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Jill Hedgecock

Fiction Writer

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writing techniques

2/16/22: Muse Board Podcast: Link and Blog Post

Please listen in at 10 am on 2/16 to my interview with the Nonfiction Authors Association. Here is the link: https://nonfictionauthorsassociation.com/podcast-interview-jill-hedgecock-02-16-2022-how-to-use-a-muse-board-to-keep-your-writing-process-on-track/

The associated blog can be found at:

Muse Boards – A Time-Saving Writing Tool by Jill Hedgecock

Filed Under: Events, Uncategorized Tagged With: muse board, Nonfiction Authors Association, podcast interview, Stephanie Chandler, writing, writing techniques, writing tool

November 13 Napa CWC Program on Muse Boards

November 13
7:00 – 9:00 PM

Napa Valley Unitarian Universalists Church Sanctuary,
1625 Salvador Avenue, Napa

My talk will cover differing formats (physical versus digital), what content can be used in creating a board, the advantages and a few pitfalls to be aware of while creating this tool, and how the muse board can help strengthen writing weaknesses and inform plot.

I will talk about how I discovered ways to capture emotion through the use of images, prevent time-wasting by documenting important details through visuals, and deepen the exploration of characters personality. Muse boards can even be used to develop less important characters to make them feel less like a device and more like real people.

Here is a link to a blog post on muse boards for more information:
https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2019/10/02/writing-tips-using-visual-inspiration-for-your-stories/?fbclid=IwAR1oYF8Bz6qIlEMCspJdLS8gLr94nnZg1Tmw5fZqkggZG3jVsCPg43jt0WQ

Filed Under: Editing, Events, muse board, Publishing, resources, Writing, Writing tips Tagged With: muse board, Napa CWC, writing techniques, writing tool

Writing is Like an Egg

What? Yeah, it’s a strange comparison, but bear with me. Without the outer shell of an egg, you’d have an ooey, gooey mess. So the shell is the foundation. Letters make the words, string together the words and you get sentences and lastly you need grammar, and sentence structure to get your point across. These make all the necessary components to create the poem, the essay or the story. Of course, there are exceptions. Cormac McCarthy – the author of The Road – he doesn’t use periods. He breaks the rules and he’s a darn good writer. So there is a way to crack the shell, where the egg will stay intact, as long as you don’t rupture the membrane. But cracking an egg takes skill. You have to have just the right touch. And in order to experiment, you must first know what makes the shell sturdy and what lies inside to know just how much tapping you can do without breaking the whole thing into that ooey, gooey mess.
If we were to do a cross section of our egg, we would find under our shell, the egg white. The egg white represents our characters and voice. We need a narrator at the very least and sometimes dozens of characters. They can be people or animals or even objects. You can have a robot tell your story, right? Now, the great thing about egg whites is how versatile they are. The start out being opaque, but throw them in a frying pan and what happens? They thicken. They change color. Even if you don’t cook them you can all kinds of seasonings. You can even whisk them and fill them full of air.
So now you’ve got the shell – a foundation of words and sentences, you’ve got your egg white which represents the vehicle for the story, and then at the very core of the egg is the yolk. The yolk is the plot and the story arc. At the core, the plot is the reason for writing. Something happens and the person or someone the person knows is changed by the event. So now you see, writing really is like an egg. The only question is do you want to scramble, boil or poach your story.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: bones of a story, craft, writing techniques

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UPCOMING EVENTS

2/16/22: Muse Board Podcast: Link and Blog Post

Please listen in at 10 am on 2/16 to my interview with the Nonfiction Authors Association. Here is the link: https://nonfictionauthorsassociation.com/podcast-interview-jill-hedgecock-02-16-2022-how-to-use-a-muse-board-to-keep-your-writing-process-on-track/ The associated blog can be found at:

Exciting Announcement! New Event: Nonfiction Authors Association Podcast Interview 2/16/22

I’m thrilled to announce that I will be interviewed by the amazing Stephanie Chandler of The Nonfiction Authors Association on Monday 1/24 at 11:00 am. I’ll be discussing the benefits of using a Muse Board.

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