A Signature Color

Yellow is my favorite color. It’s cheery, sunshiny, and brings warmth. It’s a happy color. Decorating with yellow promotes a cheerful atmosphere. When playing a board game, keep your hands off the yellow token; that one is mine.

However, I chose pink for my signature color when I started writing my books. Pink is lovely. That’s it in a nutshell for me. Pink is lovely.

But I also think pink oozes from my soul. I’m a romantic at heart. Pink makes me want to kiss someone. Pink is sweet and romantic. I prefer pink roses over yellow or red.

I loved writing my Susan Hunter books. It was wonderful to put myself in Susan’s shoes as I wrote and envisioned myself in the love affair she had with Mick. I think the storytelling felt more real because of it. Every book felt pink to me.

In my life, I happily embrace pink. My wallet is pink. My new white computer has a pink keyboard and mouse. The setup is lovely! My mp3 player is pink. My earbuds are pink. Remember how I was going to the library to write? Ha! I gave up on that and started checking into a Mariott for a day or two at a time to write … and my suitcase is pink. I have a double-breasted jacket in pink I can’t wait to wear this spring. With the weight loss, it might be too big. I don’t care. I think it will still look lovely.

Do you have a signature color? Is it different from your favorite color? If so, how did you choose it?

I love my pink note cards from Modern Pink Paper!

♫ Tan Shoes with Pink Shoelaces ♫

We’re singing again. Dodie Stevens this time, because the song crossed my mind while writing this post.

Steve Harvey of Family Feud

One day each week, I head thirty miles north to visit with my mother. I take her to the grocery store, shopping, for occasional doctor visits, and four times a year, we gripe and complain on the way to our accountant for our quarterly taxes. We generally have dinner before heading back to her house to gossip visit some more and watch the Game Show Network. I run up and down the stairs during commercials to do her laundry.

Yesterday, I was treated to a gorgeous drive on the way up. The fall colors are nearly at their peak now, and with the sun shining, it was miles upon miles of aurulent, melichrous, coccineous, vitellary, badious, and rubious leaves.

The color show reminded me that the Weekly Writing Challenge this week was to incorporate a splash of color into your post. I thought of my favorite color, yellow. It’s a cheerful color. We live in a yellow house, but I don’t want to write about my house. I’m mad at it right now because it allowed a power surge to wipe out my microwave and a television this week. (Public Service Announcement: Buy good power strips. Most of our electronics were plugged into heavy-duty power strips, and although four of them were fried and off to a dumpster today, the items plugged into them survived.)

I do have this love affair with pink. I have a fabulous, double breasted, pink jacket with a high collar. It’s quite retro. Pink shoelaces show up in my books.

Aha! That’s it! Color in writing.

Do you give a lot of thought to color when you write? Beyond the fact that a room was blue, the tablecloth was white, or the villain was wearing all black? Do you use color stereotypically?

This is something that probably comes up in Writing 101, but we all know I didn’t take that class. I searched one of my books and found references to colors that work just fine in their context, but had I given more thought to color specifically, I may have tried some other words and descriptions.

As my mother was TWO HOURS in the eye doctor’s office yesterday, I spent the time searching and reading on my Nook about using color in your writing. That explains the obscure color words I used above to describe the leaves. I was surprised to find that these words are also considered obscure:
Chartreuse – Humph! I put a guy in a chartreuse thong in one of my books.
Beige – What? Surely you’ve owned a pair of beige pants.
Hoary – I’ve heard my husband use this word. Oh, wait. Maybe not in reference to a color.
Indigo – Everyone knows this color, don’t they?
Khaki – More pants, usually with too many pockets.
Maroon – Come on. Obscure? Bugs Bunny uses this color word often.
Violet – Didn’t your grandmother have a little pot of violets in her house? You know this color.

Colors can show mood in your writing. Every color suggests a feeling. Red denotes passion and action; blue is trust and peace; yellow for wisdom and happiness; green for balance, growth, and nature. There are many sites that will give you a wide range of colors and their meaning/perception.

Colors can help to set the tone of your scene, and by adding strong adjectives, you can set a powerful stage with wonderful imagery.

There are thousands of colors across the spectrum for you to choose from when describing objects. Once you’ve decided upon your base color, change it to a color from the same family that will give your writing more vigor. Instead of a red sweater, choose a scarlet sweater, or even a ruby red sweater.

Many writers use similes and metaphors with color. The walls were a putrid green like a zombie skateboarding toward me to devour my flesh.  They can be a great way to convey color images.

I’ve finally thrown my hat into the ring for NaNoWriMo. I think it will be a good kick in the pants to get me going strong. I only have two paragraphs written so far for my new book, and I don’t have to use them at all toward my novel/word count in November. As my setting will be Chicago at Christmas, I’m going to pay more attention to color in my writing this time.

Do you use color in your writing? Do you rely on it to set mood, tone, and feel?

P.S. – If you missed it, that crazy Stairway to Heaven post last week was Freshly Pressed. A lot of people stopped by to leave creative poetry and/or fun comments if you’d like to take a look.

Which Genre?

Why can’t choosing the right genre for your books be easier? I wouldn’t have any trouble with this if there was a Blonde-Run-Amuck genre.

“Mystery is a genre of fiction in which a detective, either an amateur or a professional, solves a crime or a series of crimes.” – Susan doesn’t solve crimes. She simply ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, or she does something resulting in unexpected consequences. There is usually some element of mystery in the story, so I call them mysteries, but the books don’t fully fit the description.

“An adventure is an event or series of events that happens outside the course of the protagonist’s ordinary life, usually accompanied by danger, often by physical action.” – Susan definitely has adventure, but it’s usually the adventure of trying to stay alive because her own actions put her life in danger. This is probably closest to the description, but the books would look silly sitting on a shelf next to A Game of Thrones or a book by Clive Cussler.

The definition for chick-lit seems to be changing. “Chick-lit started out being about women typically who were single, in their twenties, often living the big city life and dealing with issues related to dating and careers.” –or- “Chick-lit is fluffy, light-hearted, brain candy.” – Susan has a career, and she dates, but that’s not the main focus of the books. They are a lighter, breezy read, but there is danger and adventure as well. I wouldn’t mind if the books were categorized as chick-lit, but I’m not really sure this is where they belong either.

Romance – There is romance in the books, but it’s definitely secondary. There are no sex scenes, and the books are pretty squeaky clean. There are happily-ever-after endings, but I’m positive they shouldn’t be categorized as romance.

Humor – There is a humorous element, but there aren’t any jokes, and they’re not that funny.

My books are literally a mix of all five genres. And they’re pink. And I’m blonde. I give up.

Why can’t there simply be a pink genre?