notebook: Browse The Strips

Monday, May 25, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I always enjoyed the opportunity to pop a bit of rhyme into the text of FBFW. I love to read and write poetry, and am partial to poetry that rhymes. A comic strip, like the dialogue in a play, has to have a cadence: a rhythm so as to move the audience smoothly along. Excessive commentary, even a single word out of place, can take you out of the moment and weaken the punch line. ie:

"What do you call a dog with no legs? --. It doesn't matter. He won't come anyway."
(This works.)

"What would you call a dog if it didn't have any legs" --It doesn't matter because he wouldn't come if you called him anyway!"
(This one you stumble over.)

It takes time to learn how to write with an economy of words; to be able to engage your audience thoroughly and not waste precious seconds on "roadblocks." More after dinner speeches should be written this way!

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This was a scenario from home. My daughter, Katie, had, at the age of four, learned how to use a screwdriver, and had gone about my mother-in-law's house unscrewing things. Ruth tried to open a kitchen cupboard door and it came off in her hands along with the handle. We were both perplexed. How in the world had all the screws come loose? We looked about for Katie and found her outside in the driveway trying to take the license plates off my car!

Friday, September 4, 2015

Lynn's Comments: As soon as I could talk and interact with other kids, I knew there was a hierarchy, a pecking order into which I had to fit. In the classroom and out in the playground, I knew where I was welcome and where I wasn't. So many different elements came into play: temperament, ability, looks, interests, even cleanliness were things we considered before friendship could begin.