The Writer's Corner Archives - Page 41 of 74 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

How To Format Your Novel

About editing and proofing: I see a lot of self published books and sometimes the formatting is so bad I can hardly read the story. Don’t let this happen to your book. Proof the book, then proof it again, then proof it again, before you publish.

Format: you should give the reader’s eye somewhere to ‘rest’. This means you should have adequate ‘white paper’. If margins are not tight enough and too much text is on the page, it’s exhausting. When paragraphs are too long they also exhaust the reader.

Here is a link https://forums.createspace.com/en/community/docs/DOC-1482 and a format I use exclusively. Or you can just go to:
1] page layout in your doc
2] margins
3] custom margins and then put in the numbers.
4] Be certain your ‘gutter’ number is 7.0 minimum
My publishing platform offers templates for whatever book size I am going to use. So I download the template and begin writing, from the very beginning, using that. It saves so much time in formatting later. Or if you have been writing a story for awhile, you cut/paste the manuscript onto the template. But you must proof it and edit it.

Each chapter should begin on an odd numbered page. On that page the heading should be consistent; that is, 6 or 7 or 10 spaces down, but consistent. The chapter title should be centered. Don’t be afraid of the even numbered page opposite the new chapter being blank. That’s what your reader expects to see.

The header should be consistent: even-numbered page should have the author’s name and the odd numbered page, the title of the book. The pages leading up to the first chapter should NOT have headers.

Justification: Your ‘alignment’ should be ‘justify’ rather than ‘left’. This gives your document clean crisp edges so it looks more polished. But I frequently find the program will default to ‘justified’ on a line of text that has only a few words and spreads them out inappropriately across the page. When this happens, highlight the text and choose ‘left’ alignment. That will clean it up. There should be NO spacing between paragraphs.

Your copyright ‘Notice’ page: (Always on an even numbered page.) should carry weight. Many amatures list only the year of copyright, Title, ISBN number. Your page should look like this:

Notice (centered)

Copyright (c) 2016 Trisha Sugarek. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written
permission of the Author. Printed in the United States of America. For information contact author at www.writeratplay.com.
The Library of Congress has catalogued the soft cover edition of this book as follows: Sugarek, Trisha, Song of the Yukon, Trisha Sugarek –
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and
any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales in entirely coincidental.

ISBN 978-1489558206

Cover Design by David White, Illustrator

Song, ‘Swiftly I Go’ by Gary Swindell, Composer
Additional lyrics and poetry by Trisha Sugarek (I believe you should give a credit line to each contributor on the “Notice” page.)

The author should always registering the book with the US Copyright Office $35. Protect yourself!

Questions: I welcome them. You can reach me: click here

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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? January: Sue Grafton ~ In Memory
March: Mystery (and Western) writer, Larry D. Sweazy. April: in60Learning ~ A unique, non-fiction mini-book read in 60 minutes.

To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!
To Purchase

Interview with Western & Mystery Writer, Larry D. Sweazy

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? Or tell us about your ‘dream’ work space.

LS. I have a dedicated office that I’ve worked in for the last seventeen years. It has a desk, books, and comfy places for my dogs (two Rhodesian ridgebacks) to hang out with me. For years, though, I had a little desk in the bedroom, and wrote wherever I could. I’m not sure a space creates any magic, but it can’t hurt to be surrounded by books and dogs…

Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? (a neat work space, sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)

LS. No, not really. I usually grab a cup of coffee, sit down, and start writing where I left off the day before. That’s boring, but it’s the truth.

Q. Could you tell us something about yourself that we might not already know?

LS. I’ve nearly died twice in my life…third time is a charm has me a little worried.

Q. Do you have a set time each day (or night) to write?

LS. I usually write in the morning, first thing. I try to stay as close to the dream state as I can. But when I’m really in a story, I’ll write whenever I get a chance.

Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?

LS. Just write the story. Don’t worry about agents, or publishing, or getting famous. Just write. You can’t edit a blank page. Quit coming up with excuses. If your dream is to be a writer, then sit down and write only the story that you can write. If what you write sucks, edit it, or delete it, then keep on writing. Writing is a craft. You have to be willing to put in the time into reading and writing over everything else.

Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters?

LS. Characters are everything for me. I usually get a glimpse of them at the start of a story, and my curiosity drives me to find out more about them. Most of my characters are wounded in some way, looking for a way to prevail over their current circumstances. Marjorie Trumaine, the main character in my amateur sleuth mystery series, is a North Dakota farm wife with a quadriplegic husband. She’s trying her best not to lose the farm, and the local extension agent encourages her to take a correspondence course in back-of-the-book indexing to make extra money. The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) used to offer courses like this to farmers to generate extra income. Anyway, Marjorie’s well read, so when a murder happens close by, the sheriff asks her for help. But she still has to figure out how to run the farm and take care of her husband. She has a lot of challenges to overcome. I also wrote a stand-alone a few years ago about an aging Texas Ranger who gets into a shoot-out with Bonnie and Clyde and loses his right arm. That novel, A Thousand Falling Crows, concerns the character’s fight to go on living regardless of the difficulty of his new circumstance. What a character goes through and how they come out of it shows who they are as far as I’m concerned. We all have our battles. Characters that have something to fight for are a big draw to me.

Don’t miss Part 2 of this fascinating Interview March 9th

Marjorie Trumaine’s latest mystery, SEE ALSO PROOF will be released May 1st.
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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? January: Sue Grafton ~ In Memory
March: Mystery (and Western) writer, Larry D. Sweazy. April: in60Learning ~ A unique, non-fiction mini-book read in 60 minutes.

Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!

To Purchase

Storytelling…a Cultural Imperative!

What is a cultural imperative? ‘Peoples living within the encompasses of cultures associated with very different ethnicities often imbue radically different moral imperatives, through identification processes carrying across generations. Such cultural imperatives prevalent within one culture may not have any direct equivalent within another culture…’ *

Glaring examples of this are the ethnic groups who, putting themselves at risk for censor or abuse, have insisted on keeping their native language, rituals, and religions alive. ‘one culture may not have any direct equivalent within another culture…’ But the one imperative that has crossed all ethnic and cultural groups is storytelling.

What is this imperative that most people feel….to tell stories? It seems, to me, to be hardwired into our DNA.

We begin at an early age: making up stories (to ourselves) as we play with our dolls or cars. A child has no inhibitions when it comes to weaving a fantastical tale, frequently out loud, as they play.
A mother or father sits at their child’s bedside and makes up stories until they fall asleep.
A comic book writer tells his stories with a few words, facial expressions, and action illustrations.
A poet tells their stories through rhyme, lyric or free verse.
A playwright creates their story so that others can tell it.
Another storyteller sees their stories happening in the far future.
Another goes to the dark side of human nature and writes stories about things that go bump in the night.
A teacher tells a story to enhance the lesson. (I miss you, Miss. O’Connor.)
The novelist weaves a longer tale; taking their characters on adventures, discovering love, suffering defeats, and usually conquering all in the end.
……even gossip could be considered storytelling.

I have worried out loud (and written about it here) that storytelling will die, be a thing of the past. But now I believe that many of us do have that cultural imperative to tell and write down our stories. After all the synonyms for imperative are: involuntary, necessary, nonelective, obligatory, peremptory, required.
I don’t think storytellers can help themselves. We have to tell stories!

* IdentityExploration.com/Culture_Imperatives
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The Tuscan Child ~~ A Review

5 out of 5 quills ~~ The Tuscan Child by Rhys Bowen

All writers have a voice. A flavor, a timbre. Some good, some not so good. Rhys Bowen has her own unique essence. Like fine wine her words flow across the page effortlessly. The tale of The Tuscan Child journeys between England and Italy. Within this author’s superb writing she captures the staid, stoic, ‘stiff upper lip’ of the English personality and the extravagant, dramatic over-the-top flamboyance of the Italians. It’s perfection.

We travel the countryside of Surrey, England which Bowen has brought to clear and gleaming life. The rolling hills, the hedgerow lanes, the tiny villages, the ancient, cold stone from which most of the great houses were built, centuries ago. In alternate chapters the author thrusts the reader into another fortress-like village, surrounded by olive trees under a hot Tuscany sun, full of the aromas of cooking. The absolute power of the church and the old, archaic Italian families dominates the population. Mixed in with life in the 70’s we travel back in time to the same village in occupied (by Germans) Italy in the 40’s. We hide out with a downed pilot behind enemy lines.

If you know me, as a reviewer, I don’t write spoilers. I don’t fill my review with a synopsis of the story. I prefer to tell you about the writing. It’s always about the

mysteries, best sellers, Rhys Bowen, author — Rhys Bowen, Author

writing. But I will tell you this; Bowen has created two wonderful new protagonists: Sir Hugo Langley, bomber pilot in the RAF and his daughter, Joanna Langley. Their stories separate them by thirty years as the daughter tries to understand a time when the world was at war and her father was fighting for his life.

Released February 20th for sale. Rhys Bowen’s fans can look forward to an exceptional story and superb writing!!

Did you miss my Interview with Rhys? Click here
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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? January: Sue Grafton ~ In Memory
March: Larry D. Sweazy

Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!

Black Orphans…What Did Savannah Do With Them? (Nostalgia-part 7)

In honor of Black History Month I am reposting this story about orphans and an old man. The other day I was out on errands and spied a ‘For Sale/Waterfront’sign . In my neck of the woods that usually means river front and/or marsh land. So I turned around and followed the signs. At the end of the road I found a beautiful home on some acreage. I always like to look at real estate and I am always curious about what ‘water front’ costs. Driving slowly onto the property I began to look for a flyer. Failing that, I slowly rounded their circular driveway heading back out.

I paused at the street as a man, riding a John Deere mower, chased me down and asked if he could show me the house. What luck! I was going to be able to see the beautifully restored plantation house. I never could have imagined the story that awaited me!

It sits on three acres with a six car garage, a guest house, a barn and a doll house. The lawns spill down to a large deck overlooking a tidal creek which feeds out to the Vernon River. The live oak trees are hundreds of years old, Spanish moss dripping from every branch. The deck has been built around an oak even to the point of interrupting the hand railing to accommodate an oak branch eighteen inches thick. (it’s a southern thing; we love our live oaks.)

But it was the owners’ story that I wanted to share.

Dick and Sue bought the working farm and farm house in 1975. Back then, common in those days, the kitchen was outside on a porch so that it wouldn’t add to the summer heat within the house. The house was approximately 1,000 sq. feet compared to its 5,000 sq. ft. now.

Part of the sale was that the new owners must care for a middle-aged black man; the grandson of slaves, for the remainder of his life. That in itself was remarkable but they agreed.
Parker Bell was illiterate, didn’t know how old he was, didn’t know his mother or father’s name. As a child he was raised on the ‘Brown farm‘. At first I found little history referring to a ‘brown farm’ but had heard that this is where young African-American children (orphans) were housed after the civil war and into the early 1900’s. I wondered if the name was an acronym in reference to John Brown, the abolitionist?

But thanks to a friend, who loves this kind of research as much as I do….we found the ‘Brown Farm’ in Savannah, GA., and a census map.

‘Young black children who were orphaned in Savannah from the latter part of the 19th century to 1943 had – for a number of reasons – nowhere to live except Savannah’s penal farm. There the young children were surrounded by such sights as men in shackles laboring in the fields, windows with bars and chain gangs. The kids were not being punished, but it was common practice for them to be taken there.

Savannah Penal Farm

Just Released! A new novel by Trisha Sugarek

Because there was no orphanage for black children, Chatham County black youth were often placed at the old Brown Farm, a 400 acre county penal farm for convicts (located on Montgomery Crossroad near where Lake Meyer is now) where they remained until they reached legal age. The girls were sent to the Chatham County Protective Home, operated by the Savannah Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs. This practice went on for years, until Greenbriar Children’s Center was established.’ (Courtesy Greenbrier Children’s Center)

Lori’s mother-in-law, Mamie (now 94 years of age) remembers the Brown Farm. She told us, “When I was a young’un, me and a girl was in a fight, and both of us was sent to the Brown Farm for thirty days. The people in charge there, had us to wash clothes for the boys that were living there. I believe that old brown farm is where Memorial Hospital is now, just off Waters.”

Back to the old man. Parker Bell lived in the guest house and had the run of the property until his death a few years back. The family treated him like a favorite cousin. He didn’t have a social security number and because of his learning disabilities couldn’t work an outside job. But he kept busy cleaning up leaves, mowing grass and helping the children with their horses. Dick and Sue kept their promise and supported Parker Bell, until his death. Dick told me the fascinating story of the night they had a dinner party for twelve. In the middle of the meal, Parker walked into the house and into the candle-lit dining room, proudly holding up a stringer of fish, saying, “Mr. Dickie, I caught us a mess of bass outta that creek.”

My whole adult life I have had my best adventures when I’ve been ‘lost’….and today was no exception. To other writers out there? Our stories are all interwoven as human beings. Your new story could be around the next bend in the road.
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS!

In addition to my weekly blog I also feature an interview with another author once a month. So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!

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Chuck Lorre…Vanity Blog (The Big Bang Theory)

Chuck Lorre, creator of The Big Bang Theory, (Young Sheldon, Mike & Molly, and Two and a Half Men and numerous movies) has been writing vanity blogs way before the word ‘blog‘ was coined. If you have a ‘pause’ button on your remote, it’s certainly worth a read. It appears at the very end of each episode, after the credits and ‘Coming next week‘ stuff.

VANITY CARD #579

“When I was a little boy I was constantly worried about myself and my family being killed by an atom bomb. Air raid drills and hiding in underground shelters were an almost daily part of my young life. (Remove all pens, pencils and sharp objects from your breast pocket, take off your glasses, look away from the window, find a buddy, hold hands, no talking, walk quickly to the basement, get on your knees, place your head against the wall, wait for the all-clear signal, hope the teacher forgets about the arithmetic test you didn’t study for.) Looking back, it was a ridiculously traumatic way to grow up. But like so many awful things, you got used to it. The fear of instant annihilation was just always there, lurking in the background. Until it wasn’t. Somehow, over time, the inevitability of the mushroom cloud simply went away. Wise and prudent men in our country and others, found a better way to exercise their hatred and fear of each other’s social and economic system. Until now. Now the wise and prudent men are no more, and the unthinkable is back on the table. Death and suffering on an unimaginable scale is once again an option. The low drumbeat of existential dread has returned, and I find myself thinking odd thoughts, like: “I hope someone reminds him that he can’t play golf in a Hazmat suit.”

And now, as if his brilliance couldn’t reach higher heights, there’s spin-off show when Sheldon was a kid living in conservative, Bible-belt, Texas. If you love Sheldon in Big Bang, and we all do, you will adore this nerdy little kid (played by Iain Armitage) who’s smarter than anyone in his ‘little kid orb’. It might take you a show or two to realize the clever, subtle writing in this show when it appears to be so broad and red-neck, but trust me it really is our adored (grown-up) Sheldon as a kid.
My second favorite actor is the Mom, Mary. Played by Zoe Perry you’d swear it was Laurie Metcalf (Sheldon’s grownup Mom) when she was younger. And then there’s Annie Potts. Remember her from Designing Women and Ghost Busters? She’s back as Sheldon’s Memaw (grandmother) and is a riot!!!

But I digress, just a little bit. Chuck Lorre’s vanity cards aka blog: I will never come close to his writing talent. But I can try. I can encourage others to try. And I can simply sit back and enjoy Lorre’s genius just for the sake of genius!
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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? December: British writer, J.G. Dow. January: Sue Grafton ~ In Memory

Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

John Lithgow….and His Stories

“…and that’s why we all need stories.” John Lithgow said in a recent talk show interview. He was telling the story of his father reading, to he and his siblings, from a book of short stories. And then years later, as his father lay dying, John Lithgow said he read aloud to him from the very same book.

John tells another story, within his story about reading this book of shorts to his father. He has been on the road with this one-man show for years. Narrating these same stories from this same book. He calls it a trunk show; an old theatre expression. That is, pack up everything at night’s end and move, on down the road, to the next town where he presents this one-night-stand again. He says that he finally wound his way to Broadway and is now performing to sold-out, delighted audiences.

This is why I entreat, beg, admonish, and plead with my readers to tell someone your story (hopefully your children and grandchildren), or write it down in a journal or even publish it. With today’s technology we are losing our oral history. And when this set of grandparents pass away it will all be lost. We all need stories.

“Rarely have I spent so entertaining and touching a night at the theater. The predominant sentiment in Stories by Heart is love.” —Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal

“Superb, illuminating and uplifting. The imagination, Mr. Lithgow wants us to know, is powerful. What could feel more current, more worthwhile in the first days of 2018?” —Jesse Green, The New York Times

This is me telling a story about John Lithgow’s story.
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Sue Grafton ~ Interview ~ In Memory

~~ In Memory ~~ An Interview with Mystery Writer, Sue Grafton (Part 1)

Author, John D. McDonald died suddenly back in 1986 and took Travis McGee with him. I owned and had read every book of McDonald’s…..Now what was I supposed to do?? I didn’t read many mysteries (back then) but I was especially fond of Travis and his bear-of-a-man friend, Meyer. So back in the eighties, (when you shopped at a real bookstore), I looked through the aisles for someone worthy of replacing John McDonald. There I found “A is for Alibi” with the formidable and quirky, Kinsey Milhone. I’ve been reading Sue Grafton ever since.

Now, with Sue’s passing, we have to say goodbye to another great writer who gave us Kinsey Milhone and so many hours of entertainment in reading. In August, 2013, Sue gave me an interview and I thought, as a way of sharing it with my readers, I would post it again in loving memory. We will miss you, Sue! TS
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this entry from Sue’s journals;

Dear Shadow . . . Self . . . and Right Brain, Doing everything I can here to make life possible. I’ve abandoned the old story . . . cleaned out my computer . . . sorted and tossed and filed away old notes and articles. Now I need help in launching myself again. Please speak to me. Please let me know where the new book is coming from. I really need your assistance and I’m hoping you’ll spark something so I can get to work.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Love & kisses,

Sue

Response from Shadow Self: How about an old-fashioned unsolved murder case? Parents are angry because nothing’s been done. Case is old & cold, with no new leads coming in.
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Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing?

best sellers, Sue Grafton, — Sue Grafton’s work space

SG. I have an office in both my homes; Montecito, California and Louisville Kentucky. The two are different in terms of size and style but I can’t tell you that I’m more productive in one than in the other. I like lots of light. I like tidiness. I like space. I like quiet. When I’m working my desk is usually a mess, but I do make an effort from time to time to restore order. The creative process is messy enough. I don’t need to look at chaos as well.

Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? (sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)

SG. Often I do a short stint of self-hypnosis which helps quiet the chatter in my head and helps me focus and concentrate. I learned the technique from a book on the subject that I got at a book store and it’s been a wonderful way to keep ‘centered’ if you’ll forgive the term.

Q. What is your mode of writing? (long hand? Pencil? Computer? Etc.)

SG. A computer, of course. Which I claim has greatly improved my skills. In the ‘olden’ days of white out and cutting and pasting, I got hung up on whether the page ‘looked right’. I hated adding anything that forced me to repaginate because I didn’t like all the extra work. If I deleted 11 lines, I got so I could exactly replace the missing lines with something that would work as well so that I didn’t have to retype everything. To my way of thinking, this is not the key to writing well. On a computer I can and do write every line over and over until it suits me. The tinkering is infinite. I when a line is right and when it’s not, I revise and refine and cut and amend until it sounds right to my inner ear.

Q. Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative?

SG. I’m usually at my desk at 8:00. I check emails and make a brief visit to my Face Book page where I chat with readers. I never feel truly creative. I work until lunch time when I take a short break. go back until mid-afternoon when I usually take a walk with one of a number of friends. I work seven days a week because it’s easier to stay connected to the writing. In completing “W” I worked double-sessions, returning to my desk after dinner. I cut out our social life. I nixed all the walks which I found interrupted the work too often. I didn’t run errands. I didn’t stop to get my hair cut.

Part 2 of this Interview Click here

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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? December: British writer, J.G. Dow. January: In Memory, Sue Grafton.

Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!
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This Author/Blogger has tried her hand at true crime mysteries with great success. There are now eight in the series

How To Format Your (Self-published) Stage Play

TS. Now that the traditional publishers have turned you down, file away that rejection letter, soothe your fragile writer’s ego with a hot cup of tea, some chocolate, or whatever and self-publish your play.

It’s important to know that the correct way to format a stage play for submitting (to a publisher, agent or theatre) is very similar to the format used when publishing it. Below is a sample of the correct formatting.

List of Characters: I noticed that in the Dramatists Play Service scripts, they do not list the ages of the characters. I know from experience that a director wants to have this information immediately when choosing a play. What if they don’t have an eighty-year old, male who can act? Make-up can only go so far! Ethnicity is rarely listed but there are exceptions. But, generally, no. What if the director has a different vision for casting?

Sample:

CAST OF CHARACTERS (Place on the 3rd or 4th page after title, playwright’s name, Copyright notices.etc.)

CAST OF CHARACTERS (centered.)

Emma ~~ A young earthling girl
Stare ~~ A rhetorical owl
Donald ~~ A young fairie
Cheets ~~ a rambunctious elf
Patsy ~~ A large banana spider
Agnes & Annie ~~ the sister Aardvarks
Thomas ~~ the sea-faring sea turtle
Bertie ~~ the resident reading teacher

SETTING

The Fabled Forest

TIME

Present day.

Format Sample:

(From my published children’s play, “Emma and the Aardvarks”© ) The formatting of the Dramatist Play Service (publishers) do use parentheses when formatting the blocking. It is jumbled into dialogue even though it does not pertain to that particular character’s ‘action’. I find this very distracting but I am certain it has to do with production costs and keeping the page count down. Blocking direction is indented, italicized and in parentheses. Line spacing is 1.15 instead of single-spaced. Character’s names are all in CAPS, centered, and not italicized. Before dialogue, Characters’ names are all in CAPS with a period. Blocking is indented x 2. Scene breaks should be on the next (right) page. There are no extra line-spaces between blocking and dialogue except if there is a ‘beat’ when the same character pauses. Be certain to leave plenty of white space for the actors/director’s written notes. I prefer the format used by (my publisher) Samuel French, Inc. which you see below:

ACT II (centered & underlined.)

Scene 2

At Rise: A clearing in the fabled forest.

(EMMA and MRS. MOSEYALONG are sitting together on the grass. The PUPPIES are rolling around, play fighting, in the grass as puppies do. CHEETS is trying to get into the play. AGNES and ANNIE sit across from THEM reading THEIR book on Australia.)

MRS. MOSEYALONG

Let me assure you, Emma, we hunt and eat impala, Thomson’s gazelle and common wildebeest. Also, smaller animals such as dik-dik and warthogs.

CHEETS
(Stopping HIS play with the PUPS.)

That’s a funny word. Dik-dik. (Demanding.) Cheets wants to know what it means.

EMMA

Manners, Cheets. Perhaps you could ask Mrs. Moseyalong about dik-diks.

CHEETS

Cheets wants to know about dik-diks.

STARE

Who?

(EMMA sighs.)

MRS. MOSEYALONG

It’s all right, Emma. Sometimes my pups can be very rude. (To Cheets.) Dik-diks are a small antelope. We don’t hunt Aardvarks. We find their meat far too fatty.

AGNES
(Over-hearing.)

I beg your pardon. We are not fatty. Really! Annie, did you hear what that dog said about us?

ANNIE

Oh, I don’t think she meant⸺

MRS. MOSEYALONG
(Speaking simultaneously.)

I didn’t mean⸺

AGNES

Really! The nerve of some dogs.

MRS. MOSEYALONG
(Turning back to Emma and Cheets.)

Dik-dik live in the bushland of Africa. Sadly, they are being driven to extinction in some parts of our homeland. We try to eat other things.

PATSY
(Knitting her web furiously.)

Iii–Eee! Los pequeños, los cachorros! Mrs! Your children are destroying my web. Mira! See what they have done.

(Slowly rising, SHE crosses to where HER pups are bumping into the lower strands of Patsy’s web. SHE growls once deep in HER throat.)

MRS. MOSEYALONG

Grrrrrr⸺

(The PUPS instantly stop THEIR play and run to THEIR mother’s side, whining and kissing HER face.)

MRS. MOSEYALONG

I apologize, Miss Patsy. My pups are careless but mean no harm.

PATSY

Dios mío, qué molestia! My beautiful web. Now I will have to repair. Go away! I am very⸺how you say⸺ocupada.

(MRS. MOSEYALONG leads HER litter to the other side of the glen, where EMMA is sitting. ROGER, JAX and SERENGETI pile into EMMA’s lap and EMMA falls back in the grass, laughing. FERGUS and DONALD enter.)

MRS. MOSEYALONG

Good morning, Sir Fergus, Mr. Donald. (Turning to her pups.) Quiet down, children.

(The PUPPIES, stop their wrestling atop EMMA and sit at attention watching the adults. EMMA sits up.)

EMMA

Good morning. Sir Fergus, did you rest well?
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Do you need help Formatting a Novel?

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To correctly format your stage play for submitting to publishers, agents, directors click here.

Look Inside a script: Click Here
How To Format a Screenplay
Journals by Trisha Sugarek
Want to see some original plays? Click here.
47 Short Plays to choose from. Click here.
Fiction by Trisha Sugarek
Children’s Books by Sugarek
How to Create a Tantalizing Book Cover

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This exciting, instructional book is a collection of tips covering over twenty+ years of experience. Within its pages is a snapshot of the writer honing her craft over time.

Thirty-five writing tips that include:

That first, all important, sentence
How to develop rich characters
Writer’s Block
Procrastination
Writing process
Many more words of encouragement and tips, including quotes from successful writers such as yourself.

Takes the ‘scary’ out of writing!

Order here!

How To Write a Play Click Here
How To Format a Stage Play Click Here
How to Write a Ten Minute Play

How To Format a Screenplay
How to Format Your Novel
Want to try writing a ten minute play? Click here
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DON’T MISS MY BLOG with twice-weekly posts. Also featuring INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! with me once a month . We shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!

To receive my posts sign up for my on the home page; enter your email address. I love comments too! Take the time to write one at the bottom of the post. Thanks!
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To Purchase

Motivational Moments…for Writers! #35

A good writer knows what repetitive words he or she uses unconsciously. A few years ago I published a novel. This week I had an opportunity to send it to a traditional publisher of some repute. I thought: ‘I want the manuscript to be as close to perfect as I can make it, so I’ll take another look at it’. Knowing my go-to words are ‘that’ and ‘just‘, the first thing I did was find out how many times I’d used the word ‘that’. 807!! With editing, I happily reduced that number to 197.

How does that happen?? Well, we all have idiosyncrasies with our language. Yes, I had an editor and she missed it too. Then I checked the other devil word, ‘just‘. 234 times when only 5-6 were used appropriately. Yikes!

Be self-aware as a writer. Know your strengths, yes, but also your weaknesses. Know your eccentricities with language.

“The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.”~~ Walt Whitman

“Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality.
But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.“~~ T. S. Eliot

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