Neha's Notebook

Writing a script is baking a cake. Think: Ingredients list Method Precision and specific measurements Decoration and presentation

 “Image hopping” is a cool trick to kick-start your story writing process when you don’t have any idea how to proceed. The technique involves using vivid, descriptive language to appeal to the reader’s senses by creating mental images and “connecting the unconnected.”   The process Find a compelling image, expose it in rich detail, brainstorm elements within it, and then “hop” to a new, seemingly unrelated image to spark unusual, new connections and expand your horizon of narrative possibilities. Create strong, memorable images to grip the emotion of the reader. The goal isn’t to describe the images, but to use them as springboards for character, plot, and theme.   Example: Domino's “It happens only with pizza” VISUALS Shot 1 Image of a muppet dancing in a disco-like setting with the word “Happening” flashed in cool blue bold font (transports the viewer into the emotion of partytime)   Shot 2 The muppet image cuts into the image of real people...

Sensory layering is a writing device that engages the reader on a multi-sensory level (touch, sight, sound, smell, taste) by painting a picture that illustrates multiple details without taking up too much of their narrative time.   In copywriting, for instance, sensory layering looks like product descriptions or visuals that appeal to multiple senses of the customer, allowing them to “experience” what you are selling before they even touch it. Sensory layering allows the writer/creator to create something that will build a strong mental picture in the mind of the customer as well as a deeper connection with their emotional center, beyond just a logical decision making or emotional triggers.   Take the example of a high-end coffee, both while selling it through only written word, and through written word plus visuals.   Instead of just “Our coffee tastes good,” a sensory-layered description of this coffee would read something like this:   “Wake up to t...

“Echoes through time” is a storytelling concept that revolves around a present-day character, object, idea, or experience that reverberates a long-forgotten event from history. This concept is used to add mystery to a story or a piece of writing that the reader unravels by piecing together these “echoes” and uncovering the full, poetic truth of the past. “Echoes through time” is an insightful tool that also makes the reader realize that the past isn’t truly gone. Rather, it is subtly imprinted on the fabric of the present and it reveals itself little by little through clues that lurk in the depths of the present moment.   Anushree works in an art renovation company called RenoKaro, based in New Delhi. Her boss sent her to an old, dilapidated library located in Delhi’s Khapchi Gali for a renovation project. As she stepped inside the library, the bag of tools slung from her shoulders, she coughed. The library was shrouded in a thick veil of dust and sprinkled with gossamer cobweb...

Freytag’s Pyramid is a writing technique, crafted by the German novelist Gustav Freytag. The technique involves five key processes that writers can use to write everything from short stories to articles.   The first step is “Exposition.” Exposition refers to the introduction of the subject, the setting up of the scene, and a comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory. The second step is “Rising Action” Rising Action refers to “The development of the central conflict, problem, or interesting aspect.” This is where the tension builds, complexities are revealed, and the "plot" of the story/article unfolds through scenes, characters, research material, and anecdotes. The third step is “climax” Climax is the turning point or the most significant moment of revelation, insight, or development within the article's scope. It's often where the core question posed in the exposition is addressed, or a major challenge is confronted. The 4 th st...

 What is “In Media Res”? "In Media Res" (Latin for "in the midst of things") is a powerful storytelling technique where the narrative plunges the audience directly into a critical, exciting, or significant moment of the story, skipping over the initial exposition and setup. Instead of beginning with a traditional "once upon a time," the reader/viewer is immediately immersed in the action or a pivotal scene. It jolts the reader directly into the “heart of the action.” The preceding events, character backstories, and the "how we got here" are then revealed gradually through flashbacks, dialogue, or indirect exposition as the story progresses. This method is designed to grab attention immediately, create suspense, and cultivate a sense of mystery, compelling the audience to understand what led to the current situation.   Let’s take the example of this story opening paragraph to understand the concept of “In Media Res”   The Case of the Mis...

Let’s take the example of a fictional novel called “Simi’s Memory Journal.” Here are some excerpts from “Simi’s memory journal” a diary in which this character records her memories, feelings, details of everyday experiences, dreams, fantasies, obsessions, ideas, notes, observations, and just about everything.   October 17 th – A recurring dream "The old house again. That creaking floorboard in the attic. Always the same grey light filtering through the dusty window. The hum of the old radio, even though I know it's been broken for years. The same old crow and its same old caw-caw." November 5 th – An observation “A woman in the bus caught my attention today. Her amethyst-colored scarf reminded me of my mother. For a split second, I almost reached out to her to ask who gave her this scarf.” December 12 th – A cryptic note about the memory of a past event “He said the words, but I heard something else entirely. The way the fierce winds whipped and the way ...

1.     Polyptoton is a figure of speech that involves the repetition of words of the same root used in the same sentence with a variety of differing contexts, inflection and voice; Derived from the Greek word polúptōtos, meaning “having many cases”. This device is often used to embellish the poetry and poetic sentences with musicality and tone. Ex: "I dreamed a dream in times gone by.", "The bread rolls rolled down the counter.", "They waited impatiently in the waiting room." Read more stories related to  Vocabulary !  

Life is full of animation. Both the life outside and the one in our imagination. Tables talk and flowers speak. Humans get possessed by ghosts and objects breathe. There are invisible eyes staring at us and there are spooky trees with treasure buried in their trunkholes. There are red elephants and blue horses. The animation is there all around us yet it expresses itself differently in different humans, like notes of music. The breath of life is the same in everyone yet it expresses differently through different individuals. Like a camera captures a moment and produces a photograph based on its features, a human being captures and absorbs the moment’s experiences and expresses them in their own unique expression. Polaroids, high-definition images, pixelated photographs and all. A painter paints a painting; a poet spins poetry; a mathematician solves problems, and likewise. Even different artists have their own different expression styles. Amidst all this animation, the one who ga...

When I was a child, I had an ornamental wooden box in which I used to collect trinkets and knick-knacks of all kinds – broken hair clips, bracelet beads, scraps from newspaper and magazines, paper poems, jewel pieces, glitter ribbons and likewise. As I grew up, I started writing poetry and making lists and jotting down diary entries and creating art journals. We humans have a deep-rooted appetite to recording our thoughts and experiences. Just look at the famous collections of poetry, at the great monuments and at the things and inventions. Everything is someone’s way to record and capture their innermost thoughts and experiences. Everyone has their own way to capture their thoughts, feelings and experiences. And journaling is a writer’s way to do this. Many of the famous writers including Anne Frank, Susan Sontag, John Steinbeck, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Ruskin Bond, CS Lewis, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Didion and others used to maintain their writer’s journals and diaries. ...

What is Anthropomorphism in writing? A process comprising of the attribution of human traits, characteristics, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities like gods, animals, or objects. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human mind; and is employed as a storytelling tool and artistic/writing device. In mythology, anthropomorphism is the perception of the divine appearing as a deity or in a human form carrying a set of human personality traits and characteristics; In fables, fairy tales, science fiction and fantasy genres, anthropomorphism is utilised as a device to attribute human characteristics to non-human characters like animals, creatures, computers, robots, objects, motifs etc. In science, it represents attributing human emotions, behaviours and tendencies to various animals for the purpose of research. It is derived from the Greek words anthrōpos ("human") and morphē ("form"). Follow for more interesting snippets on writing, art and l...

WHAT IS BILDUNGSROMAN IN WRITING? Have you read novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, The Perks Of Being a Wallflower, Great Expectations and Paper Towns? There is something common in them apart from brillant writing. That is, a character who seeks spiritual transformation or walks on a journey to enlightenment. This kind of a novel or story comes under a genre called BILDUNGSROMAN. A bildungsroman novel is a novel depicting a character’s formative years of spiritual education. A writing genre that focuses on a character seeking answers to deep life questions and experiencing transformation along the spiritual journey. A coming-of-age novel or story that elaborates a character’s path to enlightenment. Composed from the German words bildung (education) and Roman (novel)! Follow for more interesting snippets on writing, art and life! www.nehasnotebook.com Subscribe:  Neha's Notebook  |  My Little library  |  Raindrop Stories ...

Nora Ephron is a screenwriter whose scripts for Silkwood , When Harry Met Sally , and Sleepless in Seattle have all been nominated for Academy Awards. Ephron started her career as a journalist for the New York Post and Esquire. She became a journalist because of her high school journalism teacher. Ephron still remembers the first day of her journalism class. Although the students had no journalism experience, they walked into their first class with a sense of what a journalist does: A journalists gets the facts and reports them. To get the facts, you track down the five Ws—who, what, where, when, and why. As students sat in front of their manual typewriters, Ephron's teacher announced the first assignment. They would write the lead of a newspaper story. The teacher reeled off the facts: "Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School, announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a colloquium in new...

Flowers blossom into flowers only after a series of winds hit the saplings. Before pearls are born, they nestle in the cocoon of the oyster for a span of time. Butterfly rests in a gooey shelter until it transforms into a butterfly. Everything in nature takes its own duration of time to become perfect and the way it is meant to be. So does a piece of writing… Stephen King defines this period as “Recuperation Period”. Joseph Sugarman calls it “Incubation Period”. This is a duration of time when a piece of writing has been written but is not ready to be put out into the world. During this period, we just let the piece stay in its place until it organizes itself in our head, so we can edit and revise it to its best possible perfection. Whether it is a stream of consciousness journal entry or a poem or an article, this duration of time is important for it to become refined and polished! http://www.nehasnotebook.com/   Subscribe:  Neha's Notebook  |  My ...

6 DIMENSIONS OF LANGUAGE [Snippet & Notes] #1 PHONETICS The study and the mechanics of speech sounds How the human physiology triggers the process of sound production, transmission and hearing Basic Unit of Phonetics: Phones (sound) #2  PHONOLOGY The study of organization of speech sounds in various systems of languages Basic unit of Phonology: Phonemes #3  MORPHOLOGY The study of word forms, and process of word formation Basic unit of Morphology: Morphemes #4 SYNTACTICS Study of lingual syntax Study of word order, grammatical theory and arrangement of words & phrases Deals with technical aspects of sentence and paragraph construction Ex: "I know you." and "I know you?" - a slight change in syntax can totally transform the sentence #5 SEMANTICS Study of meaning of linguistic expressions when words are put together in correct syntactical structure Word meanings, vocabulary Semantics asks "What it means?" Ex: "Cool green ideas went f...

SHORT SNIPPETS FOR WRITERS From the perspective of purpose & utility, there are two kinds of writing processes that writing can be divided into. FREE WRITING and STRUCTURED WRITING.   Both of these serve equal and equally significant utility in producing a wholesome piece of writing. While Free Writing enables the writer to just put down the words and material on the paper or document, Structured Writing polishes the material into stylistic wrapping & a storystyle structure, which makes the piece equally relevant to the reader. Free Writing is essential to exercise our mind’s capabilities like that of creativity and imagination, and it can be practiced by anyone whether they’re a writer or not, whilst Structured Writing involves the core skill of writing that writers need to learn and practice in order to become a writer in the first place. Free writing is also known as: Automatic Writing Stream of consciousness writing Interior Monologue Morning Pages, Journali...

Hello! In the previous post, I published the review piece for the book ‘Stephen King on Writing’ , which I had been reading lately and finished quite a few days ago.  Followed by the book review, in this article I intend to elaborate the writing lessons I’ve learned and extracted from this book, as well as some of the tips & ideas shared by Mr. Stephen King herein. With this, let’s move forward and read on these! #1  WRITE WITH THE DOOR CLOSED. REWRITE WITH DOOR OPEN. Typically, the aim of initial freewriting process is to get the idea/story down on the paper (or document). Mr. King writes, that ideally this process should be carried out by blocking out the world, which represents the part of us which is responsible for critiquing or rationalizing things, name it intellect. Bringing in the voice of logic and intellect too early and too soon in our writing, carries with it the tendency to spoil the fruit of the story. A story, after all, is something which origina...