Showing Writing Changes, Chap 1 Becca DuMaurier (part 1)

 

Showing Writing Changes, Chap 1 Becca DuMaurier

      This and the next few posts will show you changes made while changing several website story chapters of a short story "novelette" into a novel, well, novel series. Here is proof that good things need time for story, character, research, and a novelist to grow something wonderful.

      Yes, the shorts were great, if I do say so myself and my client and her website visitors; but more of a good thing is great too.

Original Client Short Story_Feb 2008

_899 wds

 

Becca in the Woods Cornwall, England UK; 1680s

Becca’d been on her way to her betrothal, or rather she’d escaped from crowded, maddening London, back to her stormy, Atlantic tossed Cornwall coast;,; three hundred miles further west than most London courtiers would ever venture.

 

The whole world was in mad upheaval! Pirates raided coasts. Neighbor killed neighbor, for God and Right. Their Catholic king’d run away and his daughter, with her Dutch Protestant husband, now ruled; as Becca’s healthy loveliness and strong family name remained besieged by an earl, whose grown heir had died, and now he wanted another, by her.

 

Unlucky Becca.

 

She’d lost two babes; both to fever, then lost her beloved, gentle husband in the king’s senseless wars and now this earl, older than her father, had reached out his covetous hands, to make her his countess, in payment for her father’s impending bankruptcy.

Both men had...more... https://www.patreon.com/NealeSourna

In editing mode for Becca DuMaurier

http://becca.neale-sourna.com/

"Becca DuMaurier"
(a novel)

        It's 1688, in the midst of the Glorious Revolution, an English civil war between Protestants and Catholics which has international players interested from France, Ireland, and the Netherlands.
        But, British courtier Rebecca DeLann DuMaurier has more personal cares; she is on the run from a forced marriage to an elderly earl; she returns home to her stormy ocean-tossed Cornwall, where pirates sail the high seas and stalk the many tiny coves of Cornwall's shores.
        And where Cornwall's rocky, treacherous coast is but a stepping stone for lovely Becca, her soldier fiance and an intriguing Irish Catholic pirate Becca will soon meet just steps from her family home....http://becca.neale-sourna.com/

Two Creative Ways to Express Character Traits from Writer's Digest University

Writer's Digest University
June 15, 2010

Two Creative Ways to Express Character Traits
Beyond the basics of good writing lie the more creative elements – skills that elevate the craft of writing to the art of writing. Take your creative writing to the next level – no matter what type of writing you do. Learn techniques to add depth, texture, and emotion to your writing. You will also gain the knowledge of how to engage all of a reader's senses, ways to set the mood, put characters in motion, and more!

Inside Excerpt from Session One:

External & Internal Character Traits
Most writers use some form of character chart as a way to get to know their characters better. Basically, you're looking for something that's a cross between a police profile and personal interview (of course, if you're writing nonfiction, you can use the chart to keep track of the actual traits you've made note of). Tip: Keep completed character charts handy while you're writing; with these charts posted on your bulletin board or on your computer desktop, you can instantly find the detail(s) you need.

Remember that great characters are a complex mixture of both sympathetic and unsympathetic traits. Villains like Hannibal Lecter in Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs are compelling because, along with their repellant, horrifying habits, there is also a glimmer—however faint—of something good (or at least understandable). Lecter's intelligence, artistic ability, and parental affection for Agent Starling make us care about him on some involuntary level, no matter how much we also loathe him.

Not only should your bad guys not be all bad, your good guys can't be all good either. Philip Marlow in Raymond Chandler's mysteries is an alcoholic loner who passes the time between cases playing chess with himself. Cervantes' Don Quixote is no less a hero for being a little crazy. They are knights in slightly tarnished armor. Yet, these very character flaws provide the obstacles that must be overcome in order for them to be heroic.

So take some time to create traits that will make your fictional characters complex and memorable. And if you're dealing with a real-life "character," be sure to dig below the surface to find the inevitable contradictions.

Internal traits are about emotion and motivation: What does the character want? Why does she or he want it? What does the character love/hate/fear? Why? These traits are revealed through the character's reactions to events and other characters, their actions in the story, and their biases or opinions about the world at large.

Whenever possible, try to link an internal trait with an external "marker": a character who is shy (internal trait) may blush when approached by a stranger (external marker); a character who is claustrophobic (internal trait) may avoid elevators (external marker).

Workshop: Creativity & Expression

Spots Remaining: only 8 spots left!

Start Date: Thursday June 24th

Instructor: Gloria Kempton

Workshop Length: 8 Weeks

Price: $250.00 Now only $225.00!
Plus, get our most popular OnDemand Webinar 'Instant Publishing Models' absolutely Free! Use code JUN10 at checkout.
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Using Anecdotes To Flavor Your Articles [or Your Fiction Writing--NS]
An anecdote is a little story that writers use to enrich their articles. Anecdotes flavor articles by adding a human quality to them, by giving inside information about small things that actually happened to people, and often by giving insights into human frailties, characteristics, and qualities that could not be shown as vividly any other way.

Read the Full Article to Learn How to Maximize Anecdotes

This article was excerpted from the Focus on the Nonfiction Magazine Article workshop. The next class starts on June 17th with Rita Robinson