Gay Ingram's Blog - Posts Tagged "heroine"

SuggestionsTo Freshen Your Fiction

Write in the voice that narrates your thoughts. Too much reshaping and worrying about how something looks on the page produces unconvincing writing.

Avoid generalized adjectives if you must use them. Seek comparisons that make the images snap.

Using fewer words to describe something is better.

Have a good time telling your tale.

Think of each scene as a street you want your readers to walk down until they turn the corner into the next scene.

Find yourself stuck in a passage? Choose the most outlandish ending that comes to mind and work backward.

Break out of the usual thinking pattern; twist the ending. What if a western ends with the bad guy apologizing to the heroine?
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Published on July 22, 2011 14:23 Tags: ending, fiction, heroine, tale, telling, words

A Little Known Heroine

I love the way you can discover interesting individuals when doing research. I don’t even recall what I was seeking when I came across this bit about someone called Sybil Ludington.

She was the daughter of Colonel Henry Ludington and lived near the town of Danbury, Connecticut, in 1777. The same evening of the famous Paul Revere ride, a rider came to the Ludington household to warn them that British troops and British loyalists had attacked the nearby town. Since Colonel Ludington had to prepare for battle, he asked his sixteen-year-old daughter Sybil to ride through the night, alerting his men of the danger and urging them to come together to fight back.

At 9 pm the night of April 26, the young girl set out to recruit the Colonel’s disbanded regiment. Ludington rode all night through the dark woods, covering forty miles through Kent to Farmers Mills. She covered forty miles, damp from the rain and exhausted, before returning home just before dawn.

When she got home, more than 400 men were ready to march. Statesman Alexander Hamilton wrote to her, praising her deed and she was later commended by George Washington for her heroism. A statue of her was erected along her route in Carmel, New York, along with many other markers of her historic ride.

You can read a detailed account in her own words at:http://ludingtonsride.com/history.htm.
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Published on May 20, 2016 06:19 Tags: american-revolution, gay-ingram, heroine, history