Author Mary Marvella
I have been looking diligently for my writing tool box so I can begin a new book!
“Ah, there it is.” I squat down to heft my large tool box, but it proves easier to lift than I remembered.
How odd! I remember filling it with wonderful words and techniques I learned while reading voraciously in high school and after I retired from teaching school. Studying the master writers of the classics gave me more tools. Many tools I found while I taught writing and literature.
Fighting the rusty latch makes me ashamed of my neglect. Has it really been that long since I began to fill the toolbox with story-telling tools or since I last dug for something to interesting to use? Ah, I remember how much finding the right adjectives and adverbs made me smile. Some rule makers said I couldn’t use them, but must choose the right nouns and adverbs. I wonder where I put those descriptive words. Maybe I left them with the tools I insisted my plumber leave at home. Any good plumber should be fine with a couple of wrenches, right?
As much as I enjoyed reading stories using omniscient point of view, I had to get rid of that. It landed near the prepositional phrases I heard must go. Mixing points of view in scenes, I had to take those out. Those tools are probably with the carpentry tools I had my carpenter dump. Who needs more than one hammer, screw driver, or saw? How many nails and screws does a builder need?
Could I use some of the old tools I once enjoyed? How many readers would welcome them?
The concepts of paranormal have changed immensely, too. Once upon a time stories about ghosts, reincarnation, vampires, werewolves, fairytales, or monsters were paranormal. Occasional super heroes made readers drool and we loved a bit of mind reading and predicting the future. (I’m a bit old!)
Which tools did you toss from your writing toolbox? Do you miss them?
With all the changes in publishing, I sometimes find myself missing the classics, the stories modern publishers might not publish today. Sorry, Bill Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and others! I have two paranormal stories with very little in the way of super powers. If you like stories of reincarnation, ghosts, and/or premonitions, with no super powers, please check out Protective Instincts and Haunting Refrain. 
They met because he had premonitions and she was in peril. But you will never believe why they fell in love. Paranormal romance at its best. After mourning the loss of her husband, Brit Roberts manages to pick up her life as a teacher for a rural Georgia High school. Things are fine until anonymous phone calls turn creepy and her life is endangered.
It’s not until Sam Samuels, shows up to check on her that she finds a little peace, if not a slight attraction to the handsome yet meddling security specialist. Sam Samuels isn’t just the father of one of Ms. Robert’s students, he’s a man with premonitions so strong, they make him ill. So when he meets his son’s teacher and pain kicks in, he knows something’s awry but can’t put his finger on it until he interrupts an attempt to rape and kill the teacher. Sam makes it his personal goal to protect her, only he didn’t count on falling for her.
Please check my little cyber home-away-from-home, http://www.MaryMarvella.com.
Mary Marvella
GRW Service Award & The Sandra Chastain Award.
www.pinkfuzzyslipperwriters.blogspot.com