I just learned about the Bechdel test (or Bechdel-Wallace test, as Bechdel prefers to call it to credit her friend, Ms. Wallace) from Andrea Lundgren’s recent blog post. This test requires in fiction or movies that 1) two women be present and named 2) talk to one another 3) about something other than a man. Continue reading “Does my novel pass the Bechdel-Wallace test?”
Category: Craft of writing
Writers are often INFJs or INFPs, based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Lauren Sapala, the author of The INFJ Writer in a recent blog post, writes there is no coincidence that many writers are INFJs or INFPs, which are terms for the personality types in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
The types are a four-part combination of four spectrums of likely thoughts, actions, behaviors that generate a personality type. These types are used to better understand ourselves and others, to improve communication between different types, and to work more effectively. But the types should not be used to label or box people into narrow definitions of self or others. Continue reading “Writers are often INFJs or INFPs, based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)”
Revise a draft using the five senses.
Another way to revise our travel stories (or any story or scene) is to use the senses to describe the setting, the characters, and the action. Using the words “I smell…, we heard…, or you may taste…” is NOT the point. We can imply the senses by using rhythm with our words or utilizing descriptors that convey the sense itself. Continue reading “Revise a draft using the five senses.”
Flow Writing followed by 3-step Revision
Flow Writing
In a recent Travel Touchstones: Transformative Travel through Creative Jou
rnal Writing workshop with lively participants, I explained that I developed the writing exercises as a result of not having the right kind of material from my journals when drafting my coming-of-age travel memoir, At Home in the World: Travel Stories of Growing Up and Growing Away.
I offered a flow writing activity. Continue reading “Flow Writing followed by 3-step Revision”
