Tag: emotional hooks - Mala Naidoo's Book World

Romance Across Genres

The days of writing rigidly to a particular genre, crime fiction, detective fiction, sci-fi, horror, historical fiction, thriller fiction, and romance have slipped, crept, and rolled across the genre borders.

Romance has the potential to capture the coldest of hearts.

The basic elements of the genre remain. Mystery and suspense with a soft touch of romance add to the allure of the tale. Romance as a genre in its pure form has limitless power to create relationships that stretch and bend the imagination as far as it will go.

While romance engages the emotional side of the reader, it does not overwhelm the crime/detective/historical/sci-fi, which occupies the greater space of the genre.

The love story element in any story adds the desirous human connection.

Age is no deterrent to romance. It’s not restricted to young love such as that of Romeo and Juliet. Including older characters in the angst and joy of their romantic interludes creates an inclusive perception of love. It increases the appeal of the overarching genre at work.

The happily ever after isn’t always true. Fiction is a mirror of life. Testing the strength or commitment of a relationship between crime/detective fiction heightens its entertainment value. Romance, while not central to the story outside the romance genre, might add a satisfying element against the crime/detective fiction at work.

Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning ~Paulo Coelho

Wonderfully true — it is indeed our charismatic or struggling fictional characters who love, or are in love, that linger to remind us why love given and received should never be extracted from the soul.

There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart ~Jane Austen.

Magical! The reader is drawn to the story regardless of the genre.

I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed and that necessary ~ Margaret Atwood.

Brilliant! This stirs ideas on how this would unfold in a crime fiction tale!

The gist of these well-known lines deepens the human connection in any genre.

Happy Reading. Happy Writing.

Please like, share, comment and hold on to a tender heart. We need it in both fiction and life.

Paving the Crime Fiction Way

Why does crime fascinate the reader or the viewer? From a gripping novel to a suspenseful film, both mediums are loaded with intrigue, blood, gore, missing persons, and dead bodies, and they certainly hold our attention for more.

Pushing boundaries is the adventurous inclination invited by human fascination, as is vying for the person we want to set free from crime.

Crime writing, like reading crime novels and viewing crime films, is an emotional investment for the adrenaline rush we crave. Words on a page must do the creative hard work that diegetic or non-diegetic music elicits to keep us on edge, before, during and after the crime has been committed.

Descriptive language, sharp, short sentences, sensory imagery and specific punctuation, create and elevate the mood that befits a crucial scene in a novel. The intrigue must be deep enough for the reader to push on, chapter after chapter, well into the night, or wee hours.

Crime fiction often draws inspiration from actual crime, which allows for greater reader appeal. Research is vital to achieving a realistic, entertaining selling point.

Attending a criminal court hearing is a valuable catalyst for storylines to kick off. Make a friend in your local police station and shadow the police person to walk in their shoes for a few days. What better way to get inside the aftermath of the crime?

Visit a prison, and if allowed, ask to interview a prisoner. Getting inside the minds of criminals fuels the creative urge for the realistic crafting of your MC.

Research profiles of victims of crime and seek a psychologist or psychiatrist to gain a greater depth of understanding of why the victim might have been targeted.

Visiting crime sites long after the investigation and conviction enrich the landscapes in a crime fiction story.

Live research is valuable for the unique imaginative triggers they invite. Equally, reading crime novels of note is vital to the crime writer.

Crime documentaries are accessible anytime if physically going to a prison or crime site is not an option.

Don’t go too far. Grab the daily newspaper, and a new crime of the day or week holds our attention as we seek more on the investigation.

Unending thirst for crime novels and films continues to expand, weaving through different genres and is an inroad to writing for aspiring creatives.

Writing the right crime pays.

What are your favourite crime novels and films?

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Fiction and Reality

Pen, a fictional story and aspects of the scribe’s life, spills onto the page between fiction and reality. Angst and joy collide in the unfurling of the emotive content of the story. The emotional hooks in a story invite readers to open their own wounds and happiness for a well-penned story.

In my novels and short story collections, dogs feature as necessary in human lives. A lifelong love of dogs finds their way into the lives of significant characters I create.

In the Sequel set Across Time and Space, and Vindication Across Time the wonderful Ted is the adored pet of human rights lawyer, Michael Morissey, and aspiring writer Meryl Moorecroft. Michael advises and befriends schoolteacher Marcia Ntuli, caught in workplace professional racism. Ted is the first to understand the growing romantic involvement between Michael and Marcia. His sensitivity to Marcia makes him even more adorable.

Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth. ~Albert Camus

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Two hours later they emerged from Michael’s bedroom, laughing at Ted’s quizzical peaked ears and worried frown.

In Souls of Her Daughters, Patience, a social worker has two dogs, Ajax, and Sprite. She adopted them while her sister Grace was overseas at a medical conference. Patience witnesses her sister’s battle with her past demons and hoped Ajax and Sprite might offer her healing and joy. We may read this novel as a stand-alone novel or as a trilogy.

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They were abandoned in an old building on the south side of town. I could not take one and leave the other. They are high maintenance in the love department but adorable to come home to.

Life’s Seasons, a short-story collection, includes a valiant dog as title story – Toby. This story was first published in the short-story collection, The Rain, where Toby, a brave dog, living on his owner’s family farm is confronted by a treacherous storm. Instinct guides Toby when the safety of his beloved human family is threatened. Toby’s heroic, selfless act unwinds minute-by-minute to melt hearts.

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He gripped the harness between his teeth, prostrating to give the children a lift, to allow them to be pulled up with ease.

The Bardo Trilogy has Woza and Khaya, the loyal companions to the mysterious doyenne Tempest, on her mission to offer safety to women and children who are victims of crime.

Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Living in isolation was difficult, but her parrot, Caramba, a keen white watcher of the skies and her two Rottweilers, Khaya and Woza, filled her lonely hours.

The act of including dogs in each of these novels and short stories is a subconscious inclusion drawn from experience.

Pets are companions who combat loneliness, fulfil a caring need, aid healing from grief and bring joy during life’s challenging times. Both fiction and reality meld to create balance to live in unison with the universe.

Now there’s nothing like one’s writing companion puppy snuggled at one’s feet as words and new worlds rise and fall on the page.

Happy Reading. Happy Writing.

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Creative Inspiration: Paint through Sensations

As writers, we engage the reader through the senses. Paintings are layered with colour depicting a sense of place, mood, and so too a story must be layered with emotions and perhaps physical reactions attached to the power of effectively crafted descriptors/imagery, etc.

Make the reader laugh or cry, see, feel, smell and touch by creating carefully written sentences that feed from the writer’s well of life experiences. Engaging the senses draws the reader into the world of the ‘painted’ narrative. We are alive with possibility when we sense life around us.

Take a walk through the sense of smell

What smell makes you warm and fuzzy, and what repulses you? Think about the smell — the odour or aroma. Write them in two columns. Experiment with adjectives that describe the olfactory sensation and attach places to where these might be experienced.

A warm fuzzy feeling could be the smell of apple pie baking in the oven on a cold, rainy afternoon. The aroma must trigger a memory that is built into the sensation the smell invites. Is it a weekend at a grandmother’s home or your favourite bakery/coffee shop? Make the reader drool. The toasty, crusty aroma of pastry baking and the sugary cinnamon apple pie filling infused in the air must elicit the desire to taste what the power of language offers as a visceral experience.

Appeal to the reader’s instinct before the intellect

What about a repulsive smell? Passing a compost heap during a morning walk. Gagging on the putrefying stench of potatoes oozing on a compost pile, or holding your nose when you pass an overused, uncleaned urinal as you exit a carpark to get to work. Write your gut reactions to return to later to refine the descriptors for maximum effect. Then ask yourself, will my reader feel my warm fuzziness or repulsion? Will there be an emotional or physical reaction? The best way to test this is to try it on an unsuspecting reader, a family member perhaps. You might hear, ‘Yum!’ or, ‘how disgusting!’ Either way, you have infiltrated the reader’s sense of smell!

Work on sound, sight, touch and taste similarly. Write the sound, type of touch and taste experienced. Build up a storehouse, your own reference guide of words/sentence paintings to make your reader ‘experience’ the event or situation you are creating.

Show through the narrator’s experience

Scenes in a story are a canvas of colours, objects and placement that create a sensory experience for the reader. Who describes the scene is important to ensure the reader enters the headspace of the writer, or favourite or hated character doing the narration. This allows the reader to ‘feel’ the mood or ‘inhabit’ the sense of place or experience described.

Crystal spikes shimmered on the lake’s surface like fine shards of ice dancing off a sculptor’s chisel…

Scenes must be ‘seen’ in the mind’s eye to connect with the landscape/mood/event.

Touch captures emotions -pick up a soft, cuddly jumper, perhaps of a child who has passed, feel the flood of bitter-sweet memories. The depth of the engagement depends on who is holding the jumper to create a significant experience for the reader.

Taste can be a joy or a disaster. A bite of the apple pie above should be a joy, but a hidden habanero in a favourite dish described through symbols of heat or explosiveness might achieve the desired flaming reaction in the reader.

Use the senses to prompt an emotional/physical response. Work with what moves you the writer to ensure the same effect on the reader.

Happy planning, happy writing.

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Creativity and Grief

Creativity feeds off emotions both positive and negative. Words give vent to the language of the heart.

Grief after the passing of a deeply loved one, sucks the wind from the sails of creativity, for a while… Fighting it is futile, emotions are in a tangle when death is unexpectedly sudden.

Fit one day, gone the next. The mind is thrown into chaos as exhaustion sets in, slowing down the clock to a sonorous ticking of every minute, every hour.

Be gentle with yourself when grief momentarily steals the creative edge.

Isolation and solitude are necessary to process the deeply felt loss. Within there is the need to comfort the nearest and dearest around one going through the same process.

But in those still, grieving, reflective moments, hours, days, and many weeks, creativity takes on a new face — creative expression on loss and grief. Picking up a pen and journal offers the promise of comfort when there is no inclination to turn on the laptop. Poetry emerges in the healing as words tumble out in emotional self-expression, mourning the deep-seated loss.

Words comfort and clear the brambles of the heart.

Seeking solace in meditation while grieving might, at times, seem impossible when the conscious mind buckles, contorts in pain. The way out is through writing, giving vent to grief and anger and all the unanswered whys…

Memory beckons, draws one in to seek solace in understanding the heart’s tears.

Soon, day by day, time allows the soul to accept, to find a new way, to adapt, to be, by letting go of the familiar patterns of one’s life. As humans we are adaptable to change, if one allows the mind to remain healthy by turning to warm memories, and articulating emotions — pain eases, and limits sinking into the dark depths of despair.

Grief is the single most difficult challenge of life (as I see it) in coming to terms with the gentle, deep cadence of a voice one will never hear again, a face never seen again in the flesh – the Guiding Light of one’s angst no longer there to soothe troubles or share joy.

Time is a long-standing ally to a grieving soul.

Acceptance is not an easy path to tread when the void is palpable…huge… but healing will come with time as memories resurface in those moments when a birthday card or photograph falls out a book, or pops up on a phone or Facebook Memories to remind one of the love shared. Loss is never overcome, but heart-warming moments return when least expected in unexpected places, to catch a breath in quiet recall to ignite a smile.

Creativity hooks emotions — grief the impasse as the eye turns inward to gather new creative pace and space.

If you have lost a loved one, take heart, your muse never flees in the hours of need, but draws renewed vigour from your newest angel, ready to guide your creative light.

a month too soon

let him rise in peace

as he lived his life

sharing love and joy with those

who honoured his stature

a compassionate giving soul

taken gently in the early morn

rising swiftly into the arms of Divine Grace

(RIP Beloved Father of Mine)

I hope you find comfort and reassurance that grief borne needs time, so be gentle with your creative self by keeping the mind healthy to protect your heart for the wondrous, comforting glow of memory and renewed imagination…

Stay safe.

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Writing Through Adversity

Writing has been well documented as having therapeutic value. Do you keep a personal diary, or a journal to record moments that are significant to you? Would you write a memoir or autobiography? Have you tried poetry writing?

Fiction is an avenue that has therapeutic benefit when writing about angst through fiction or poetry. This has value in reaching readers who might face a similar situation. Receiving a reader’s comment on connecting with a character or situation makes writing move from the realm of fictional entertainment to enhancing life, creating a sense of belonging through the power of story/words that whisper, ‘there are people who go through this, you are not alone, it’s not you…’

Human difficulties like our joys are universal and part of our shared humanity regardless of demography or any divisive label. We learn from each other, we share with each other — altruism is part of our human ‘feel good’ makeup. We feel good or secure in knowing that challenges are not unique. This is where fiction like a memoir/autobiography/biography and poetry has the ability to say, ‘I see you, I hear you, I feel your situation.’

‘In our angst and joy we are one under the sky of humanity’

Oftentimes something heard, something seen, or read triggers the imagination to create a story/poem — these seeds have their origin in human experience. Everything in life has imaginative storytelling potential. Historical fiction is a genre whereby much from history or literature is reimagined to suit a particular context adding timelessness to a story.

Poems and stories, when turned inward, create… growth… healing… self-awareness

Shakespeare’s The Tempest reimagined by Margaret Atwood in her novel, Hag-Seed is an example. Prospero becomes Felix a theatre director in a present-day context — he is grieving the deaths of his wife and daughter and has been backstabbed by an aspirational colleague. His vulnerability is an evocative point of connection with the reader. Professional or workplace strife present timeless human dilemmas, but when tastefully explored as a novel’s premise or ideas, it has the potential to speak to many isolated, lonely individuals — there is no shame in being vulnerable. Shame sits on the shoulders of those who abuse vulnerability. The most endearing people, in reality, are those who have experienced hardship, financially, in grief or loss, abuse or ill-health — having walked in the shoes of many with struggles, wires empathy — as human experience should be if we hope to coexist in peace and harmony.

Fiction can remind us why it is essential to be true to who we are in our expressions of self and in our interactions with each other.

In Souls of Her Daughters, Dr Grace Sharvin who heads a busy medical ER has unimaginable frailties but her strength is in her capacity to reach out to others while fighting her own demons.

Life’s lessons come from the adversarial people met, and they become the basis upon which writers craft their villains. A little bit of this and a little bit of that blended in a cauldron and hey presto! The (im)perfect villain is born! The good people we meet shape perspectives on why adversarial individuals have no place in a shared world.

Timeless heart-warming and gut-wrenching stories on life’s challenges and celebrations.

Literature is a luxury, Fiction is a necessity — GK Chesterton

and

Albert Camus said, Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.

Who can argue with such pearls of truth now?

Life, literature, news of the day, and history portray human experiences that provide inroads to new fictional stories and evocative poetry that connect rather than divide by exposing, celebrating, loving, grieving and understanding what it really means to be human. We all, whether real or fictional are indeed not alone in adversity.

Which novels and poems would you recommend to readers on overcoming adversity? Have you read A Spark of Hope?

Whose Voice is it Anyway?

Voice is the defining feature of any book we read. It is unique to the author and is often what draws readers to pick up a particular book, by a particular author.

Turning to influencers is a significant aspect of the writer’s professional development, but mimicking the voice of another, as in tone, values, the nuance of language, etc, underscores the authenticity and value that a unique voice offers. Just as our personalities differ, so too does voice – it has character, personality, and it becomes the signature of the writer/speaker/narrator.

Readers find comfort, delight, and excitement in the voice they read, in being entertained or informed, or perhaps both. The rush to ‘be like others,’ comes with the risk of losing purpose or creating a voice that is inconsistent with the message. Voice is a significant part of connecting with readers. It communicates values and visions drawn from life experience, culture, lifestyle, education, angst, joy, and more, as part of early, and ongoing socialisation. We are after all, beautifully unique.

The writer’s voice is delivered through narration, characterisation, description etc. In characterisation, the writer’s voice is distinct, based either on personal experience, research conducted, and observations of human patterns of behaviour and communicating. Tension or suspense through voice is also drawn from the writer’s observed, or experienced fears, to capture the moment with accuracy and evocative creative design. This should move the excitement/thrill to the next level, for the reader. Emotional aspects of a novel are effective in holding the reader’s attention when it comes through from an authentic/believable/unadorned voice.

We often say, ‘seeing’ is believing, but, ‘feeling’ is living the moment in a book – it might well be remembered long after the book has been put down. Now, Shakespeare’s Othello craved, ‘ocular’ proof, of his wife’s alleged infidelity, yet if he cautioned his doubting mind by embracing his deep love for her, he might have lived his happily ever after. Well, one can surmise and hope, it’s to the writer’s credit when readers are overjoyed or disappointed when the character/s either meet up to or deviate from their expectations.

The accolade is huge when readers say, I could hear your voice while reading.

Voice in graceful narration is as important as the ‘voices’ that diverse characters are given in stories. Narration, description, and dialogue are the pillars of a novel with plot guiding the platform through the author’s voice as the vehicle that intersects with the reader’s experience.

Listen to an excerpt from Morgan Freeman’s narration in The Shawshank Redemption, based on the novella written by Stephen King- reading a story, or excerpt out aloud after it has been written or during the process of writing is of tremendous value to shift and polish how meaning is created through voice. The flow, tone, and authenticity of voice become transparent when reading aloud. Record an excerpt and play it back to catch if ‘voice’ is represented as imagined during the writing phase.

Honesty or truth should ring through the writer’s voice to establish a valued connection to the reader, creating an expectation that makes the reader continue to turn the page. Voice can be frivolous, serious, angry, calm etc. depending on the type of tale being told. Hence consistency of voice, dependent on the genre/scene/story etc. is imperative to hold the reader’s attention. It makes the reader return for more. A relationship is formed between the reader and ‘voice’ for a fulfilling engagement with the book.

Whose voice is it anyway?

The writer’s unique voice does not have to be written in Jane Austen’s, Charles Dickens,’ or any favourite writer’s style, it is about reaching readers with an authentic voice regardless of the niche appeal the story might have. A writer’s voice is the ‘heard’ presence of the writer.

Listen here to Pat Schneider, author, on how nuances of voice emerge.

More food for thought:

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.”
~ T.S. Eliot

“Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul.” ~ Meg Rosoff

“My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

Continue reading “Whose Voice is it Anyway?”

On Creating Characters – The Outlier

There are numerous defining aspects to what makes a character in a novel or short story, an outlier.

This is shaped by societal and cultural values, or more directly by prejudice. Size, race, ‘foreign’ origins are just some elements that create the outlier fence.
This deepens when layers of social and professional barriers are erected making the outlier, who ascribes to individual ways of expression, an ‘outsider’ rather than a unique contributor to society.

Regardless of the category/label attached to the outlier, it’s divisive, destructive, and a living death for the character experiencing the hell of being (mis) treated as such.

The outlier syndrome is growing in society, slouching back to outdated values, and emerging new forms of prejudice in how individuals treat each other. Literature should mirror life in all its ugliness, hopes and dreams. While we read to lose ourselves in the pages of a good book, what is the experience worth if it does not linger with the ills evident in society, and the hope that we have the capacity to be change agents? Writing purely on the prejudice of life without the yardstick or suggestion on how this ‘disease’ can be overcome, would be remiss on my part, in particular, in any story I tell. Writers are change makers by opening our minds and voices to what needs rectifying. This is the beauty and at times the daunting reality of being a writer.

Hardship is a fact of life for the majority of the worlds’ population. This is not defined by financial issues alone. My novels capture these issues from death, parting relationships, loneliness, cultural pressures, past psychological and physical traumas, and more.
In each situation, an individual or character is an outlier by choice or societal prejudice.

Literature offers that connection to the outlier’s suffering and hope for redemption and redefinition. Reading is imperative, words linger and dwell deep in the readers’ psyche as a visual and emotional connection to the situations and events the outlier might experience.

Souls of her Daughters reveals that the outlier syndrome affects all regardless of professional or social position. Dr Grace Sharvin struggles with her secret, making her an outlier in her family- in her need to conceal her pain from her mother and sister. Her sister, Patience, is an outlier through interracial adoption in apartheid South Africa, forcing her to acknowledge her birth culture. Across Time and Space and the sequel Vindication Across Time unveil both Meryl Moorecroft and Marcia Ntlui as outliers in personal, cultural and professional contexts. Michael Morrissey, a human rights lawyer, becomes the outsider in his relationship with Meryl when the course of their lives change. Housekeeper, Ana Kuznetsov and Boris Malakov are outliers in their complicated families. Global landscapes invite the notion that the situations characters undergo are not isolated – shaping the universality of human angst and joy.

The Rain, a Collection of Short Stories presents this notion in the human capacity for good and evil.

Drama, crime and abduction bring high entertainment value to the reader, but beneath the layers lie the human face and soul of the outlier. The character should be carefully crafted to invite empathy or repulsion by stripping away layers that shroud the essence of human angst and joy.

The continuation of ‘Souls of Her Daughters,’ in the next saga, Chosen Lives, grows in representing the outlier theme with glimmers of a futuristic world where perfection resides in imperfection.

Let’s continue to create stories that leave a lingering message.

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Are you particular about dates?

When I ask ‘Are you particular about dates?’ – I’m not referring to the dating game or romance.

Here’s my reason for asking.

I recently published Vindication Across Time as the print version late in September to coincide with my father’s birthday.

The digital version on Kindle, Kobo, iBooks, BN will be released next week on my mother’s birthday. It’s up for preorder on these sites now.

I can hear you ask, ‘Pray do tell us more!’

Some of the themes reflected in Vindication Across Time – the pursuit of truth and justice is a value I grew up with. The truth no matter how painful had to be acknowledged and implemented.

Lies were severely admonished in my childhood home regardless of any perceived justification for stretching the truth.

Truth and lies are dominant in the novel as in different versions of the truth. The bearers of fake truths are soon discovered and good karma visits those who steadfastly adhere to the truth. My understanding is that there is only ONE truth. If a man has been gunned down, there might be one person directly responsible and others who helped expedite the heinous act.

Justifications offered for why this happened does not remove the truth that a defenseless man was gunned down in cold blood. The next truth to be served is that justice must prevail regardless of individuals’ motives and challenges.

There, in a nutshell, is why the print version of Vindication Across Time was released on my father’s birthday as an acknowledgement of his respect for truth and justice.

What about my mother made me choose to release the Kindle and eBook versions on her birthday next week?

The expression of culture and values through strong female characters in Across Time and Space, led to greater nuances of imperfect lives in Vindication Across Time. This is where my mother’s love, compassion, and strength shaped these ideas.

Continue reading “Are you particular about dates?”

What’s Your Line? Who’s Your ‘Person’?

Why do certain quotations remain etched in memory long after the lines have been read or heard?

The association is attached to an emotion – painful or jubilant. When similar situations recur the lines that created an impact are recalled, linking the past emotional association to the present. Painful or joyous emotional experiences are triggered by words that emulate and express what the heart feels. Lyrics of particular songs act as a balm to ease pain, reignite bliss or act as a conduit to purge pent-up emotions. Likewise, a character in a novel triggers an emotional response in the reader who feels a kinship with the character. Connections through language and people are the commonality we seek to belong in an ever-changing world.

Do you connect with any of these lines from literature?

‘I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then’

-Lewis Carrol – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

‘I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.’

-Herman Melville –Moby-Dick

‘The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.’

-Toni Morrison, Beloved

‘Do I dare / Disturb the universe?’

-TS. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

‘People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for’

-Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

‘I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.’

-Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

‘Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.’

-George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

‘Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise’

– Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

What about the characters in literature that strike a chord with you?

· Catherine Earnshaw from Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights– in her torrid love for and forsaking of Heathcliff

· Hamlet from Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark- caught in the web of the fratricide against his father and his mother’s marriage to the murderer, his uncle.

· Atticus Finch from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird- a father par excellence- role model extraordinaire.

· Frankenstein’s monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein- abandoned creation seeking love

· Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby– he creates exorbitant wealth to impress the girl who has his heart.

· Dorian Gray from Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray- a handsome aristocrat who loses his virtue that his portrait cannot hide.

· Winston Smith from George Orwell’s, Nineteen Eighty-Four– living in hope and rebelling to reclaim his unattainable individuality.

· King Lear from Shakespeare’s King Lear- an aging king who is misguided in dividing his kingdom based on the narcissistic need to hear how much he is loved.

There are countless evocative lines and characters that bring a connection in a moment of greatest need.

What is your favourite literary line? Who is your most endearing literary character?

Subscribe today and share your comment in the box below. Have you read Across Time and Space? Start a discussion on the literary allusions evident in the novel.