Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

Decoding the language of writing can be difficult. As a beginning writer, I remember playing the eeny, meeny, miny, moe game as I tried to decipher which contest was best suited for my work. Was my piece memoir? Essay? Short story? The lines are blurred, but I have come up with a few definitions which might help you. FICTION is a made-up story and NONFICTION is a true story. MEMOIR is a longer work of nonfiction told from the perspective of the author, using the “I” voice. A memoir covers a certain period of time, such as your teenage years, or the empty-nest years. A memoir may also tell the story of an experiece, such as your years as a nurse during the Vietnam War. It is not a BIOGRAPHY, which is a story from birth to present or death. A shorter...

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How to Describe Characters

We are all guilty of it. The boring, ho-hum character description—brown eyes, brown hair, tall, or thin. I’m preparing class notes for my Writing in the Pines retreat this weekend. When we aren’t eating and writing, we will be talking about characters and scene. I’m digging through my favorite books to find great descriptions I can use as examples. One of my favorite go-to authors is A. Manette Ansay. She’s written some great novels (Vinegar Hill, Sister, Blue Water, River Angel) and even a memoir titled Limbo. I often search Ansay’s books for examples because she is a master describer of setting and characters. In one of her books (sorry, I can’t remember which)she has a minor character who only comes into the book a few...

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