Celebrating the Best of Royalene Doyle
and her fantastic Conversations
The “Trees” Series
Last week, we examined one of Royalene’s all-time best series–on connecting with experts–and this week we’re back with another one of her banner collections. This time, the subject is … wait, what? Trees?
Ah, but you see, Royalene had a way with metaphor, and a personal dedication to craft which focused on growth and opportunity, rather than all of the negatives and trials and hardships which might plague lesser humans (and let’s face it, we all live in fear of Writer’s Block … except for, magically, Royalene!). When it comes to envisioning a metaphorical framework for the discussion of growth, what better image could there be than a tree?
In this, the first entry in this series, Royalene starts with the beginning–and by that, we mean the beginning of every project. What is its seed? How does it germinate? How can an author plant and then successfully cultivate a new work? As always, Royalene is not just ferociously positive, but also thoroughly practical, and here she provides several tips and tricks for getting started.
In this, the second installment in the series, Royalene continues to track the progress of a work from seed to harvest, with a special emphasis on growth patterns. How do we measure the progress of a work? And how do we survive both the rainy and the dry seasons when it comes to our writing?
If you never expected to discuss tree life expectancy as a parallel to your work on your next book, well, that makes all of us. But as unexpected as this framework for discussion is, it’s also thoroughly brilliant! Royalene’s advice? “Research the details.” And of course, she provides a checklist for doing just that.
What happens when character development and plot lines intersect? Well, several things can happen, some of them good, and some of them challenging. Not every intersection may prove a fruitful one for your particular work, and Royalene has some thoughts on how to parse and structure your book so that this intersection is a real, organic, and powerful space for development and beauty.
Last but not least, Royalene wraps up her series with a reflection on the nature of perspective. Trees, the central metaphor of this series, happen to have rather a lot, and to provide a convenient imagistic parallel as you wrap up the creation of your next book. For Royalene, as with many others, trees provide or provoke an intense emotional reaction. They’re the locus point of a number of different thought processes. And they’re real and physical objects which exist outside of our conversations about metaphor! When it comes to the insights which this seemingly–perhaps deceptively–simple image can provide, trees will always have a lot to offer. Many thanks to Royalene for teasing out such a fine and robust line of reasoning!
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That’s all for this week! We’ll be back next Friday as we detail more of Royelene’s greatest hits, as determined by our blog’s analytics. You can follow Royalene’s further adventures by checking out her Twitter feed (her handle is @RoyaleneD) or her website at www.DoyleWritingServices.com. We miss you, Royalene! ⚓︎
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