Quick Book Reviews: “The Secret Language of Women” by Nina Romano – Da...

Quick Book Reviews: “The Secret Language of Women” by Nina Romano – Da...: Nina Romano's Star-Crossed Lovers Scientists have been trying for a while to isolate the physical processes accompanying what we ca...

Quick Book Reviews: “Lemon Blossoms” by Nina Romano – Nothing More Pre...

Quick Book Reviews: “Lemon Blossoms” by Nina Romano – Nothing More Pre...: Nina Romano Explores a Different Realm of Love Love comes in literally all shapes and sizes, one of the few truly formless aspects of l...

Quick Book Reviews: “The Secret Language of Women” by Nina Romano – Da...

Quick Book Reviews: “The Secret Language of Women” by Nina Romano – Da...: Nina Romano's Star-Crossed Lovers Scientists have been trying for a while to isolate the physical processes accompanying what we ca...

Scene: Where Change Happens

                                                  
                                                  Scene: Where Change Happens

Perhaps one of the most important elements in any writing is scene, whether it’s for memoir,

screenplay, novel, or most especially for short story. A scene is a compact unit in the

development of a story, novel, or play, a unique representation that propels the story or plot

ahead, and definitely something other than the mere telling of a story through

exposition—it shows us the story, like fast movie cuts and clips.  

A scene is a complete, independent little episode, a tableau, an incident that contains characters

with action and dialogue. To build a scene we need to see characters interacting, incorporating

movement and speech, but also using the five senses: taste, touch, smell, see, hear, along with

other elements such as feelings and emotions, perhaps what we know to be the sixth sense of a

character, and even the inclusion of a symbol or token to evoke memory. 

As an example, in describing Dennis Lehane’s abduction scene in Mystic River, what I remember first is the smell of the apple core left in the abductors’ car. Here is something so sweet and delectable—the apple, and yet it is juxtaposed with the horrific—an abomination—the abduction of the boy Dave by two sociopaths with vile intentions. By introducing the apple, Lehane has opened many arguments—including the loss of innocence and the first sin—the fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Paradise.

Scenes are components, little montages, not just in stories, novels, creative non-fiction, memoir,

screenplays, theater plays—even in poetry. Scenes achieve an important task, such as

introducing a character, an idea, a decision, turmoil between lovers, tension, or they help build

conflict. There is no complete story or novel without inclusion of the obligatory scenes that make

the whole work. But the single factor that enlivens your scene and gives you the foundation to

construct your work is change.

I just finished re-reading Barbara Wood’s excellent book Night Trains. For me, it was as spine-tingling as the first time.  Here below is how this author enthralls us by giving her readers a bone-chilling, thrilling scene. My humble description of it doesn’t even come close to doing it justice, but bear with me for the sake of explanation of what a scene can accomplish in a novel.

Scene: WWII. Wartime Poland is occupied by the Nazi’s. Winter.  A cold night. Visualize a spartan and austere doctor’s office in a hospital built in the 1930s.  Three people are gathered and waiting.  One of them is acting very edgy.  They are keeping a huge secret that could have them all killed.  A fourth person is expected.  This man is also involved in the surreptitious undertaking—a hoax that could save the town Sofia, or if revealed have the entire populace annihilated. But it is this fourth person who is the unknown factor, the dangerous element.  What if he divulges the hidden plan? As he enters the office, a doctor immediately moves to stand behind the door and bolt it. Tension is in the air. There appears to be a normal washstand and basin in the office, but something is wrong and out of place.  It is the presence of a straight razor, “shiny and clean, and it was wide open” that the key person now notices and as he begins to tremble.

Wow! I was on the proverbial edge of my seat when I read that scene.  An author should give the reader the picture of what’s taking place, of what’s going on so that the reader is privy to the action, but also has the pleasure of bringing to the scene with all its existing components, the addition of the reader’s imagination to complete it. After inspecting the scene in Night Trains that I described above, the reader knows that the prevailing situation is going to be radically altered.

What do we need to make a scene work? What is the heart and center, the guts and energy of any

scene? What do they require to be complete? It’s the author’s job to give us: description of place,

time of day, weather, a character’s hair color and clothing in exposition, but in scene we get what

the characters are doing and saying, through their senses. And the biggie for all characters are their wants, needs, motivations through cause and effect—all of these things get developed in scene, which is never static. Something must happen, transpire, alter—change.

Horoscope Helped Me Develop a Realistic Character by Nina Romano

Horoscope Helped Me Develop a Realistic Character

                                                                    

                                                                 by Nina Romano

In The Secret Language of Women, the first book of my Wayfarer Trilogy, I decided my main character Lian’s horoscope would be the Year of the Dog.  Knowing her horoscope facilitated my understanding the protagonist for this novel.  Since the book is set in China, I used Lian’s Chinese Zodiac sign to learn about her qualities and personality traits intimately so that she appeared genuine yet flawed. She is straightforward, a warm and caring being, courageous and intelligent. When a person born in under this sign falls in love, they do not ever change.  Lian fell in love with an Italian sailor, and remained faithful to that love, despite the fact that she was forced into a loveless marriage.

Moreover, having visited China, a unique experience that enabled me to see in person: Hong Kong, Beijing and its fabulous Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, I was able to envision Lian’s travels and travails in war-torn China, an era suffused in superstition, intrigue, culture and history.  I incorporated the themes and things I care about, such as: love, family, food and recipes, art, dragons and horses.  Why? Simply because it’s straightforward to write what I know and have feelings for, and all of these ideas translated well even to a novel set in China during the Boxer Rebellion.  My own horoscope is the Year of the Horse, which was last year, so I made sure I had an important role for a horse in this novel, and I’m positive that my horoscope had incredible influence on my stars being aligned because I signed a contract for a three-book deal for my Wayfarer Trilogy with Turner Publishing.

While writing, I pictured Chinese New Year, the cleaning of the house, the distributing of red envelopes, and Lian cooking on a wok, serving rice to her beloved. Since this story takes place in China where live fish, most especially carp, are good Fengshui, which according to Wikipedia is a “philosophical system of harmonizing everyone with the surrounding environment.” For this reason, I put carp into a pool in the Summer Palace in Chapter 1, where Lian meets the love of her life. Do I believe in the influence of horoscopes and how they can help round out a character?  Of that there is little doubt.

Excerpt from the Secret language of Women

The things that test you and are vanquished bring everlasting joy.  The differences between traditional written Chinese and Nüshu, the secret language of women, made it difficult for me to learn it.  My mother and grandmother could not write Chinese and learned Nüshu when they were young and wanted me to grasp it too.  I cannot say they harped on me or were tyrannical, but I will say they were insistent, and for this I am eternally indebted. 

My mother said it challenged me because I wrote like a man and didn’t have to rely solely on Nüshu, the way they did to communicate with other women.  The ideograms of Chinese correspond to a word or part of one, whereas each of the seven hundred characters of Nüshu represent a syllable— women’s language is phonetic, in Chéngguān dialect 城关土话, adaptable and pliant for singing, poetry and writing with such delicate strokes they appear as lines of feathers.

Though learning was problematical, I mastered it, like I do all things I set my mind to

conquer.  At the time, I resented the study of it, yet I knew innately one day I would be grateful to possess the knowledge and skill of this secret language, which would offer me strength and solace for a lifetime.  And although I was writing in Nüshu, for some reason, I signed with flourish in Chinese: Wǒ Lián.  I am Lian. 我连

  

  Author’s bio

Nina Romano earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from FIU. She’s a world traveler and lover

of history.  She lived in Rome, Italy, for twenty years, and is fluent in Italian and Spanish. She

authored a short story collection, The Other Side of the Gates, four poetry collections, and two

chapbooks. A fifth collection is forthcoming from LLC Red Dashboard.  Romano has been

nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize.  Her Wayfarer Trilogy is forthcoming from Turner

Publishing.  The first historical novel of the saga: The Secret Language of Women will be

published in September 2015.  More about the author at: www.ninaromano.com

Margie Klein, guest blog: "You Can’t Write if You Don’t Read"

You Can’t Write if You Don’t Read

To me, writers were just names on covers. Until I fell in love with Edgar Allen Poe.  This wasn’t my crush on Tommy, who wore his jeans low and spit-curled his hair in a slow curve over his Clearasil’ed forehead.  This was true passion--for a writer.

A very dead writer, which made Poe all the more romantic.  No more would he pen (and I was sure it was a plumed pen, taken in hand by candlelight in the dark recesses of night) the lush verses that I committed to memory, the horrific tales that captured my darkest imagination.  Alas, alas!

I was nuts for the guy.  Even now I get retroactive palpitations.  I know.  He looks pretty hokey today, and I don’t think I would voluntarily wade through “The Fall of the House of Usher” again.  But, as convoluted and archaic as the language now seems to be, that’s what sucked me in, in the first place: his language.

Language.  Compelling plots.  Complex characters.  Evocation of time and place.  Flashes of insight.  Poe did that for me, spoiled me, made me seek those things in everything I’ve read since.  Sometimes I find one or two of those qualities in a book.  That’s good; I’ll read on.  Three, four or more and I’m in love. In high school I found all of the above in John Steinbeck, whom I adored until he made me Travel With Charley.  Then he lost me.  The old magic was gone. 

My reading eye began to wander.  In college I became promiscuous, flitting from one to another: D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Wolfe, Hermann Hess, Dorothy Parker, Tolstoy, Katherine Anne Porter, Dostoevsky, and even–God help me–Ayn Rand.  I loved them all, even though I’m sure I missed a lot of what they were saying.  Without much depth of life experience, it was difficult for me to relate.  Poor, poor Anna Karenina, I’d sigh—but I really couldn’t tell you why. As much as I loved to read, that’s how much I loved to write.  It seemed so preposterous, so presumptuous, to even dream of being one of Them.  It never really crossed my mind to call myself…a writer.

Bio

Marjorie Klein's first novel, Test Pattern (Wm. Morrow Publishers, 2000; HarperCollins/

Perenniel 2001, now an e-book) was a Barnes and Noble "Discover Great New Writers"

selection.  Her creative nonfiction has appeared in various publications, including 20

years of free-lance work for Tropic, the Miami Herald's former Sunday magazine. She

received her MFA from Florida International University.  Recipient of a Florida

Individual Artist Fellowship, she has taught at the University of Miami, Florida

International University, Warren Wilson College, University of North Carolina at

Asheville’s Great Smokies Writers Program, and served as a preliminary judge for the

National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.  She has completed another novel,

Shifting Gears, and has begun a new one.  (www.marjorieklein.com)

On the Art of Writing by Chris Hill

On the Art of Writing

            by Chris Hill

I thought I’d share a couple of my favourite quotes about writing and what I think of them - one is quite well known, the other less so, but I think they both have something useful to teach us writers.

The first is from the Russian master story writer and dramatist Anton Chekhov who said famously: 

“Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”

What’s that all about then? Well basically what he’s summing up in powerful and poetic fashion is what has come to be known as ‘show don’t tell.’ That’s a technique much beloved of creative writing courses where would be writers are encouraged, for example, to focus not on telling the reader directly what a character is feeling, but instead on showing the reader things which allow him to make his own mind up.

For what it’s worth, my view on this is that a better phrase would be ‘show and tell’. The trouble with being prescriptive in writing is that it excludes—and while excluding some terrible writing it might also exclude some great, experimental work. So it never does to be too closed minded. Still, it’s a useful point to bear in mind I think, show don’t tell.

Whether you are describing moonlight or a character’s state of mind the route one - blunt description is likely to be less involving, less evocative for the reader than showing them something which draws them into the text and allows them to decide for themselves what is going on. Do it that way and you have given them a stake in the action— you have made the reader part of the story.

Now here’s some advice on writing from a more unusual source. The great movie director Alfred Hitchock was once asked how long a couple could reasonably be seen on a movie screen, kissing on a bed. He replied: 

“As long as you want—as long as there’s a bomb under the bed.”

Portly, upper-crust curmudgeon he may have been - but he knew about story telling didn’t he? Whatever kind of fiction you are writing it’s a very important thing I think, that bomb under the bed.

When I think of the better writing I’ve done, the stories which work well, it’s not usually the style of the writing, the quality of the jokes, or whatever, which sets them apart—it’s something else—it’s the presence of dramatic tension, the bomb under the bed.

If you don’t have that dramatic tension in a story you are writing then the words pretty as they might be, can lack focus.

When I’m writing fiction now I sometimes stop and ask myself where it is - that bomb - that sense of jeopardy.  The form it takes varies widely depending on what you are writing of course , but in some form it’s a must.

Author’s bio:

Chris Hill is an author whose latest book The Pick-Up Artist was released in February 2015 by Magic Oxygen Publishing, you can find it on Amazon here:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pick-Up-Artist-about-Dating-Digital/dp/1910094161/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424014293&sr=8-1&keywords=the+pick+up+artist+chris+hill. 

You can find Chris on his website here http://www.chrishillauthor.co.uk/ on Twitter @ChilledCh and on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/chris.hill.3726

Chris Hill is an accomplished writer and author with a Bridport Prize winning feather in his cap His first novel, Song of the Sea God, was published by Skylight Press; and was shortlisted for the Daily Telegraph Novel in a Year competition as well as winning the eFestival of Words award for best literary fiction. Chris Hill works in communications and has a background in newspaper journalism as a reporter, news editor and editor. His second novel, The Pick-Up Artist, was published by Magic Oxygen in early February 2015. It is described as a raucous rom com about dating in the digital age.