Details

As I was reading today, I realized something.  The best way to describe a situation is by careful insertion of details.  Rather than having long winding paragraphs and sentences of description which become boring to read and will leave your reader yawning, insert tiny details here and there that let your readers use their imaginations but at the same time give them a good sense of where your character is and what he is doing.  Of course, sometimes you must have a longer-than-preferred description but cutting it up into shorter sentences makes it easier for a reader to digest.  For example, compare the following excerpts from J.R.R. Tolkien's Hobbit and Rick Riordan's The Lightening Thief.

The Hobbit page 10.
The mother of our particular hobbit - what is a hobbit?  I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us.  They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded dwarves.  Hobbits have no beards.  There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off.  They are inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leather soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it).  Now you know enough to go with.

The Lightening Thief pages 32 and 33.
My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.  Her eyes sparkle and change colors in the light.  Her smile is as warm as a quilt.  She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old.  When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad.  I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.

What did you think?  Which did you enjoy reading more and which held your interest longer?  Don't mistake me, I love Tolkien's work as much as Riordan's but one is certainly easier to read. 
Another excerpt I found interesting was from S. J. Kincaid's Insignia.  Check it out:
Insignia page 395.
"When the time comes to send out the virus, I want you to think this: 'tiny spicy Vikram'."
Vik's smile dropped away.  Despite the seriousness of his situation, Tom started laughing.
"Wait, no," Vik said.  "I don't like this phrase."
"Don't think it too early," she [Wyatt] warned Tom.
"Vikram is not tiny," Vik declared belatedly.  "I'm taller than both of you."

Now, I did cut some of the dialogue out because it was unnecessary but here's my point.  For 394 pages we didn't know that Vik was taller than Wyatt and Tom.  We didn't really know anything about Vik's height.  Instead of Kincaid bombarding our eyes with paragraph-long descriptions, she waited and slid in details like that.  That is what makes a story feel more realistic.  In real life, we don't have winding details, we have little tidbits inserted into our senses.  Doing this in your story will make it more believable and help your readers relate more to the characters.  Practice this in a story you are currently writing or go back and find one you wrote a while back and look for instances where you did or didn't use this technique.
May your pens stay sharp!
*Evyn

Annotation

As you know, most of my posts come from what I've been learning. As a student, I am blessed to have resources many do not have such as English teachers to pepper with questions and a library readily available. One of the classes I am taking, Literary Analysis 1, has been teaching me things about writing I couldn't have imagined. Like most classes, what is taught is often not the most important part. The most important part is the conclusion you come up with after thinking about the lesson you received. Meditating on a topic and delving into its secrets is something that will teach you better than any hour spent in class.
One of the topics my class has been discussing is the practice of annotation.  Google defines 'annotate' as ' to add notes to (a text or diagram) giving explanation or comment'.  I might do another post on how to annotate but today, I simply want to give you examples of how annotating has affected the way I read stories and the way I write them.
Annotation forces you to actively think as you read, often requiring you to highlight or underline specific passages.  Rather than switching off 'thinking mode', you have to switch on 'active reader'.  This carries over into stories you don't have to annotate and would normally skim through.  I have realized that I have become a more involved reader because of my developing annotation skills.  Annotation is a great skill for a writer to develop because by dissecting great authors' stories you learn what makes a good story tick.  You then take that knowledge and apply it to your own writing.  Give annotating a try and let me know what you think in the comments!
May your pens stay sharp!
*Evyn

Where to begin

Hi!  I didn't really know where to start for my first post because of several reasons.  The first being that I've thought of this blog for a long time and have thought of several topics for posts but didn't want to begin with something like 'creating the right atmosphere for your adventure novel'.  Uh, no.  That would be a bad start.  So I decided to start with 'where to begin', a title which expresses both my confusion with my first post and the topic for the following!  Enjoy!

Ok, let's say you've already come up with a good plot for your story, you just need a name for your character.  What do you do?  It's not enough to name him 'Jack' and her 'Jane'.  You need to carefully think out your names.  For instance, I chose the pseudonym 'Evyn' (derived from the name 'Evan') because it means 'good messenger'.  The name conveys a certain feeling when you read it and means something special to me.   I also hope my writing brings a good message.  Check out the article from http://www.babynames.com/character-names.php.  Because of copyright issues, I couldn't put it down below but you can still comment on it and let me know your thoughts!
May your pens stay sharp!
*Evyn