Let's get comfortable with our Writing . . .

Let's get comfortable with our Writing . . .

BLOG SESSION

January 26, 2018

Writers ~ There is something about being comfortable when you write that produces a writing that is comfortable for your Readers.

The reason why we are having this Blog Session today is to get your mind ready for the various emotional aspects of writing.  There are emotional levels that come through when you write.  You will always be able to feel the following emotions when you read . . .

1)  Sadness (Sorrow)

2)  True intensity

3)  Joy

4)  Disappointment

5)  Wonder

6)  Curiosity

7)  Betrayal

8)  Hurt

9)  Grief

10)  Passion

11)  Warmth

12)  Empathy

13)  Fear

14)  Hate

15)  Happiness

16)  Anger

17)  Disgust

18)  Shock

19)  Kindness

20)  introversion (personality)

21)  extroversion (personality)

We'll be back to break these comfort levels down further in our next Blog Session ~ See you then!

OUR NEXT BLOG SESSION:

The Writer's Comfort Levels

Peace, Love & Light

By René Allen

©Copyright - René Allen - 2014-2018 - All Rights Reserved

How is your personal Library looking?

 How is your personal Library looking?

BLOG SESSION

December 2nd, 2017

Good Evening Writers ~ we're back for another exciting Blog Session!  We'd like to focus today on your personal Library.

Just to let you in on our topics here...normally, we discuss writing tips and from time to time we cover other areas of interest for all new Readers to our Blog.  Last month we focused on NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).  Many of our Blog Readers participated in the fun of writing a Novel in 30 days.  The goal for our novels was 50,000 words in whatever genre we so desired.

Fortunately, I was able to complete my Novel this year on nanowrimo.org with all of the other fellow Writers.  I love participating each year online with other like-minded Writers.  And even more, I love writing.  My Novel, entitled 'HouseCapades' was completed with 50,433 words!  When you are able to complete your 50,000 words, you receive this badge...

Wrote 50,000 Words and Validated

I'm planning to do a little editing on my Novel, like many of the other NaNoWriMo Winners.  What comes next for the participants is purely up to the individual  Author/Novelist.  You can learn more by checking out your dashboard on the nanowrimo site.  And, in January 2018, you can check out nanowrimo's "I Wrote a Novel--Now What?" page.  In January you can get help on taking the next steps with your Novel.

If you happened to have participated in NaNoWriMo this year and did not happen to reach the 50,000 word count mark, not to worry ~ you can definitely use what you wrote to keep working on your Novel.  Nothing is in vain.

There is NaNo Summer Camp in the months of April and July 2018.  You may want to participate in writing your fabulous Novel at that time.  It will be not only inspiring to you, but also to others who have the same goal.

Hopefully, if you are a Writer, you are also a Reader of great Novels.  If you have not built up your own personal Library why not start now.  Those who read a lot tend to have a better handle on writing their own Novel that awaits readership.

Until we meet again back here on the Blog, enjoy your weekend!

Future Novelist

Peace, Love & Light

By René Allen

©Copyright - René Allen - 2014-2017 - All Rights Reserved

Talking about Literary Genres

Talking about Literary Genres

BLOG SESSION

November 2nd, 2017

Good Morning Novelists!  Welcome back to our Blog Session about Literary Genres.  We'll be discussing genres to help you to pick out which genre your Novel fits into as you write your Novel this month during National Novel Writing Month.

A Genre is a label that characterizes what your Reader can expect with regard to your Novel.  Readers pick certain genres that suit their taste when it comes to choosing a Novel to read.  Whenever you choose a certain genre, it gives you an idea of what you can expect in a work of literature or nonfiction.  The major forms of literature can be written in various genres.  Genre is a category characterized by similarities in style or subject matter.

Let's start with the classic major genres of literature . . .

Comedy:  Refers to any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film, and stand-up-comedy.  The origins of the term are found in Ancient Greece.  Comedy derives from the Greek term (κωμῳδία, kōmōidía).  The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance which pits two groups or societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict.  Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old".  A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions that post obstacles to his or her hopes.  In this struggle, the youth is understood to be constrained by his or her lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to take recourse in ruses which engender very dramatic irony which provokes laughter.

Other forms of comedy include screwball comedy, which derives its humor largely from bizarre, surprising (and improbable) situations or characters, and black comedy, which is characterized by a form of humor that includes darker aspects of human behavior or human nature.  Similarly scatological humor, sexual humor, and race humor create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comic ways.

A comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society (usually upper class society) and uses humor to parody or satirize the behaviour and mannerisms of its members.  Romantic comedy is a popular genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms and focuses on the foibles of those who are falling in love.  

Drama:  Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance.

To give you a broader overview, when used to define a specific genre or type of film or television program, drama is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular sub-genre, such as "political drama", "courtroom drama", "historical drama", "domestic drama", or "comedy drama".  These terms tend to indicate a particular setting or subject matter, or else they qualify the otherwise serious tone of a drama with elements that encourage a broader range of moods.

All forms of cinema or television that involve fictional stories are forms of drama in the broader sense if their storytelling is achieved by means of actors who represent (mimesis) characters.  In this broader sense, drama is a mode distinct from novels, short stories, and narrative poetry or songs.  In the modern era before the birth of cinema or television, "drama" came to be used within the theatre as a generic term to describe a type of play that was neither a comedy nor a tragedy.  It is this narrower sense that the film and television industries, along with film studies, adopted.

"Radio drama" has been used in both senses--originally transmitted in a live performance, it has also been used to describe the more high-brow and serious end of the dramatic output of radio.

There is a range of descriptions for types of drama in film and television that we will cover in a later Session.  As there are many Writers who specifically write for Film and Television.

Horror Fiction:  Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten, scare, disgust, or startle its readers or viewers (in the case of film and/or television) by inducing feelings of horror and terror.

Literary historian J. A. Cuddon has defined the horror story as "a piece of fiction in prose of variable length...which shocks or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing".  It creates an eerie and frightening atmosphere.  Horror is frequently supernatural, though it can be non-supernatural.  Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for the larger fears of a society.

For Our Afternoon Blog Session:

More on classic major genres...

Literary Realism

Romance

Satire

Tragedy

Tragicomedy

Fantasy

Mythology

F R I E N D S

Until Our Next Blog Session ~

Keep your Novel on your mind

Peace, Love & Light

By René Allen

©Copyright - René Allen - 2014-2017 - All Rights Reserved 

BLOG SESSION

JUNE 2017

Sometimes babies know best...

We're back for another Blog Session, and we're discussing "empathy".  We had previously been discussing Empaths and Clairsentients on our last Blog Session.  We also touched on the fact that the idea of empathic people is becoming more highlighted in our consciousness as a society, and a lot of people have been able to identify with the definition.

The topic of "empathy" comes into view and should be discussed today for recording in your Journal notes.  If you are new here to the Blog, just so you know, we write in our Journals for every Blog Session.  If you do not have a Journal, please stop and pick one up, or grab your Notebook or some index cards for today's Blog Session.  If you are a daily Diary user, your Diary will work just fine as well.  We labeled our Journal for the month of June with the title of "Empath Journal" . . .

So now is the time to pull out your Journal and your trusty ink pen to begin your Journal Writing for today . . .

Let's start first with the definition of "empathy":

noun

1. "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another."

Lets go a little further with understanding "Empathy". . .

If we understand "empathy" to be the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner", then we can ascertain that our understanding, awareness, feelings, thoughts, and connection with the experience of another person is important in connection with empathy.  It would also make sense that an Empath would be able to do all that is described in connection with "empathy" just by the very nature of who an Empath is.

Empathy is so vital in terms of gaining a better understanding of others and also being clear about what the significance of "empathy" is that the 1st week in June is dedicated to it...

For your Journal Notes:  Scientific research currently divides empathy into the categories of ‘emotional empathy’ and ‘cognitive empathy’. Emotional empathy is the ability to respond emotionally to what another person is going through, and cognitive empathy is the ability to comprehend another person’s perspective or mental state.

Neuroscience, however, which has been dedicated to investigating empathy over the last decade or so, has found that there is a scientific explanation for how living creatures are able to empathise with others. Neuroscientists have called this phenomenon mirror-touch synaesthesia, where mirror neurons are activated when one animal sees another animal perform a particular behaviour.  It has been suggested that in the case of empaths, mirror neuron activity is particularly acute.

Empathy

It has been proposed that, like in the case of people with a very low empathic response, childhood trauma may be present to a greater degree in empaths than in the majority of the population.  The ability to empathise with the unpleasant experiences of another person may come, to some extent, from having had similar experiences.  However, having had similar experiences does not always mean that someone is able to empathise with others going through the same thing.

We all need to learn how to be more empathetic ~ "showing an ability to understand and share the feelings of another."

As we close out this Blog Session, I'll leave you with this entry for your Empath Journal about the POWER OF EMPATHY . . .

We have much more information to cover.  We'll be back here on the Blog discussing how people with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) have the capacity to experience great emotional depth because of their hypersensitivity.  And we will also discuss the difference between Empaths and Highly Sensitive People.

For now we'll take a brief coffee break and come back to resume our Blog Session . . .

Coffee Break!

~ See you back here shortly ~

Peace, Love & Light,

 René

©Copyright - René Allen - JUNE 2017 - All Rights Reserved

    

April 12th, 2017

Continuation of HouseCapades!

Good Evening everyone ~ tonight you will find the continuation of my Romantic Short Story entitled, "HouseCapades" by René Allen from the Anthology TWISTED SHORTIES II - A.F. Stewart, Editor, and Pam Brittain, Chief Compiler.

If you have been following along, the Short Story is continuing for the 5th Installation.  You can view HouseCapades from the beginning here on the Blog by viewing the four previous posts.

Your comments & thoughts are always welcomed here on the Blog!

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Twisted Shorties II

HouseCapades

By René Allen

VINETTE ONE ~ Unaccustomed Business

[ BLOG - continuation of Story ] . . .

*Red type denotes last paragraph where we left off . . .

As soon as Sheila stepped out of the elevator, she focused immediately on the handsome man standing in the foyer.  As she started walking toward him, she realized that he was looking at her deeply, and he had a stance and look as if he were studying her.  As she focused on his handsome face, Sheila realized that his expression was one of awe of what he was looking at. Was she that stunning to him?  She wondered.

”My God, this is my wife,” Quinton thought to himself. He could not stop staring at Sheila's beauty. He was speechless. There was a little voice inside of him that kept saying to him, “She is the one. She is the one.”

“Well, hello there, handsome.” Sheila said to him as she glided right into his arms.  Quinton embraced her with the kind of warmness and love that was her just due, but which only Quinton could provide to her.

As if a whirl-wind had taken them up, Sheila and Quinton held each other in a deep, long, and loving inter-twined kiss that involved all of their senses. Passion rising in both of them instantly, as Quinton embraced Sheila, and she melted into him.

They could not speak. Instead, they just looked at each other deeply, intently, and with an unwritten love-story screaming from within them both. They took each other's hand, and quietly, they headed toward the elevator, with Quinton handling his Crocodile luggage with excitement brewing.

Once inside the elevator, Quinton put his luggage down, and took Sheila into his arms – kissing her, embracing her. He could not stop his feelings from overtaking him. If he could take this moment, capture it, bottle it, and pull it back out at will, he would.

Still, they could not speak. Instead, they held each other and looked at each other with an eye-snap that could not be explained even if they tried. It was as if the world had stopped right then, and they were caught up.

Then, there was the sound of a “bing,” which indicated that the elevator was waiting on them to get out of it.

Quinton snapped back to the moment at hand, “Oh, I guess I forget to say 'Hi,' ” Quinton told Sheila, smiling like a billion dollar dessert tray.

Oh, how he took her breath away!  Sheila blushed.  Quinton was so sexy to her.

Quinton was strengthened by Sheila's touch.  He had been pursued by many women, but none of them did anything for him – they did not capture his interest; they did not make him want to know anything more about them; and they did not excite him in the least. Therefore, in years past, he had resigned himself to only an occasional dinner date with faceless and nameless women that were only there for the dinner, the fake smiles, meaningless conversation, and gone thereafter forever.

It wasn't until he had come to 1010 HouseCapade Blvd last year that he discovered that he was still alive inside. He had thought that he had gone dead to women in all capacities – spiritually, physically, mentally, intellectually, and any other way.

He had not had a meaningful relationship in so long that he had forgotten what relationships were all about. And even when he did have a relationship (many moons ago), he did not think that it had been meaningful. He thought he had just been in it for the heck of it –because she (name tossed due to insignificance) wanted him to be.

As they looked into each other's eyes, something was happening within them. They could both feel it, but could not explain it. And neither one of them had yet mentioned anything about what they were feeling inside.

Quinton spoke first, “Baby, what floor are we on?” It dawned on him that neither one of them had pushed any buttons.

Copyright May 2013 by René Allen - All Rights Reserved.

...TO BE CONTINUED...

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See you all back here for more of HouseCapades!

Get your Journals out, because we're going to be learning more about Short Stories at the end of this Romantic Short Story...

Peace, Love & Light,

  René

©Copyright - René Allen - APRIL 2017 - All Rights Reserved