'It's so....white.'
Translated, it's completely vanilla and filled with cream-colored references. Even the main female character is decked out in white in almost every scene. (And no, she is not a doctor, and trust me, she's no angel.)
Now, I'm not saying the writing is bad, it's just lacking color in these chapters.
Kind of disappointing coming from a writer with "Mango Crush" on her office walls.
But the revelation reminded me of an exercise I would use with freshman English students who struggled to bring color to their writing.
Perhaps I'd asked them to describe the sun, bring it to life through color. What would I get? Yellow. Plain ol' yellow.
I would ask them to describe the shade of yellow. Is it the color of butter? Of a buttercup along a country road? The yellow of a middle-of-July sunflower? Post-it note yellow?
"Just yellow," students would reply.
The next day, they would be in for a surprise. Paint samples littered a tabletop. (Thank you, locally-owned hardware store.)
"Show me what kind of yellow."
Once they saw the connection between a concrete example and word choice, their writing improved.
I don't want my writing to be 'just yellow' - or just plain ol' white - for that matter. I want vibrant words to run down the pages.
After a trip to the lumber yard, Eros Pink, Adriatic Sea, and Jargon Jade complete the scenes, along with a tinge of Crescent Moon White.
by LuAnn Schindler. Read more of LuAnn's work at her website.
