role-play·ing ˈrōlˌplāiNG/ noun noun: roleplay 1. PSYCHOLOGY — the acting out or performance of a particular role, either consciously (as a technique in psychotherapy or training) or unconsciously, in accordance with the perceived expectations of society with regard to a person’s behavior in a particular context. Adult role play comes in many forms. Sometimes it’s therapeutic, sometimes it’s…
Tag: Karen Duvall
Descriptive Power on Page One
By Karen Duvall Description often gets overlooked for the power it can have in a story. Some dismiss it as no big deal, just use the five senses and you’re good to go. Some avoid using it altogether because they think readers skip that part to get to the action. Some worry over excessive exposition…
Coming to a Genre Crossroads
I’ve always been big on mixing genres, long before it became a thing. I’ve blogged about it before. I love the various juxtapositions you can get by tossing a genre salad into an innovatively unique story. As an omnivorous reader, I can’t help but enjoy adding a little of this and a little of that…
The End: Bringing Your Novel to a Close
There’s a lot of emphasis put on story beginnings as well as its muddy middle, but what about the end? I think the topic deserves more consideration. Every book has a beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning must be engaging enough to hook the reader, and the middle has to hold your audience’s…
Your Character’s Loss is Your Gain
Let’s talk about character and plot for a minute, and how one can’t exist without the other. Everything that happens in the plot forces your character to react, and your character’s reaction impacts what goes on in the plot. This creates a connected string of events that lead to the story’s ultimate conclusion. Action/reaction. Time…