Tip # 77: Composing Your Masterpieces: Part 1

For the next two weeks, I’m focusing (excuse the pun) on composition. All you have to do is choose the one(s) that emphasizes the subject or theme of the picture. That’s right, short stories and novels aren’t the only things with themes.

Rule of Thirds

Many amateur photographers tend to take photos with their subject smack bang in the middle of the picture. Ho hum! To avoid this, divide your frame into thirds—as in the above picture—and try to place your subject on one of the imaginary lines.

Selective Focus

By using a shallow depth-of-field, the background is blurred, which emphasizes the subject. This technique is only possible if you have a camera that allows you to adjust the aperture (AV). OR you can try fooling your camera into narrowing the depth-of-field by taking pictures in dimmer light. The camera will widen the lens opening to let in more light, thus blurring the background.

Size does count

When you look at the above photo, where is your eye instantly drawn to? More than likely the teen on the left. Why? Because she’s the largest thing in the photo.

I emphasized her by moving closer in and by having her stand away from her friends—thus making her look bigger. Of course, other principles you’ve learnt so far also helped draw your attention to her. Her friends are slightly out of focus (shallow depth of field), they’re looking at her, and she’s standing to the side (rule of thirds).

Lighting for Emphasis

The contrast between light and dark is another way to emphasize your subject.

When you look at the photo on the center, the first thing you notice is the boy’s face. The distance of the window from the floor threw the dim north light predominantly on his face. For this picture, I underexposed it slightly to deepen the shadows. You can only do this trick if you can manually adjust the aperture (AV) and speed (TV) on your camera. Otherwise, your camera might try to compensate, and lighten the picture.

In the picture on the right, the little pumpkin pops out at you first. This was achieved by placing it in direct sunlight. The dark shadow on the pumpkin behind it also serves to emphasize it, as does curved pattern of light.

I’m going to LA later this week for the SCBWI conference. Part 2 of this post will be available August 9th. Also, there won't be a Cool Links Friday this week.

Have a great week, and I can't wait to meet some of you in LA.

<<<3

Cool Links Friday

Well, I survived last weekend’s camping trip. It was a lot of fun, except the temperature dropped at night to - 1°C (30°F). And the sleeping bags were rated to only 0°C. So my six-year-old princess and I have decided to stay home next time and paint each other’s fingernails, instead. Let the guys brave the elements. Plus, turns out the princess tent wasn't waterproof. Thank God it didn't rain!!!!

I also want to apologize for skipping out on Cool Links Friday last week. I’ve been so excited about my revisions, I kinda forgot to write the post. Oops! But I missed everyone so much, I made sure I wrote it for this week.

And finally, before I begin Cool Links Friday, I’d like to say ‘hi’ to my new followers. Please let me know in the comments if you’d like me to follow you, too. I’ve been crazy with everything, so I haven’t had a chance to check out all your blogs (at least those of you with blogs).

So here we go . . . Cool Links Friday.

<<<3

As you no doubt know, your novel must begin with an inciting incident to get things rolling. Janice Harding reveals when an inciting event must occur (and it's not necessarily where you think it would be). Also, check out her real life diagnostics on an inciting event from a volunteer’s submission.

Janice also had two other great posts this week. One was on what to stress out on (and not stress out on) in your query, sample pages, and manuscript, and the other one talked about info dumping. Apparently, info dumping, when done correctly, isn’t necessarily an evil thing. 

Do you rely on the same settings a little too often in your novel? Kirsten Hubbard (YA Highway) discusses the benefits of using different locations to spice up a scene. Not sure how to describe the new setting? Then visit The Bookshelf Muse. Angela Ackerman’s thesaurus is a treat for the senses.

Need to crank up the tension in your novel? Zoe Courtman has the perfect advice.

Check out C. Patrick Schulze’s post on editing dialogue. There’re some great tips to help you keep it authentic. Even if you love writing dialogue, I suggest you read his advice.

If you write YA, here’re some surefire ways your main character’s parents can irritate your teenage protagonist. And if you have teens of your own, you might want to check out the article, too.

You’ve written, revised, and polished your novel until it shines, and now you’re querying it. But what can you do if an agent has your requested partial or full, and you’ve just revised it based on some brilliant feedback from someone else? The Agency Gate Keeper has the answer for you.

Speaking of queries, read this post and this post on writing queries (and synopsis) that will leave an agent salivating. I’m thinking that’s a good thing, right?

Are you a real writer? You might be surprised to find out how easy it is to become a real writer once you read Laura Pauling’s post, You Aren’t A Real Writer Until . . . *grins*

Hope you all have a great weekend. I’ll see you Monday.

<<<3

Tip #76: Great! It’s overcast, again!

There are advantages to taking pictures when the sun hides behind the clouds . . . as well as disadvantages. Colors tend to be more vibrant, and you don’t have to deal with the annoying stark contrast between highlights and shadows that might destroy an otherwise brilliant picture. An unintentional highlight can easily distract the eye from the main subject in the photo, especially if the rest of the picture is middle tone or dark. When the clouds blanket the sun, the lighting becomes even, eliminating this problem.

The downside? Your friend’s skin might look dull, no matter how sparkling her personality, and the colors might come out a little on the cool side. The solution is simple. Use the flash on your camera.

For landscape photography, you would use a warming filter (to be discussed in an upcoming post), which does what the name implies. But unfortunately they’re expensive, and you can only use them on a SLR camera (the type that allows you to change the lens). The good news is they’re unnecessary with digital cameras. You can warm up the colors in your photos by adjusting the color temperature setting on your camera—found on digital SLR cameras—or play around with the colors in your photo editing software. Or you can leave them alone for a different look.

Of course, the impact on your photo depends on the thickness of the clouds. If the sun is still able to shine through (i.e. it’s not overcast), then there’ll still be enough warmth in the picture so you won’t have to worry about it.

Next week will be the first of two posts on composition. Please let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s a topic you would like covered at a future date.


<<<3

Note: Next week's post is postponed due to a camping trip I'm being dragged on. I don't want to camp. I want TO WRITE. So right now, I'm praying for snow (or heavy rain) in the mountains. If that happens *smiles wistfully* then next week's post will be here as originally scheduled.

Cool Links Friday

Thanks everyone for your sweet words about my dust bunny on Wednesday. Contrary to popular belief, I’m not an artist. That’s the only thing I can draw. I didn’t get beyond chapter two of Drawing for Dummies.


<<<3

Whether we’re writing fantasy or contemporary, we need to create the world our stories take place in. Tessa posted a five part series on building your fictitious world. If you go to the link, it will take you to the last post of the series. Scroll down and the other four parts are linked there.

The other day I was visiting one of my favorite baby naming websites for a character name for my new WIP. While there, I discovered a post for fiction writers on naming our characters.

Have you read The Power of Point of View: Make Your Story Come to Life by Alicia Rasley? I highly recommend it. For a taste of her greatness check out her two articles on the Writers Digest website: Using Perception to Enhance Your character’s POV and Nine Questions to Ask Your Main Character.

Laurel Garver posted part five of her series on overwriting. I love this series. Part five talks about wordy constructions, something I’m guilty of.

I’ve included links in the past about showing and telling. We know we’re supposed to mostly show, but when is it okay to tell? Adventures in Children’s Publishing had an extensive post last week on deciding when to show and when to tell.

Symbolism can add another lay to your story, which is something agents and editors are looking for in the books they represent or acquire. Yingle Yangle wrote 20 questions to ask about symbolism and theme, and KM Weiland talks about how to strengthen your story with theme and symbolism. Also, be sure to check out Angela Ackerman’s blog (The bookshelf Muse). She recently added a symbolism thesaurus to her already successful setting and emotion thesauruses. Plus, she's got tons of posts to help you take your writing to the next level.

And speaking of themes, do you need to include them in your query? Naomi Hackenberg (literary agent) answers that question in her post on themes in queries. The answer might be not what you think.

Put your hand up if you’re a YA writer. Okay, you might want to check out Some Screaming Fangirl’s post on what teenagers want from your book. You might be surprised.

And now for the weekly funny. Check out the post by Mandy Hubbard (agent and author) on The Process of a Book: A Primer for Newbies. It’s funny, but so true . . . or so I’ve heard.

I won’t be blogging much for the rest of the summer (only Mondays and Fridays) since I’m editing my novel after recently receiving some brilliant feedback (plus I'm critting three other novels). Unfortunately, my kids’ day camp experience was only for this week, so I’m going to have to squeeze in the rewrites during my usual blogging time. I might be popping in to visit your blogs (otherwise I’ll suffer from major withdrawals), but I probably won’t have time to comment as much as usual as I look for links for Fridays.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

<<<3

Awwww. Isn't He Cute????

Last month I was tagged by Lindsay (Aka Isabella) to do the penmanship meme.

The rule is to do the meme on paper and scan it (or take a picture if you don't have a scanner). Here are the items:


1. Name/Blog Name.
2. Right handed, left handed or both?
3. Favorite letters to write?
4. Least favorite letters to write?
5. Write: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
6. Write in caps:
    CRAB
    HUMOUR
    KALEIDOSCOPE
    PAJAMAS
    GAZILLION
7. Favorite song lyrics?
8. Tag 7 people.
9. Any special note or drawing?

Well, my scanner didn't want to play, so I had to take a photo. As you can see, I'm a terrible writer. My mind kept drifting to my wip, and I started to mispell words. AND apparently I can't follow directions because the quick brown fox now jumps over the lazy fox instead of the lazy dog. Oh well.

And here's my drawing of a dust bunny (no, he's not the hot dude in my wip).

Since so many people have already participated in the penmanship meme, I decided not to tag anyone. If you're interested in doing it, please let me know so I can check out your blog.

Now one more thing to mention before I return to my edits. We all know how vital it is to have feedback on our manuscripts, even if it's just for a few pages. Well, I wanted to let you know of the following individuals/groups who are offering the service FOR FREE.

Erica Michell Pickard is offering her beta services to four lucky followers each month. I've had my first chapter critter by Erica, and she's awesome. Also, check out her giveaway currently going on.

The girls at Chimera (which includes Erica) will crit two lucky followers' first chapter each month. You definitely want to check them out.

Christina Farley's crit group is having a contest to win a 10-page crit. You just need to leave the one-line summary of your novel in the comments. Easy, huh?

See you Friday for Cool Links. <<<3

Tip #75: Lighting can make it or break it

Angela Ackerman (The Bookshelf Muse) asked me for some landscape photography tips because she’s spending her vacation in Africa at the end of the month. I’m so jealous excited for her.

First off, I’ll admit that I’m not a landscape photographer—unless it’s being used in portraits. I prefer to do close-up photography. But some of the tips for the next few weeks are applicable to all types of photography. Plus, I’ll post some other tips specific to landscapes.


<<<3

The best time to shoot photos is during what has been dubbed “the golden hours”. This type of lighting occurs in the morning and evening (late afternoon in the winter) when the sun is low in the sky—the hour or so before sunset and after sunrise. The angle of the sun creates a directional light source that is soft and flattering for all subjects (including humans).

I shot the picture of the spider monkey around 10 am in February, too late in the morning for the same shot in the summer. The low angle of the sun imparted a warm glow to the picture, and the monkey seemed to appreciate it, too.

The best type of lighting is side lighting (the above shot) and backlighting (the below shots). The worse is when the sun is overhead. It tends to wash out colors and create deep shadows, especially under the eyes.

When the sun shines from behind the subject (backlighting), the glow created around the subject separates it from the background. Especially useful if the background is dark.

If you have any questions about lighting (or other helpful suggestions), please feel free to leave them in the comments.

<<<3

I Interrupt This Vacation!

I know, I said I wasn't going to blog this week, but I really did miss you guys. My inbox has been lonely without your heartwarming comments. *wipes away tear*

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I'm doing today's FRIDAY FIVE on Cassandra Marshall's blog. Cassandra's a fellow YA writer, a freelance editor, and an intern at a literary agency. AND until midnight tonight (Friday July 2nd), you can enter for a chance to win a substantial edit (up to 100 K). Now who wouldn't want that?

Have a great weekend! Cool Links Friday will be back next week.