Taking a Lesson from Trashy Tabloids

I'm about to jaunt off to my lengthy bi-monthly session at the hairdresser. It's the high, high price one pays for platinum hair -- quite literally. Although I'm not so keen on the amount of time it takes to slather burning bleach onto my scalp and snip my errant ends, I do love perusing the trashy magazines. It's my one chance to catch up on the cultural ongoings of this great nation. No one does tabloids like the Brits!

Writers could learn a thing or two from tabloid writing. Say what you like about such news outlets -- you have to admit, they're never boring. With punchy, rhythmic language, every word counts. Every sentence brings you deeper and deeper into the story, and just when you think you know what's happened, POW! They hit you with another twist.

They're in, they're out, and they leave you with a definite emotional reaction. What more could you ask for (facts aside)? Perhaps I've found a new calling. Move over, Piers Morgan!

Do you read the tabloids? Come on, admit it!

Hair Power

Just back from a lengthy bleaching session at the hairdressers. Have I mentioned how much I love my hairdresser (or stylist, whatever the most appropriate name is)? Oh, I do. I sit, he clips, I practise my French and he doesn't laugh. I leave feeling happy and refreshed. Hair-cuts just have that effect on me.

I've always been a bit obsessed with hair. I used to cut my dolls' hair and as soon as I was old enough, I was perming, frying, colouring and extending my own locks. Hair is an important transforming feature, as far as I'm concerned.

It made me laugh, then, when I got my second MS back from a professional reader. Your main character seems obsessed with her hair, the reader wrote. At one point, she's so engrossed she says she's entranced by her new hair-cut.

Well, who wouldn't be entranced by a killer cut revealing beautiful cheekbones and sparkling eyes, I thought (yes, it was just that bad of a novel).

So maybe I used a bit (a lot) of overkill in that scene, but I still think a character's physical changes can certainly be used to reflect internal changes.

What about you? Do you use changes externally to reflect characters' internal change?