Portfolio Project Breakdown

Happy Tuesday, lovely readers! I am thrilled to announce that my writing swipe file is LIVE, and you can now view it on the Portfolio page. Working on this project taught me lessons in critical thinking, very basic graphic design and–as was the actual point–writing. I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

Since this project is mostly pictures, I want to take a moment and break down five of my favorite slides from the swipe file. Why did I choose to use these pins verses these honorable mentions? To be honest, I wanted to use them all, but here’s why this version looks the way it does…:

This is the fourth slide in my presentation and includes three of my favorite quotes from three of my all-time favorite fantasy books. The first line is from Rick Riordan’s The Mark of Athena and is spoken by one of my biggest inspirations, Piper McLean. While her style is a far cry from Doctor Strange’s (my fav superhero, in case you were wondering), she’s brave to her core.

The theme of this slide became clear to me when I added this second line from J.K. Rowling’s Albus Dumbledore. It is one of the most powerful quotes in all of Harry Potter, and, like Piper’s, speaks volumes about the connection between bravery and heroes. We don’t choose to be “heroic” so much as we choose to be brave.

Quote number three was easy to pick. It is slightly more humorous than the previous two, which, being that it’s from one of the most hilarious characters I know, is fitting. Sage is a talented smack-talker, but it’s his courage that makes him a real hero. Like that note in the bottom left corner points out, fantasy fiction is brimming with heroes, be they Cherokee daughters of Olympian goddesses or outcast royalty. I think that all three of these images are great examples of that theme.

Here is the sixth slide in my presentation, labeled “Novels” for lack of a more specific category under which all of these examples fit. The first is from the heart-wrenching romance, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. The pictured “bumblebee tights” are a kind of inside joke between the two central characters, and the quote is from one of them– “ex-Master of the Universe,” Will Traynor.

This second line is from my girl Anne Shirley because I couldn’t possibly leave her out! Her optimism has been a constant source of inspiration for generations, and I think this particular quote sums that up nicely.

The third quote, as I pointed out on the slide itself, is spoken by Death, who narrates Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. I chose this image to round out what is now three, separate examples of powerful narrative voice, which every great novel boasts.

I didn’t even know the term “direct response email” until I started working on this project. Oh, how far I’ve come! Both of these examples spoke to me on different levels. The first example, from Amy and Jordan Demos, began with a story about strep throat and a wedding and ended with this pitch for their new business course. I was blown away. The line, “Second, we needed a new playbook that would get us off the bathroom floor…” hit me like a truck. I firmly believe that marketing, at its finest, forgets about the sleazy car salesmen of the world and channels empathy instead.

My second example is from one of my favorite teachers, Tom Woods. His approach to direct response emails is more practical and humorous than tear-jerking, but it’s just as effective. Mr. Woods is genuinely funny and personable, and it shows in his marketing.

This is the first of two slides that I dedicated solely to movie scripts. Dead Poets Society, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Lilo and Stitch probably aren’t meshing in your head, and that’s totally okay. I chose these three examples because the quotes themselves spoke to my soul from the moment I heard them with my ears. Dead Poets Society is my favorite Robin Williams movie, mainly because it made me appreciate poetry as the lifesong of humans. And I have to agree with Newt– worrying doesn’t do anyone any good. Be here now, right? And finally, leave it to Disney to change your worldview through animated aliens.

One of the last in my presentation, this may just be my favorite slide. These are just five examples of book titles that have come to take my breath away for various reasons, all of which are pointed out on the slide itself. This was also the slide that gave me the biggest challenge because I had to narrow my potential examples waaaay down. I actually chose these five titles randomly from a list. Seeing them all together now, I wouldn’t swap them out.

I hope that this post has given you some helpful insight into my thoughts surrounding my writing swipe file. If you haven’t seen it yet, hop on over to the Portfolio page to add a little book love to your day.