Comments for Romance University

Comment on What Charlie Chaplin Can Teach You About Writing a Great Love Story with Ollin Morales by Jennifer Tanner

Jennifer Tanner — Tue, 22 May 2012 02:38:43 +0000

Ollin,

Thanks for joining us today! I hope you’ll consider blogging with us again.

Comment on What Charlie Chaplin Can Teach You About Writing a Great Love Story with Ollin Morales by Jennifer Tanner

Jennifer Tanner — Mon, 21 May 2012 22:31:24 +0000

It’s a movie that came out a couple years ago.

Comment on What Charlie Chaplin Can Teach You About Writing a Great Love Story with Ollin Morales by Ollin Morales

Ollin Morales — Mon, 21 May 2012 22:28:20 +0000

Great! Is that a TV show or movie?

Comment on Sara Megibow Sells Romance – Who is a “good” literary agent? by Robin Covington

Robin Covington — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:11:15 +0000

And the winner is . . . . .Roxanne! Congrats and thanks for commenting!

Comment on What Charlie Chaplin Can Teach You About Writing a Great Love Story with Ollin Morales by Jennifer Tanner

Jennifer Tanner — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:03:07 +0000

Hi Ollin!

Terrific post! I was watching “It’s Complicated” last night. I’ve seen it at least five times, and every time I watch it, I look for emotional cues. The scenes with his children and ex-wife sitting around a bountiful table always resonate with me.

Family mealtime provides strong imagery. The ex-wife is an accomplished pastry chef and for her, food is and a way of connecting with people, a way to show her love for her kids. There’s one scene where the ex-husband drops off the son and isn’t invited for breakfast. The look in his eyes as he gazes at his family and the table laden with his favorite foods reflects his longing, sorrow and the fact that he’s an outsider.

Thanks for being with us today!

Comment on Balancing the Writer, the Agent and the Internal Editor by Agent Spotlight: Lois Winston « Writerlious

Agent Spotlight: Lois Winston « Writerlious — Mon, 21 May 2012 18:39:50 +0000

[...] “Voice! You can have the greatest plot idea in the world, but if your voice is dull or bland, I won’t read beyond the first few pages. In addition to voice, I want to see tight writing and fast pacing. Nothing drags a story down faster than pages and pages of description that have nothing to do with the scene at hand and/or dialogue that’s nothing more than useless chit-chat. Finally, if you can make me laugh out loud as I’m reading, you increase your odds exponentially. That’s not to say I only want humorous books. One of my authors writes horror. However, in my personal reading, I find myself drawn mostly to humorous contemporary novels. (Link) [...]

Comment on What Charlie Chaplin Can Teach You About Writing a Great Love Story with Ollin Morales by Kelsey Browning

Kelsey Browning — Mon, 21 May 2012 18:33:54 +0000

Hmm…very interesting. I may have to ask my CPs if they recognize tableaus across my work. Sometimes it’s hard for me to see the forest for the trees .

K-

Comment on What Charlie Chaplin Can Teach You About Writing a Great Love Story with Ollin Morales by Ollin Morales

Ollin Morales — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:49:38 +0000

You’re welcome, Roxanne!

Comment on What Charlie Chaplin Can Teach You About Writing a Great Love Story with Ollin Morales by Ollin Morales

Ollin Morales — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:49:14 +0000

Yes! I didn’t get a chance to go into that, because the post was already running a bit long.

But tableaus help with other things: recurring themes, story structure, etc.

In this article I chose to focus on building strong emotions, like love and romance, because that’s what RU is all about! But yes, tableaus open up infinite possibilities as to their use!

Comment on What Charlie Chaplin Can Teach You About Writing a Great Love Story with Ollin Morales by Ollin Morales

Ollin Morales — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:47:17 +0000

Thank you for having me Kelsey.

I feel very honored and it is such a pleasure. Your readers are wonderful!

To answer your questions:

Tableaus that recur in works, as you might know, are called motifs.

Many hollywood directors have motifs that you may be aware of: stephen spielberg always has children facing monsters or alien creatures. That’s his motif and it’s part of what identifies him and his unique style.

So, a recurring tableau would help you establish a unique motif–something that sort of identifies you. I have found that most people’s motif’s are unconscious. So you probably are already creating images that recur in your writing–I know this happens to me a lot.

The key is to become conscious of them. Once you’re aware of recurring tableaus than you can strategically place them across your novel or series of novels. A very smart thing that I see many popular writers do.

So, long answer to your question: yes tableaus recur but I think a smart author is always aware of the recurring trend and places them there deliberately.