Give Feelings a Chance to Act

   I read somewhere to give life to abstractions by substituting concrete images that suggest the feeling. I’ve decided to put that advice into practice with every other chapter. The newest one I wrote in revising Chapter One again is about Hada. Instead of saying she felt guilty, I wrote:

Guilt pinched at her heart and then hid somewhere, maybe in her bones.

It takes a while to think of feelings taking action, but it’s fun and avoids overused words.

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2 Responses to Give Feelings a Chance to Act

  1. Great idea for jumpstarting our creative juices. I’m going to try it with my first chapter. I’ll let you know how it works. Your revised sentence about guilt is much more interesting than telling us she felt guilty. It also gets rid of one of those nasty adverbs we are told to consider a scourge.

  2. I’ll look forward to how you use the idea with Pilz.

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