November 2006 Meeting Highlights ...

Round Table Rules at November Meeting

Sparrows, Spoons and Twin Pillows

Can a writer's own obsessions be morphed effectively into "tags" for fictional characters?

At the Nov. 20 meeting, several dozen SDWEG members and guests agreed that awareness of personal quirks keeps them on the beam with their craft.

Vice President Yvonne Nelson Perry led the lively discussion that produced a rich flow of indiosyncracies, including a lifetime lookout for sparrows, a nightly slumber with twin pillows, and a knife and spoon rigidly parallel.

Perry suggested that observing personal quirks — our own and others' weird habits — can help flesh out characters into three-dimensional, life-like people while peeling the mask from triteness.

"Give your characters more zip, more zest," Perry said. "Readers will connect if your charaacters seem more human. They'll experience frisson, that great electrical charge, with the added uniqueness you give your people."

Other quirks includes a need to always touch palm trees, count stair steps, pick up cigarette butts, discared stray coins if they are not head's-up, cross fingers during airplane flights, and rearrange furniture in hotel rooms.

October 2006 Meeting Highlights ...