I'm looking forward that live class too! See you in Atlanta. 🙂 Debbie

Andrea, thanks for your comments about readers having trouble connecting emotionally with characters. That makes sense and I'm going to show it to a writer friend who emailed me saying her ms was rejected because the editor couldn't connect emotionally with the heroine. Maybe this will help point her in the right direction. I can tell when something is "off" but not always know the solution to help fix it. This might help me help her.

I'm going to a live workshop with Margie in April and am really looking forward to it.

Oh Andrea, that's awesome! Don't you LOVE when that happens? Margie will do that...you should take her 'Empowering Characters Emotions" - It was a paradigm shift for me!

Not sure I can give a good example, but I've chosen one where one technique is lampshaded. This scene is where two of them (Jacint and Amiesha) meet the other two for the first time and they're just relaxing.

After a few minutes, Guron's efforts paid off and they could watch the flames licking up the wood.
"It happens every decade or so," said Jacint. "The King of Samarna gets afraid of witches again, and it starts again. Everyone knows a witch has red hair and green eyes."
"It sounds like someone was being enthusiastic," said Merak.
"Being what?"
"You and your fancy words, Merak," said Guron.
"Not merely green eyes and red hair, but just green eyes."
"Or just red hair," said Amiesha.
"Or just red hair."
"There aren't many people with red hair in Samarna."
"I'm not surprised."
"My gran had red hair. She died when I was little."
"But your mam was as blonde as you," said Jacint.
"She was."
There was a few minutes silence. The rain sounded like it had eased off a bit. The light from the hearth made the tiny hut feel warmer than it really was.

This is a really good example of what I said earlier about using different ways of speaking to help distinguish between characters.

Too right.