Color my world conflicted

Get it here!

https://books2read.com/Dreamcatcher-Barbara-Baldwin

                If you’re like me, you’re tired of hearing about the Covid virus, quarantine and food shortages. You’re ready to get out – ANYWHERE – just to feel like your life is your own again. On May 3, Diane Bator wrote on the BWL blog about some of the trouble some writers are having staying on track. It seems ridiculous that with all the hours in a day we can’t sit down and crank out novel after novel.  While I should be writing, my creative efforts have shifted. Instead of the computer, I have been sitting at the sewing machine finishing some quilt tops that had been started, or purchased, some time ago. As I cut and sew, it is impossible to miss my use of color. No pale or pastel colors for this quilter and that made me think more about the use of color in writing (and life).

Remember when you got that first box of crayons for Kindergarten? Big chunky colors – red, blue, green, yellow, black, brown, purple and orange. As we colored, we’d pick yellow for the sun and green for the grass because colors often cause us to think of particular physical things.  As our pictures progressed through the years, we probably added some orange to the sun; red if there was a sunset, and the grass had patches of brown or blue-green and colorful little flowers began sprouting everywhere.   

Color has also often been used in song titles. Though using particular titles may be dating me, do you recognize “A Yellow Submarine”, “Blue Suede Shoes”, or “Purple Rain”?

But colors can also make us think of non-nouns; in other words things like emotions. Red might communicate anger or heat; whereas pink, which is a shade of red, is a more gentle color; perhaps like lavender. Green is often the color of envy or jealousy; yellow might make one think of a cowardly person. There are plenty of idioms that use color – “the pot calling the kettle black”, “blue in the face” or “white knuckled.” Yet no one color is exclusive to a particular arena. For example, red can be both “red tape” and the “red carpet” and those two expressions can be opposites rather than synonyms.

                I urge you to try a writing exercise using color to describe something not normally associated with color? What color is rain or the blowing wind? How would you paint hunger or homelessness or grief? How would you describe a rushing river with color?

                My writing is similar to my quilting – full of color and no two are alike. I write contemporary and historical, time travel and short story. I invite you to visit http://www.bookswelove.com/romance-authors/baldwin-barbara/ for a full listing of my novels with Books We Love.

Here’s to our early release…or at least to the opening of the local liquor stores!

Barb

http://www.authorsden.com/barbarajbaldwin

http://www.bookswelove.com/romance-authors/baldwin-barbara/

Priscilla Brown overhauls a manuscript

A contemporary romance set on a dreamy Caribbean island

This and my other contemporary romance novels are available on Amazon and on Kobo. For details, visit my Books We Love Author page.

www.bwlpublishing.ca/authors/brown-priscilla-romance-australia

Fiction writing and working with textiles are my creative interests. I attended a textile class where we layered differently textured fabrics and embellishments to assemble a small wall hanging. My piece was based on handmade felt. The next three layers were of frayed-edge organza in decreasing sizes from red through gold to white, this last with holes burnt into it for a different look. On top of these I randomly placed various sizes of kitchen foil scrunched into ridges and painted, and scraps of pretty fabrics formed into tiny flowers. Dabs of glue, beads and stitching with wool and embroidery threads held it all together.

As I worked, I thought how constructing fiction is similar, and how 'layering' concentrates on aspects of a manuscript, structuring them into a cohesive whole and bringing the story to life.

An early draft of Where the Heart Is was too long and such a mess that it had no chance of credibility as a publishable piece and demanded a major re-write. While the basic plot idea had potential, the story's 'building blocks' were at best shaky, at worst crumbling. I attempted this overhaul by employing a 'layering' process.

The first fresh layer concentrated on the two lead characters, whose motivations for their actions and emotions needed to be much stronger and more credible. What is Cristina's agenda on this particular island? Why is Cameron so cagey? Questions such as these led to the development of their backstories; in this novel, these personal histories became a layer in  themselves, only to be condensed and slotted in as the storyline proceeded. Another layer dealt with secondary characters, establishing their credentials for their presence and making sure they were there to move the story along while not allowing them to take over. I found several secondary and tertiary characters and plot episodes involving these to be superfluous; their removal resulted in a tighter faster-paced story.

A further layer worked on strengthening physical situations, including a hurricane, a hazardous motorbike ride in a forest, a risky sea incident, and intensifying the characters' responses to danger.

This led to heightening the emotional layers throughout the story. These can, perhaps especially in a romance, be sources of tension and conflict between the lead female and male characters. Such emotions may be temporary in reaction to an immediate situation, or they may include 'baggage' held due to past events and experiences, an undercurrent of strong emotions such a lack of trust, anger, confusion, insecurity, impacting the characters' relationships and actions. Cristina brings these and more to her relationship with Cameron.

Now the layer which holds it all together, like the glue, beads and threads.This involves fixing any plot holes, tying up loose ends, checking the ms for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors, and for repetitions and inconsistencies. The final layer for me, undertaken after the ms has been allowed to hibernate for some time, is a comprehensive re-read, extremely valuable as I always find something previously missed. The ultimate layer consists of the professional editor's revisions.

Layers are everywhere in our daily lives. Right now, it's getting cold so I'll put on a warm sweater layer, then I'm going to bake a multi-layer chocolate cake. After writing about layers, I deserve to eat them.

Enjoy your reading! Priscilla

http://bwlpublishing.ca

https://priscillabrownauthor.com 

Emotion or Character Trait? Calling all writers... by Sheila Claydon

Is ambition an emotion? What about pride, confidence, rivalry, envy, jealousy? Then there is optimism, exhilaration and enthusiasm as well as pessimism and cynicism. Are they emotions too or are some of them merely character traits?

Very recently I became involved in a somewhat challenging debate about this. One point of view was that these are all emotions. This was based on the theory that all emotion is the product of changes in the brain. Neurotransmitters and hormones were mentioned. It was stated that the body's neurochemical systems determine behaviour and that we are the products of our brain chemicals and electrical impulses. I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to argue with these apparently proven scientific facts but, as a writer, I had to take issue with the definition of an emotion.

To me love is an emotion, so is sadness. Liking, joy, anger and fear are also emotions. So, I think is surprise.  Everything else comes from these, so envy for example is the result of feelings of fear and anger and so is hate but they are not primary emotions.

A lot of people reading this might think 'so what' and mentally list a whole lot of feelings that they consider to be emotions such as guilt, dismay, pity, and I couldn't argue with them. It does make for an interesting discussion though and, as words are so important to a writer, I thought I'd throw the challenge out there. What do you consider to be our pure primary emotions as opposed to the character traits we develop via our upbringing and life experiences? And how important are these emotions to your writing?

I know when I write my own stories I call on a great many emotions. I also build personalities, however,  and to do this I have to develop character traits. In Mending Jodie's Heart, Book 1 of my Pathways Trilogy,  ambition, anger, fear, sadness, enthusiasm, pessimism, obstinacy and a few others all come before the love that finally blooms, and this continues through Books 2 Finding Bella Blue and Book 3 Saving Katy Gray.  Without them, I couldn't write any books at all.

Sheila's books can be found at Books We Love and Amazon

She also has a website and can be found on facebook  and twitter