Hi Allyson,
Yes, Stead not only gives the secondary characters their own plot arcs, but she also rounds out the minor characters, giving each one an important role in Miranda’s development. Robert McKee, in Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, describes the importance of the “cast of characters” this way: “In essence, the protagonist creates the rest of the cast. All other characters are in a story first and foremost because of the relationship they strike to the protagonist and the way each helps to delineate the dimensions of the protagonist’s complex nature.” (p. 179) Even characters who play minor roles in When You Reach Me have a specific personality, and/or past history, that help to promote Miranda’s growth.
Take Jimmy, the owner of the sandwich shop near the school, who lets Annemarie, Colin and Miranda work there during their lunch time in exchange for a soda and a sandwich, which they can each create from the “setup tray.” (p. 55) He’s nice enough to them, but he’s a bigot, stretching his eyelids back as he says, “Velly important.” Miranda notes, “If Mom had been there, she would have whacked him on the head with a plastic tray.” (p. 62) His bigotry surfaces again, and creates a platform for Miranda to announce the gulf between herself and Julia, when he orders Julia, who is black, out of his shop. “Now.” (p. 83) Miranda, jealous of Julia for her worldly travels, nice clothes, and little silver Swiss watch, is secretly pleased: “Jimmy could be a grouch, but he saw right through Julia, just like I did.” (p. 83) But Annemarie sees right through Jimmy. When he suspects Julia of stealing some money from a bank in his shop because of “her blood,” Annemarie says, “You pig....You racist pig.” (p. 129) This interaction precipitates Miranda’s sharing the reasons for her jealousy of Julia with Annemarie. Thus Jimmy is the catalyst for an enormous amount of Miranda’s growth.
Take Miranda’s teacher, Mr. Tompkin. Miranda’s mom tells her that Mr. Tompkin is a frustrated architect who became a teacher, like a lot of young men who became teachers because they “didn’t want to fight” in Vietnam. So Mr. Tompkin’s class “studies buildings every year.” (p. 43) This year the class project is Main Street, a scale model of a city block, the creation of which figures into much of the social interaction between various students in the class. When at lunch one day Julia questions Miranda about how she would make the swings for the Main Street playground, Miranda observes, “It was dawning on me that Julia was showing me something, teaching me how to help Annemarie.” (p. 90) So the teacher initiated an action that resulted in Miranda’s social and emotional development.
Take Richard, Miranda’s mom’s boyfriend, who hasn’t been given a key to their apartment. “Keys are power,” he says. (p. 4) As a reader, I wonder: What key will have the power to unlock the mystery of this book? Repeated references to keys throughout the book in connection specifically with Richard are reminders that Miranda still hasn’t unlocked the mystery, which at times seems to be tied up in knots. Richard knows knots--how to tie them and how to untie them. He teaches Miranda to tie knots--he had even given her a set of ropes two Christmases before. He told Miranda that he ties and unties knots when he has a problem at work, which helps him get in the right frame of mind. (p. 19) Miranda wonders if tying and untying knots will help “solve my problem.” (p. 20) Finally, after Miranda unravels the knots of her problem and finds the key to the mystery of the notes, she gives Richard his own set of keys to the apartment--tied with a sailor’s knot. With her birthday gift, Miranda welcomes her mom’s boyfriend into their family. It’s through interactions like this with the relativity minor character Richard that Miranda grows.
Storysleuths’ Tip #23--Even minor characters can (and perhaps should) trigger significant events.
Over to you, Allyson.
Meg
NEW!! Go to NEXT When You Reach Me post.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
SECONDARY CHARACTER ARC: When You Reach Me
Okay, Meg, the hard part here is going to be reeling myself in because there is so much I want to say on the subject of secondary characters. There is a very long essay that could be written just on how Stead succeeds with this aspect of her novel. Apologies in advance for rambling on a bit. NOTE: BIG SPOILER ALERT! If you have not yet read the novel, come back when you have!
In her craft book Between the Lines, author Jessica Page Morrell refers to secondary characters as, “the unsung heroes of fiction.” As writers, we must be certain that these often overlooked and underused characters serve a specific purpose within the story. Do they propel the protagonist towards his necessary growth or change? Perhaps they serve as a source for heightened tension and conflict. Might they provide the reader with an alternate perspective on the protagonist and his motivation? The list goes on, and any of these could be a blog post on its own--but that is a post for another day!
The thing I would like to focus on today is the plot arc of the well written secondary character, regardless of the purpose he serves in the story. In a post made in March of this year, literary agent Nathan Bransford said this in his blog :
“Every single character you introduce, major or minor, should also have their own plot arc(s) with defined goals and motivations. The more important the character the longer and more complex the plot arc(s.)” He goes on to say, “This is often where writers miss opportunities: every character, big or small, has to show motivation, agency, and desire. They have to have their own plot arcs. And it's important that the arcs have a beginning, middle, and end.”
In When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead has done a mind-bogglingly good job of creating secondary characters with well fleshed out plot arcs that rise and fall over the course of the novel. Consider Annemarie. At the onset of the novel she has lost her best friend, Julia, which is the inciting incident causing her to befriend Miranda. Annemarie wants to be liked. She wants to fit in—in fact she wants it so badly that she puts her health at risk in order to be part of the lunch-time work crew at Jimmy’s sandwich shop. She seems like a kid who will roll with the punches and go along for the ride, but when her former best friend’s honesty is brought into question and racial slurs are made about her, Anne Marie’s story arc hits a peak, and we see what she is like when her mettle is tested. She has a full-fledged story completely independent of Miranda’s, yet hers intertwines with Miranda’s in a way that causes both the girls to grow and change.
And look at Sal’s story arc. Miranda believes that the moment of change for Sal came when he was punched in the stomach. We come to learn that his story started sooner than that, when Miranda was sick from school and Sal understood for the first time how dependent he was on her for friendship. This is the story of Sal’s growth into a more independent person who goes after what he wants—a more diverse circle of friends which includes boys—and he gets it. But along the way, a consequence of Sal’s living out his story is that he unintentionally drives Miranda toward her own growth and change.
And what about Marcus! What a story he has to tell. A boy genius raised in an impoverished family of questionable moral integrity, he seems nothing more than a bully. Then, as his story unfolds, we come to understand his motivation. We see him as a person with an enormous capacity to love, and an intense need to do what is right when we finally understand that he has traveled back in time to save the life of a boy he accidentally killed when he (Marcus) was a child. Marcus’s story line begins the day that he punches Sal in the stomach. It hits a climax the day he kicks Sal out of the way of an oncoming truck. And BOY does he undergo growth and change, starting out as a smart, but clueless kid, and winding up in the heroic form of the Laughing man. As for the role Marcus plays in Miranda’s growth--without Marcus, there would be no story. It is because of him, and his actions that the most significant wheels in the story are set in motion.
Julia, Colin, Miranda’s mother, Richard. Every single one of them has a story, and every single one of them plays a major role in Miranda becoming who she needs to be by the end of the novel. What Stead has done, and what we all need to do when creating secondary characters is this: First, she has made each of her secondary characters into a multi-faceted person with a compelling story all their own. Second, she has brought them into Miranda’s life for a reason--to propel her on her journey, to give her cause for introspection, to act as mirrors or foils that Miranda encounters along the way.
STORYSLEUTHS’ TIP # 23: To write effective secondary characters, give them a story arc all their own, complete with a beginning, middle and end.
-- Allyson
NEW! Go to NEXT When You Reach Me post.
In her craft book Between the Lines, author Jessica Page Morrell refers to secondary characters as, “the unsung heroes of fiction.” As writers, we must be certain that these often overlooked and underused characters serve a specific purpose within the story. Do they propel the protagonist towards his necessary growth or change? Perhaps they serve as a source for heightened tension and conflict. Might they provide the reader with an alternate perspective on the protagonist and his motivation? The list goes on, and any of these could be a blog post on its own--but that is a post for another day!
The thing I would like to focus on today is the plot arc of the well written secondary character, regardless of the purpose he serves in the story. In a post made in March of this year, literary agent Nathan Bransford said this in his blog :
“Every single character you introduce, major or minor, should also have their own plot arc(s) with defined goals and motivations. The more important the character the longer and more complex the plot arc(s.)” He goes on to say, “This is often where writers miss opportunities: every character, big or small, has to show motivation, agency, and desire. They have to have their own plot arcs. And it's important that the arcs have a beginning, middle, and end.”
In When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead has done a mind-bogglingly good job of creating secondary characters with well fleshed out plot arcs that rise and fall over the course of the novel. Consider Annemarie. At the onset of the novel she has lost her best friend, Julia, which is the inciting incident causing her to befriend Miranda. Annemarie wants to be liked. She wants to fit in—in fact she wants it so badly that she puts her health at risk in order to be part of the lunch-time work crew at Jimmy’s sandwich shop. She seems like a kid who will roll with the punches and go along for the ride, but when her former best friend’s honesty is brought into question and racial slurs are made about her, Anne Marie’s story arc hits a peak, and we see what she is like when her mettle is tested. She has a full-fledged story completely independent of Miranda’s, yet hers intertwines with Miranda’s in a way that causes both the girls to grow and change.
And look at Sal’s story arc. Miranda believes that the moment of change for Sal came when he was punched in the stomach. We come to learn that his story started sooner than that, when Miranda was sick from school and Sal understood for the first time how dependent he was on her for friendship. This is the story of Sal’s growth into a more independent person who goes after what he wants—a more diverse circle of friends which includes boys—and he gets it. But along the way, a consequence of Sal’s living out his story is that he unintentionally drives Miranda toward her own growth and change.
And what about Marcus! What a story he has to tell. A boy genius raised in an impoverished family of questionable moral integrity, he seems nothing more than a bully. Then, as his story unfolds, we come to understand his motivation. We see him as a person with an enormous capacity to love, and an intense need to do what is right when we finally understand that he has traveled back in time to save the life of a boy he accidentally killed when he (Marcus) was a child. Marcus’s story line begins the day that he punches Sal in the stomach. It hits a climax the day he kicks Sal out of the way of an oncoming truck. And BOY does he undergo growth and change, starting out as a smart, but clueless kid, and winding up in the heroic form of the Laughing man. As for the role Marcus plays in Miranda’s growth--without Marcus, there would be no story. It is because of him, and his actions that the most significant wheels in the story are set in motion.
Julia, Colin, Miranda’s mother, Richard. Every single one of them has a story, and every single one of them plays a major role in Miranda becoming who she needs to be by the end of the novel. What Stead has done, and what we all need to do when creating secondary characters is this: First, she has made each of her secondary characters into a multi-faceted person with a compelling story all their own. Second, she has brought them into Miranda’s life for a reason--to propel her on her journey, to give her cause for introspection, to act as mirrors or foils that Miranda encounters along the way.
STORYSLEUTHS’ TIP # 23: To write effective secondary characters, give them a story arc all their own, complete with a beginning, middle and end.
-- Allyson
NEW! Go to NEXT When You Reach Me post.
Friday, November 6, 2009
NARRATOR RELIABILITY: When You Reach Me
Hi Allyson,
I’ve been thinking about what grips me about this story, why I’m so engaged. I think it’s largely because the narrator, Miranda, is so appealing. She feels like a real kid.
Stead set the story in pre-cell phone, pre-email 1979. Miranda is a 12 year old 6th grader living on the Upper West Side of New York City with her single mom, who works in a law office. Miranda navigates her school as an office monitor, and her street as a “latchkey child.” (p. 3) Her best friend from day care grows away from her, and she seeks new friendships in her class, friendships that are strained, broken, and ultimately healed.
What draws me into this story, in addition to the underlying mystery, is Miranda’s reliability as a narrator. I trust her, because she admits to feeling sad, and mad, and lonely, even mean and jealous. When her friend, Annemarie, hopes that a rose left on the doormat might have been left by Colin, the boy Miranda also likes, Miranda suggests to Annemarie that the rose might have been left by her dad. “Your dad is so nice. It has to be him.” (p. 112) Then the narrator Miranda describes her own feelings: “I was miserable, sitting on the edge of her bed in that puddle of meanness. But I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want Annemarie’s rose to be from Colin.”
However, you don’t have to accept my judgment of Miranda as a reliable narrator. Fourth grade students in Monica Edinger’s class at the Dalton School in New York City, to whom Ms. Edinger read When You Reach Me aloud, posted their own reviews of the book as blog posts in response to an assignment. One of the students wrote: “She [Miranda] lives a normal life...” and another student wrote: “...she [Miranda] is going through the whole friend business with Ann-Marie and Julia.”
STORYSLEUTHS TIP #22: Creating a reliable narrator by making him or her feel real to readers will pull them into your story.
Over to you, Allyson.
Meg
New! Go to NEXT When You Reach Me post.
I’ve been thinking about what grips me about this story, why I’m so engaged. I think it’s largely because the narrator, Miranda, is so appealing. She feels like a real kid.
Stead set the story in pre-cell phone, pre-email 1979. Miranda is a 12 year old 6th grader living on the Upper West Side of New York City with her single mom, who works in a law office. Miranda navigates her school as an office monitor, and her street as a “latchkey child.” (p. 3) Her best friend from day care grows away from her, and she seeks new friendships in her class, friendships that are strained, broken, and ultimately healed.
What draws me into this story, in addition to the underlying mystery, is Miranda’s reliability as a narrator. I trust her, because she admits to feeling sad, and mad, and lonely, even mean and jealous. When her friend, Annemarie, hopes that a rose left on the doormat might have been left by Colin, the boy Miranda also likes, Miranda suggests to Annemarie that the rose might have been left by her dad. “Your dad is so nice. It has to be him.” (p. 112) Then the narrator Miranda describes her own feelings: “I was miserable, sitting on the edge of her bed in that puddle of meanness. But I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want Annemarie’s rose to be from Colin.”
However, you don’t have to accept my judgment of Miranda as a reliable narrator. Fourth grade students in Monica Edinger’s class at the Dalton School in New York City, to whom Ms. Edinger read When You Reach Me aloud, posted their own reviews of the book as blog posts in response to an assignment. One of the students wrote: “She [Miranda] lives a normal life...” and another student wrote: “...she [Miranda] is going through the whole friend business with Ann-Marie and Julia.”
STORYSLEUTHS TIP #22: Creating a reliable narrator by making him or her feel real to readers will pull them into your story.
Over to you, Allyson.
Meg
New! Go to NEXT When You Reach Me post.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
CHRONOLOGY: When You Reach Me
Hi Meg-
I want to kick things off with this book by chatting a bit about chronology. There are so many ways to handle chronology in a story. The beginning, followed by the middle, followed by end works much of the time. Think "Red Riding Hood," or even A Wrinkle in Time, where there is a straight push from the beginning to the end without any diversions back in time. There may be mentions of the past, but no time is spent there. This is often the chronology recommended for younger readers who might find anything other than this straightforward method of storytelling confusing.
A story can be enhanced by mixing up the chronology. Consider the brilliant picture book The End, which starts with the final scene of the story and works its way backward, finally ending at the beginning. Or stories in which the ending is revealed, and then the author returns to the beginning and slowly works her way through the story as a means of revealing how that ending came to be. This can be a great tactic when writing somewhat scary books for younger kids—start with the ending to let them know that the character will survive, and then launch them into the protagonist’s perilous journey.
At the Western Washington SCBWI conference in May, 2009, literary agent Michael Stearns of Upstart Crow Literary suggested that mixing up the chronology can add interest to an otherwise saggy beginning. A great example is Judy Blundell’s novel What I Saw and How I Lied, which opens with a scene that is about two-thirds of the way through the story, then Blundell shifts to the beginning and tells the story in a straightforward way. The scene she chose to open with is a far more compelling hook than the actual beginning of the story would have been. It was a better place to start.
Chronology is a topic that fascinates me. In a Vermont College lecture on chronology, author Alison McGhee referred to chronology as a “slippery little fish,” and said, “If you change the chronology it changes everything about the piece.” In When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead skillfully plays with chronology in a way that is perfect for this story of time travel, because the chronology mirrors the story itself—the chronology travels around in time. We start when Miranda has already figured out much of the mystery which is a key element to the book. We then travel with her back to the beginning, back to the present and so on until the entire story has been told. What makes the chronology successful rather than confusing is that Stead always grounds us wherever we are. Through the use of chapter headings, verb tense (more on those later) and sporadic references to the date, we always have clues about where we are in the story.
STORYSLEUTHS' TIP #21: Don’t be afraid to play with chronology as a means of enhancing your story.
-- Allyson
New! Go to next When You Reach Me Post
I want to kick things off with this book by chatting a bit about chronology. There are so many ways to handle chronology in a story. The beginning, followed by the middle, followed by end works much of the time. Think "Red Riding Hood," or even A Wrinkle in Time, where there is a straight push from the beginning to the end without any diversions back in time. There may be mentions of the past, but no time is spent there. This is often the chronology recommended for younger readers who might find anything other than this straightforward method of storytelling confusing.
A story can be enhanced by mixing up the chronology. Consider the brilliant picture book The End, which starts with the final scene of the story and works its way backward, finally ending at the beginning. Or stories in which the ending is revealed, and then the author returns to the beginning and slowly works her way through the story as a means of revealing how that ending came to be. This can be a great tactic when writing somewhat scary books for younger kids—start with the ending to let them know that the character will survive, and then launch them into the protagonist’s perilous journey.
At the Western Washington SCBWI conference in May, 2009, literary agent Michael Stearns of Upstart Crow Literary suggested that mixing up the chronology can add interest to an otherwise saggy beginning. A great example is Judy Blundell’s novel What I Saw and How I Lied, which opens with a scene that is about two-thirds of the way through the story, then Blundell shifts to the beginning and tells the story in a straightforward way. The scene she chose to open with is a far more compelling hook than the actual beginning of the story would have been. It was a better place to start.
Chronology is a topic that fascinates me. In a Vermont College lecture on chronology, author Alison McGhee referred to chronology as a “slippery little fish,” and said, “If you change the chronology it changes everything about the piece.” In When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead skillfully plays with chronology in a way that is perfect for this story of time travel, because the chronology mirrors the story itself—the chronology travels around in time. We start when Miranda has already figured out much of the mystery which is a key element to the book. We then travel with her back to the beginning, back to the present and so on until the entire story has been told. What makes the chronology successful rather than confusing is that Stead always grounds us wherever we are. Through the use of chapter headings, verb tense (more on those later) and sporadic references to the date, we always have clues about where we are in the story.
STORYSLEUTHS' TIP #21: Don’t be afraid to play with chronology as a means of enhancing your story.
-- Allyson
New! Go to next When You Reach Me Post
Monday, November 2, 2009
The Storysleuths Game Plan for When You Reach Me
Dear Readers,
Have you finished reading When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead? Did you give in to the urge to instantly read it a second time? Did you then scour your bookshelves for your tattered, dog-eared copy of A Wrinkle in Time and revisit Camazotz with Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace? Great! Then that means you were as wowed by this book as we were!
We’re mixing things up a bit this month. Instead of exploring tips for writers chapter-by-chapter, we’re doing a topic-by-topic exploration, with each discussion likely pointing to examples of excellent writing throughout the book. A warning that there will be spoilers, so if you have not yet read this amazing book, now is the time. And if you find yourself asking, “How did she do that?,” as we did, read it again, and then come join us as we try to answer that question ourselves.
Topics we'll look at from a writer’s perspective are:
Chronology
Veracity of Main Character
Roundness of Secondary Characters
Importance of Incidental Characters
Larger Social Issues
Mystery
Second Person Address (or is it?)
Chapter Headings
Verb Tense
Through-line of Characters
Time Travel
Book Covers
If you loved this book as much as we did, you might also enjoy these links:
School Library Journal
Educating Alice
Library Voice
Goodreads
Allyson and Meg
Have you finished reading When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead? Did you give in to the urge to instantly read it a second time? Did you then scour your bookshelves for your tattered, dog-eared copy of A Wrinkle in Time and revisit Camazotz with Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace? Great! Then that means you were as wowed by this book as we were!
We’re mixing things up a bit this month. Instead of exploring tips for writers chapter-by-chapter, we’re doing a topic-by-topic exploration, with each discussion likely pointing to examples of excellent writing throughout the book. A warning that there will be spoilers, so if you have not yet read this amazing book, now is the time. And if you find yourself asking, “How did she do that?,” as we did, read it again, and then come join us as we try to answer that question ourselves.
Topics we'll look at from a writer’s perspective are:
Chronology
Veracity of Main Character
Roundness of Secondary Characters
Importance of Incidental Characters
Larger Social Issues
Mystery
Second Person Address (or is it?)
Chapter Headings
Verb Tense
Through-line of Characters
Time Travel
Book Covers
If you loved this book as much as we did, you might also enjoy these links:
School Library Journal
Educating Alice
Library Voice
Goodreads
Allyson and Meg
Sunday, November 1, 2009
FIRST CHAPTER ADVICE: My Final Freshman Year Report Card, Remembering, and Talking Like Turtles: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Hi Meg,
At the story's resolution I find myself returning to the very first chapter. Here is a note I jotted in my blog journal back when we were just getting started:
It is important to know what the character’s wants are early on. What problem is he trying to solve? What is the purpose of the journey on which he is about to embark? If I don’t know what a character desires, how can I root for him and hope that he gets it? Here, on page 6 we get his emotional want, “I want the world to pay attention to me,” and we get his concrete want, “I draw because I feel like it might be my only real chance to escape the reservation.”
Alexie seems to be promising us that this character is going to try to get off the reservation, and in so doing is going to be paid attention to. Because I like the character, I am eager to read on and see how he does it.
In these final chapters we are assured that through the course of his journey and his struggles, Junior has indeed succeeded in achieving both his concrete and his emotional wants. Richard Peck, at the SCBWI conference in LA said that the first chapter should be a table of contents for the rest of the book. He went on to say that there is no way to write the first chapter until you have finished writing the rest of the book, because how on earth can you write a table of contents without first knowing what the contents are?
He’s a smartie, that Richard Peck!
I think that so many of us, when trying to write novels, stress at the beginning about the first chapter. Sherman Alexie has artfully written his book so that the first chapter truly does provide a snapshot of how the book is going to end. As a writer the take-away message to me is this: Finish writing the book! Finish that crappy first draft and when you have found the path the story is trying to take, and brought it to its logical conclusion, then you can go back and write a first chapter that truly is a table of contents for the rest of the book.
STORYSLEUTHS' TIP #20: Stop worrying about the first chapter. Let your character tell his story, and then you can figure out how and where that story should start.
IRONY, ONE WORD SENTENCES: Rowdy and I... & And Because Russian Guys...: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Hi Allyson,
In spite of the chapter title, "Rowdy and I Have a Long and Serious Discussion About Basketball," this chapter is one of the shortest in the book, introduced with a chapter title that primes the readers for "a long and serious discussion." But the discussion is neither long nor serious, and the irony of that dichotomy is funny.
Story Sleuths' Tip # 18: Irony can add humor to your story.
In "Because Russian Guys Are Not Always Geniuses," even in the midst of the tragedy of his sister's death, Junior retains his sense of humor: "Miss Warren was obviously trying to win the Captain Obvious Award." Junior laughs a lot in this chapter, but there are three points in Junior's lengthy internal monologue, which lasts for much of this chapter, where the reader is stopped short with a single word paragraph: "Wow." First when his father says, "I love you," then when Junior realizes that Rowdy was hiding in the woods watching the burial, and a third time when Junior realized: "I was important to them. I mattered." Wow.
Story Sleuths' Tip #19: Accent important points with one repeated word, which can be its own sentence.
Over to you, Allyson.
Meg
In spite of the chapter title, "Rowdy and I Have a Long and Serious Discussion About Basketball," this chapter is one of the shortest in the book, introduced with a chapter title that primes the readers for "a long and serious discussion." But the discussion is neither long nor serious, and the irony of that dichotomy is funny.
Story Sleuths' Tip # 18: Irony can add humor to your story.
In "Because Russian Guys Are Not Always Geniuses," even in the midst of the tragedy of his sister's death, Junior retains his sense of humor: "Miss Warren was obviously trying to win the Captain Obvious Award." Junior laughs a lot in this chapter, but there are three points in Junior's lengthy internal monologue, which lasts for much of this chapter, where the reader is stopped short with a single word paragraph: "Wow." First when his father says, "I love you," then when Junior realizes that Rowdy was hiding in the woods watching the burial, and a third time when Junior realized: "I was important to them. I mattered." Wow.
Story Sleuths' Tip #19: Accent important points with one repeated word, which can be its own sentence.
Over to you, Allyson.
Meg
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
