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Post by torainfor on Jun 11, 2009 14:35:21 GMT -5
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Post by tris on Jun 11, 2009 15:19:50 GMT -5
Good link! Many thanks!
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Post by Teskas on Jun 11, 2009 16:51:03 GMT -5
That's a good link. Thanks for posting it.
I once worked for two hours to craft a particular image. The result was a single sentence, beautiful, imaginative, original. I was pretty proud of what I had done, and climbed into bed content with my work of art. I couldn't resist telling my husband what I had written.
He lowered the book he was reading, and said, "Very nice, but isn't that in the Iliad?"
When I checked it out, the joke was on me. Homer had used the same image 3,000 years before. So much for the injunctions to avoid cliches and pride of authorship.
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Post by torainfor on Jun 11, 2009 18:04:00 GMT -5
Only way my honey could catch something like that is if Louis L'Amour wrote it!
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Post by Teskas on Jun 12, 2009 22:35:18 GMT -5
Give Louis L'Amour 3,000 years.
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Post by kirstymca on Jun 30, 2009 14:56:34 GMT -5
I've never understood it when characters in books seem to be able to tell exactly what someone's feeling or thinking by looking at their eyes. I've just been reading a book where the girl keeps seeing "understanding" in the guy's eyes. How??? And how do eyes flash, twinkle etc? Certainly, sounds like good advice. It can be very easy to go with cliches. If you want some info on showing emotions, I highly recommend cedarseed.deviantart.com/art/Emotions-and-Facial-Expression-47118559. Aimed at artists, but a lot of useful stuff. Click on pic to see full size.
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Post by Jeff Gerke on Jul 1, 2009 7:44:01 GMT -5
Good point, kirstymca. One of my Fiction Tips has the klunky but descriptive title: "Avoid Letting Your Characters Make Accurate Guesses from Ambiguous Clues." It addresses this issue exactly. And cool link on the facial expressions thing. Jeff
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Post by Teskas on Jul 13, 2009 12:07:31 GMT -5
Thanks, kirstymca. I've passed the facial expressions link to a couple of fellow newbie writers. It great.
(Of course, all my writing friends know about Jeff's Tips!)
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Post by Spokane Flyboy on Jul 13, 2009 22:56:51 GMT -5
And how do eyes flash, twinkle etc? I've always understood flash to be an instant and dramatic change. Twinkle I believe is supposed to be that excessively wet sheen you sometimes see in someone's eyes when they're holding back tears, often seen in the eyes of brides walking down the aisle.
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Post by tris on Jul 15, 2009 16:51:35 GMT -5
ahh..but twinkle can also be that sparkle in the eyes of someone mischievious who's about to play prank
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Post by Spokane Flyboy on Jul 15, 2009 22:39:24 GMT -5
ahh..but twinkle can also be that sparkle in the eyes of someone mischievious who's about to play prank In reality, I've never actually seen someone's eyes seem to shine and sparkle in the light when they're about to do something mischievous. They usually narrow their eyes, though, and get a wicked grin.
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Post by torainfor on Jul 17, 2009 18:47:49 GMT -5
My father in law's eyes definitely twinkle when he's being sneaky or about to tell the punchline of a particularly horrible joke!
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Post by The Blue Collared Philosopher on Jul 18, 2009 14:05:53 GMT -5
I think certain people definitely have that twinkle. My little brother has it. its more like the skin around his eyes wrinkles perfectly to make it seem like his eyes are sparkling. and the look is soooo sudden and brief that its hard to describe.
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