferent just because of the dialogue. And how they talk to each other it is gonna reveal who they are. Who’s smarter, who’s taking advantage of who? Who’s lying? Who’s telling the truth? Who’s in charge? And who’s really in charge”. ~James Patterson
Mr. Patterson used Lush Life by Richard Price, his example of what great dialogue can sound like. I have that book. I need to sit down with it, read and learn, pull the dialogue apart , examine its details. And figure out its ‘hows and whys’ . This is definitely the type of dialogue that I would love to write.
Here are a few lines from, page 6 of Lush Life.
“What do we got…”
“Two males in the front.”
“What do we got…”
“Neon trim on the plate.”
“Tinted windows.”
“Right rear taillight.”
“Front passenger just stuffed something under the seat.”
No dialogue tags. Just fast paced dialogue. Short, tight writing. It moves along. In just these seven lines I can feel and see the movement as the cops check out the car they stopped. I felt like I walked around that car.
My thoughts on this: check out your favorite authors and see how they write their dialogue. Read it out loud. Get the feel for it. Then ask yourself if you learned anything new about that character from their dialogue. Where did the author take you in this dialogue?
James Patterson doesn’t write realism. His dialogue is heightened – but it feels real. Without being ‘literally’ real dialogue. Because real dialogue is boring…
Listen to how people speak when you are in the store, at work, on the bus.
This class has a comments section, where you can post your lesson and a video critique by James on his office hour’s page where he will answer questions.
Enroll by clicking the link on the upper left sidebar.
