Kitchen Shenanigans

By Ciel - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Cooking, Food & Wine

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Prompt: September

September... One of those months that is abundant with associations, meanings and metaphors... Labor Day--honoring working people, with a day off-work, and significant to the fashionable, because after this day, you can put away your whites and lights, and dress in those deep rich tones of autumn.... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Building the Arc

Life is change; life is problems and challenges; life is reaction and response. All these things also are what make a character and a story come alive, and the process of their change and evolution is the arc. A character arc begins with the character's state of being at the beginning of the story,... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Which Word, When and Why?

The words you use to are like the body-language of a story: they suggest and imply, and communicate more than their definitions allow. We use certain words in dialogue to convey personality of the speaker. The words you use in narrative reveal your personality as a writer, and also the personality... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Breaking the Rules

The best writers, the authors of best-sellers, of the classics--break the rules. Tolkien would have gotten a fight from a contemporary editor for his pages-long single-speaker narrative in FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, a scene in which Gandalf describes to a gathering why he missed an appointment. Mark... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, May 7, 2012

If you have never seen Jacques Tati...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZGUIpdc0i4&feature=related Take a couple of minutes for this retrospective glance at M.Hulot's Holiday Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Commas.

Commas? Commas! We need punctuation to make sense of what we read. Punctuations tells something of the sound of the words, the emphasis, and most importantly, what is the relationship of word to word, phrase to phrase. Commas inform as we read, what modifies what, and what does not modify what. When... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Intellect vs Inspiration

This is one of my Writing Workshop topics, addressing the problem of getting past the left-brain's diligent conscious ordering and explication of an idea, to the right-brain's almost effortless expression of the idea. A friend sent me this link today, so I can share it with you:... Sign in to see full entry.

Here's an eye-opening Blogit writer to check out!

Setaki writes of South Africa. I've been delighting in these anecdotal tales very much! If you are familiar with and enjoy Alexander McCall Smith's 'First Ladies Detective Agency' stories, you'll appreciate what Setaki writes, with a similar dry and affectionate and sometimes subtly grim voice, of... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Here's a fun dialogue prompt: A most unlikely meeting!

This is going to be one of the exercises in my writing workshop. First, the video... http://www.slothster.com/2352-Cat-On-Boat-Plays-With-Dolphins.html Now, the prompt: Write the conversation that is taking place between these two. Ideally, write it with nothing to pad it out: just the dialogue,... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Writer's Workshop: commas

As a reader, I beg you. be aware of when, where, and maybe even why to use commas, and take the time: misplaced punctuation ruins the magic of the storytelling, like your car bottoming out on the road, just when you are enjoying the ride. As an editor, it is maddening to deal with a manuscript that... Sign in to see full entry.

About this Blog

The Kitchen is always a place of warmth--sometimes too warm--and gratifications, of indulgences, clever solutions, and occasional disasters. It is a place of recipes and experimentation. This blog is going to be hanging out in the kitchen for a while.

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