Our Environment is Royal and Divine. Treat it With Due Respect The Apky E-Zine Volume 42 & 43 December 2012/January 2013 http://www.akinyi-princess.de If you like this E-Zine please recommend it to a friend ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.akinyiprincess.de/modules/wsShop/article.php?article_id=283510 <http://www.akinyiprincess.de/modules/wsShop/article.php?article_id=283510&location_id=326> &location_id=326 The book is available at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and at Barnes & Noble and now as an eBook. Links below: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps <http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-> &field- keywords=akinyi+bound+to+tradition&x=6&y=22 http://author-me.com/nonfiction/pink.html 1 HOW DO YOU LIKE THE BOOK COVERS? Autographed Book(s) Order/s link below: http://www.akinyi-princess.de/modules/wsShop/article.php?article_id=283510 <http://www.akinyi-princess.de/modules/wsShop/article.php?article_id=283510&location_id=326> &location_id=326 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You know what matters most to me? YOU. I’d not exist without you. So when I say I need your feedback, suggestions, ideas and criticisms, I really mean it. How can I improve your experience as a reader? Let me know. You can write me an email, drop a line on my Facebook page, tweet about me or comment on my articles. Cheers! In this issue: 1. Mindset of the Issue 2. African Proverbs 3. From the Executive Editor 4. Features Certain Words Tell. Do Yours 1. Mindset of the Issue “The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.” —Philip Roth “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” —Stephen King ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2. African Proverb: “When the river enters the lake, it loses its name.” ~ Luoland, Kenya ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3. From the Executive Editor WISHING EVERBODY A CHEERY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR! The site is still going strong with authors sending in the author interviews and guest bloggers posting on the new AuthorMeProfessionals Blog site: http://authormepro.com/conversation As usual, the Fan Pages http://facebook.com/Professionaless62bloggerP and www.facebook.com/KOrindaYimbo are trotting along nicely, thanks to you: Thanks to you, my fans, friends and friends of friends. Also do kindly visit, follow, like me or comment on these pages: www.facebook.com/akinyi.yimbo www.facebook.com/KOrindaYimbo http://facebook.com/Professionaless62bloggerP https://twitter.com/ @Apky11162 http://AuthorMePro.com http://AuthorMePro.eu http://twitter.com/#!/AkinyiMe Enjoy the article on Certain Words Tell. Do Yours? Happy Reading, Creating and Writing! Akinyi Princess of K’Orinda-Yimbo Executive Editor Features CERTAIN WORDS TELL. DO YOURS? By Michelle I’m competitive. I love tennis. I like to win ugly on the tennis court, but unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, I’m queen of the rim shots. Do you know what I mean? The ball hits my rim more than the center of my racquet. The good thing is that my opponent can’t tell where the ball is going. The bad thing is that I don’t either. Writing is also one of my favorite things to do. I can’t stop. But unlike tennis, I believe I can get better–even in my old age, whereas, in tennis I’m about as good as I’ll ever be. I’m competitive–just not an athlete. I can’t change that. But I can improve my writing, and because I’m competitive, I know I will. Reading books on writing is one way that I learn the craft. The other way is to enter writing contests. How do I know if my writing is improving? Judge’s scores always differ, but usually there’s something they all agree on. One category on most score sheets is, “Does the author have a grasp of what showing versus telling means?” 1 is poor, 5 is the best. I rarely score a 5. This frustrates me. I want to know WHY they think I’m telling and not showing. I need to SEE the telling parts as blatantly as a judge can SEE THEM RIGHT AWAY. Right now. Guess what? I found a book that’s helping me do just that. Last week I downloaded Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View, by Jill Elizabeth Nelson for FREE. Jill’s book is about how to write in deep POV. It was the best money I ever spent. Seriously, though, I would recommend this book even if I had to pay for it. (I think the Kindle version is $2.99) And NO I don’t know Jill. Never met her before. (I’d like to though.) I heard about her book at FB or Twitter. Word of mouth works. I’m only 3/4 of the way through the book, but I had this “aha” moment while I was reading Chapter Three. I was in the dentist office waiting to have my tooth extracted, and I needed a diversion. A good one! When I read Jill’s examples and explanations I laughed out loud. (It was the last time I laughed the whole day.) I wanted to share what I learned with you because I think it could help all writers. Let me ask you something: When you think do you say to yourself, I’m thinking I should go to the store today? No! Duh! You simply say, “I need to go to the store today.” You know you’re thinking. Why should you tell yourself you’re thinking? The same is true when we write. We don’t want the reader to leave our main character’s head. We want them to feel like they’re right there. There are certain words that get in the way of readers feeling like they’re in your head. Here’s what Jill said in Chapter Three: “In Deep POV, you will not need to write he thought/she thought. The same goes for he felt/she felt…he knew/she knew…wondered…realized…speculated…decided…wished…etc. These phrases are DEATH to Deep POV, because they create narrative distance. Readers are now at arm’s length from the character, not in the POVC’s head where they belong.” Stop and go to your WIP. Do it right now. Type one of these words (thought, felt, knew, wondered, realized, speculated, decided, wished) in the FIND bar. I typed THOUGHT in mine. Holy smokes. I’m embarrassed to tell you how many chapters contained that word. I write in SCRIVENER so it didn’t tell me my total. Thank goodness! Because I didn’t want to have to tell you. In Scrivener it only highlights the chapters that had that word. Sheesh, the word THOUGHT was in almost every chapter. Every. Single. One. Ugh! How about you? How many did you have? Tell the TRUTH. I love this visual! It’s measurable. It tells me that I still suck at telling. It’s like hitting the rim of my tennis racquet. In order to find my sweet spot I need to identify my weaknesses. This does it for me. It’s a start. Let me give you a few examples of what I mean. Jill has many of them in her book. I LOVED her examples because they were practical. I could see them. And I learned from them. Please keep in mind that I’ve just returned from getting my tooth extracted. (And still not laughing.) Since they say we should write what we know, here are my examples: Shallow POV: She thought getting her tooth pulled would be awful. DEEP POV: Phew! She was glad that was over. She almost came out of her chair when he yanked her tooth out. Shallow POV: When the dentist started the drill I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. DEEP POV: When the dentist’s drill revved its high-pitched squeal my stomach fell to my toes. Shallow POV: I knew it had to be done, but knowing that didn’t make me feel any better. DEEP POV: It had to be done. I begged him to get it over with. Fast. I clawed the arms of the chair. Shallow POV: I wondered how long it was going to take before the whole tooth was out. It felt like he was drilling to my brain. He’d warned me it could break into pieces. Was it? DEEP POV: Shoot! The tooth must have broken in pieces. He’s still yanking. Oh, no! Now he’s using the drill. Am I going to pass out? No, the noise of the screeching drill could wake the dead. Besides, I need to stay awake to make sure he doesn’t drill to my brain. Shallow POV: I wish I hadn’t gone to him. DEEP POV: If only I hadn’t gone. I’d be smiling right now. I love how going into DEEP POV gets straight to the point. You know what the character is thinking and feeling without the author saying “she thought this, felt this, wondered this.” Did you notice how I turned some of the telling sentences into questions? Jill recommends this. It’s not that the SHALLOW POV sentences are grammatically wrong. (Well, at least I hope they aren’t.) It’s just that they’re intrusive. The DEEP POV is the way to go. Now it’s your turn. I’ll post one of Jill’s homework questions. You’ll have to buy the book to see her answer examples. Shallow POV: “Kendra realized she couldn’t take the whole litter of puppies with her at once. She tried to think of ways she could smuggle them out one by one.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~