Regional stories are wrapped around the cultural, traditional, and environmental qualities of the area.  Often dialect is a feature, but not a requirement.  So work on a few paragraphs of a story that can only happen where you are.  Make it utterly dependent on the locale, can’t happen anywhere else but there.

Read Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” or Wolfe’s “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn” for example.

The post Tuesday prompt: #9 2013 first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

capture the details

When you have the vision clear in your mind, start writing it down.  Be as clear as you can with what the room looks like now and then blast away at it, always maintaining a steady sense of the place.  If necessary, keep your vantage point from one place in the room, i.e., the entrance from the front hall or a corner where most of the room is viewable, even a glimpse of other rooms to add contrast.  Most importantly, don’t let your reader get lost in the room. 

This could take a bit of time and writing. When you have it all, go back through and remove everything that is unnecessary to maintaining the overall look. Keep trimming until you have it down to a page of overall change, with enough close detail to set the effect of the room as down to the tiniest point, and enough general description that the room is not centered on details.  Sort of like matching your earrings or cufflinks to the dress or suit you are wearing. No piece sets the tone alone, it all works together.

The post Tuesday prompt: #8 2013 first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

The post Tuesday weekly prompt first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

This is nothing new. John Gardner did it in Grendel (based on Beowulf) and Rhys’s also voiced other characters in Wide Sargasso Sea (a before Jane Eyre interpretation).  So give it a go.  What would another character say about how things went and why?  Give it a week’s effort. See you next Tuesday.

The post Tuesday prompt 2 first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

Prompt:  If you have read the book To Kill a Mockingbird, you will recall the situation I am about to describe.  If not, I think I have enough here to make the event clear.

Remember when Atticus was just trying to make Mayella Ewell comfortable in court, and the girl became quite angry because she felt he was insulting her by calling her Miss Mayella?  She was certain he was making fun of her because no one ever called her Miss Mayella, and she told the judge she was not going to answer any more questions because he was treating her badly. The judge tried to tell Mayella that this was just Atticus Finch’s way, that he was not making fun of her but was being respectful. She wasn’t buying it.

Your prompt is to write about a kindness misread.

The post The first weekly prompt first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.