divinelydeanna

[divinelydeanna]

Writing your First Chapter (Part 1)

There are tons of things that go into making a killer first chapter. Here are just a couple of things to consider.

Introducing your Protagonist and Making us Care

When writing your first chapter, you’ll be introducing your protagonist. When introducing your hero, here are some things to keep in mind:

1) We have to care about them (to want to follow them on their journey). This is typically done by giving your protagonist weaknesses and flaws or even quirks we can relate to. Your protagonist could be a grumpy, cold-hearted thief… but if they give half their findings to homeless children, our heartstrings are suddenly pulled on.

2) Don’t info-dump their backstory or appearance right away. Only give the reader what they need to know to understand the scene at hand. You especially don’t want to have your hero standing in front of a mirror describing themselves to the readers when you only have so many pages to hook a reader. You’ll have plenty of time to go into the details on your character later. This leads me to my next point…

3) Leave your readers wanting more. This is how you create page-turning chapters. If your protagonist has a mysterious limp… don’t reveal why right away. If their flaw is that they hate magic and refuse to use their birth gift… leave the reader guessing why. Little mysteries like that will keep readers subconsciously turning the page to figure out why. Just make sure you eventually give them the answer.

Foreshadow your Theme(s)

As early as you can, you’ll want to show readers what to expect in your book. Authors can do this by foreshadowing. Think of it as a “mini-scene” or description that gives the reader a taste of what’s to come. 

This can be a as small as a sentence or as long as a paragraph or scene. 

“I hadn’t been this dumb in years, hadn’t strayed this far from the Wall since… well since it fell. But I couldn’t help myself. I saw a squirrel runnin’… and catching one of those little critters would land me a handful of coin.”

Right away, the reader knows to expect themes of poverty and survival.

Ground your Readers, but don’t over do it.

Your first chapter is critical in catching your reader’s attention– so you don’t want to use up all your words on describing the setting. This is unwise, because, during this time, you need to be making us care about your hero and their actions.

Instead, show the reader only what they need to know to understand the scene. Too much description will slow down the story. 

However, if your story has an unusual or unique setting, this can be used as a hook. Although, as a general rule of thumb, you’ll want to write only what is necessary and dive into those beautiful descriptions later.

PART 2– COMING SOON :) Instagram: coffeebeanwriting

[divinelydeanna]

You cannot make everyone think and feel as deeply as you do. This is your tragedy … because you understand them, and they do not understand you.

Daniel Saint

[divinelydeanna]

People may not always tell you how they feel about you, but they will always show you. Pay attention.

Unknown

[divinelydeanna]

Just because your past has been damaged doesn’t mean your future has to be worthless.

Unknown

[divinelydeanna]

Be so fucking proud of yourself for passing the hardest moments alone while everyone believed you were fine.

[divinelydeanna]

Rookery, Traci Brimhall

[divinelydeanna]

“If it hurts more than it makes you happy then take the lesson and leave. Listen, it’s going to be OK. Some people are only rehearsals for the real thing.”

— Beau Taplin

[divinelydeanna]

‘The Shortest Day’ illustrations by Carson Ellis

[divinelydeanna]

YOU ARE BEING CALLED TO RISE...

If you ever felt called to be a healer, a teacher, a salve for the people, now is your time to come forward.

If you are a word weaver or a light worker or a lender of ears, now is your time to come forward.

If you have been hiding medicine in your pockets, behind your eyes, beneath your tongue, waiting for the "right" time to share it, now is your time to come forward.

If you have been waiting for approval, for validation, for vindication before sharing your most precious gifts, now is your time to come forward.

If you are waiting for the perfect time, the perfect mentor, the perfect plan, now your time to come forward.

If you can bring laughter, comfort and warmth to the most solemn spaces, now is your time to come forward.

If you have ever been called to use your life for something greater than yourself, now is your time to come forward.

Yes, you might be terrified.

Yes, you might be unpopular.

Yes, you might disrupt the social norm.

But the world needs you. NOW. Come forward. Imperfect. Broken. Uncertain. Raw. Willing. Open.

Lend your gifts to the greater good. Help make the world a better place so we might all be free.

Divinely , Deanna 2022

[divinelydeanna]

[divinelydeanna]

“Look deep into your own soul and you will find the answers to life” .

Genesis 1:29

And God said,”Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”

#plantlife #naturesfood #harmlesshealth #organicfarming

[divinelydeanna]

“To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter. He had not missed a single one of her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell.”

Gabriel García Márquez - Love in the Time of Cholera

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida

[divinelydeanna]

...You have carried a branch of tomorrow into the room.

Its fragrance awakened me... '

ROBERT DUNCAN (American, 1919-1988), 'Food for Fire, Food for Thought'

/ 'Fragrant Summer' by EDWARD CUCUEL (American, 1875-1954). Oil on canvas /

[divinelydeanna]

Last Word: Aldous Huxley on Knowledge vs. Understanding and the Antidote to Our Existential Helplessness

To understand anything — another person’s experience of reality, another fundamental law of physics — is to restructure our existing knowledge, shifting and broadening our prior frames of reference to accommodate a new awareness. And yet we have a habit of confusing our knowledge — which is always limited and incomplete: a model of the cathedral of reality, built from primary-colored blocks of fact — with the actuality of things; we have a habit of mistaking the model for the thing itself, mistaking our partial awareness for a totality of understanding. Thoreau recognized this when he contemplated our blinding preconceptions and lamented that “we hear and apprehend only what we already half know.”

Generations after Thoreau and generations before neuroscience began illuminating the blind spots of consciousness, Aldous Huxley (July, 26 1894–November 22, 1963) explored this eternal confusion of concepts in “Knowledge and Understanding” — one of the twenty-six uncommonly insightful essays collected in The Divine Within: Selected Writings on Enlightenment (public library).

Aldous Huxley

Huxley writes:

Knowledge is acquired when we succeed in fitting a new experience into the system of concepts based upon our old experiences. Understanding comes when we liberate ourselves from the old and so make possible a direct, unmediated contact with the new, the mystery, moment by moment, of our existence.

Because the units of knowledge are concepts, and concepts can be conveyed and transmitted in words and symbols, knowledge itself can be passed between persons. Understanding, on the other hand, is intimate and subjective, not a conceptual container but an aura of immediacy cast upon an experience — which means it cannot be transmitted and transacted like knowledge. Our forebears devised ways of transmitting knowledge from one generation to the next — in words and symbols, in stories and equations — which ensured the survival of our species by preserving and passing down the results of experience. But knowing the results of an experience is not the same as understanding the experience itself. Complicating the matter is the added subtlety that we may understand the words and symbols by which we tell each other about our experience, but still miss the immediacy of the reality those concepts are intended to convey. Huxley writes:

“Understanding is not conceptual, and therefore cannot be passed on. It is an immediate experience, and immediate experience can only be talked about (very inadequately), never shared. Nobody can actually feel another’s pain or grief, another’s love or joy or hunger. And similarly nobody can experience another’s understanding of a given event or situation… We must always remember that knowledge of understanding is not the same thing as the understanding, which is the raw material of that knowledge. It is as different from understanding as the doctor’s prescription for penicillin is different from penicillin.”

Understanding is not inherited, nor can it be laboriously acquired. It is something which, when circumstances are favorable, comes to us, so to say, of its own accord. All of us are knowers, all the time; it is only occasionally and in spite of ourselves that we understand the mystery of given reality.

Deanna L. Cook

©2022 CreativeCommons

[divinelydeanna]

Dharana is more than simply having the ability to maintain a single pointed focus, it’s about observing the scattered nature of thought. Part of Dharana is being able to observe when our attention is drifting away from what we desire to concentrate on and simply bringing it back towards our focus. ⁠

⁠How to practice⁠

⁠The practice of Dharana is about concentrating the mind to prepare for meditation. The goal is to channel your focus towards one single point by doing something as simple as being mindful of individual inhale and exhale of breathing during your yoga practice.⁠

Another way is to light a candle and use the flickering flame as your focus point. There is no time limit or recommendation for how long to do this as it is totally up to you and your level of awareness. Getting quiet and finding stillness can be uncomfortable. It is about pushing through this discomfort and staying completely engaged in the experience where the magic happens.

#mindmatters #mentalhealth #dharma -#meditation #freespace #path

[divinelydeanna]

Todays #juicyelixir

#organic

[divinelydeanna]

#love #beloved #

“Promise me you will not spend so much time treading water and trying to keep your head above the waves that you forget, truly forget, how much you have always loved to swim.”

- Tyler Knott Gregson