For many writers, the most difficult task is coming up with a good beginning or a good ending. The reason is because most of the time, the idea for a good story comes somewhere in between.
What usually happens is that we have something we want to say, a story we want to tell, and we have to figure out how to get into the story and, once we've told it, how to make a fulfilling (to the reader) exit.
One of the ways of doing this is through The Circle Method, so named because the story comes full circle. It might begin with two men standing under a street light, talking. As the story unfolds, 20 years pass, a lot of things happen, and the story ends with the two men standing under the same street light.
Picture a story that begins with someone standing on a corner staring at a used car lot across the street and thinking about how that was once the site of his or her childhood home. The story then evolves about all the things that happened in that home and eventually returns to the person standing across the street from the used car lot. Perhaps a policeman comes up to the person and asks them if they are all right and the person answers, "Yes ... I was just thinking ...
The Circle Method. Try it. You'll like it.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
Our readers respond
One of our recent commentaries was on the uselessness of the word "very" because it doesn't add very much to any sentence, particularly if our intent is to describe something. For instance, what's the difference between "big" and "very big"?
A faithful reader pointed out how great authors apparently disagreed with me. As an example, the reader cited a passage from Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises": "Bayonne is a nice town. It is like a very clean Spanish town and it is on a big river. Already, so early in the morning, it was very hot on the bridge across the river." Then, a few sentences later, "In the Basque country, the land all looks very rich and green..." (emphasis added).
We're not about to take on Hemingway here or the success of his writing. But generally, sentences are more crisp without the word "very" and, as seekers of just the right word, we should avoid ones that clutter up sentences.
But sentences should have flow. If adding or taking out a word or phrase destroys the flow, don't do it.
One of the wonderful things about writing is that it isn't math. We are not constrained into 2+2=4. We are creative. If something doesn't work, change it.
But think about it. That's really the point. Remember the golden rule: Intend every word you write.
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Starting Monday, The Writing Life will be coming to you once a week. We welcome all responses from our readers.
A faithful reader pointed out how great authors apparently disagreed with me. As an example, the reader cited a passage from Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises": "Bayonne is a nice town. It is like a very clean Spanish town and it is on a big river. Already, so early in the morning, it was very hot on the bridge across the river." Then, a few sentences later, "In the Basque country, the land all looks very rich and green..." (emphasis added).
We're not about to take on Hemingway here or the success of his writing. But generally, sentences are more crisp without the word "very" and, as seekers of just the right word, we should avoid ones that clutter up sentences.
But sentences should have flow. If adding or taking out a word or phrase destroys the flow, don't do it.
One of the wonderful things about writing is that it isn't math. We are not constrained into 2+2=4. We are creative. If something doesn't work, change it.
But think about it. That's really the point. Remember the golden rule: Intend every word you write.
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Starting Monday, The Writing Life will be coming to you once a week. We welcome all responses from our readers.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Don't overlook motivation
Motivation is one of those intangibles that makes the world go around. Examine any great book that you've ever read and consider the motivation of each of the main characters. What motivated Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird? What motivated the old fisherman in The Old Man and the Sea? What motivated Elmer Gantry?
Now add another dimension to it. What motivated other characters in those same novels? When you have several people interacting, perhaps all seeking the same thing but with different motivations, you've got the makings of a pretty good story.
Charles Bowden wrote a profile of a man who lost both legs and one arm in Vietnam. His story starts out with Max getting out of bed in the morning. "His day starts with his arm," wrote Bowden, "the one he has left. Using it to brace himself, he rolls off the bed and into his wheelchair as sunlight peeks through the window."
That's a case where it took motivation for the man just to get up in the morning - and for what?
Abraham Lincoln was motivated one night to relax from the stress of a long war and go to the theater with his wife. John Wilkes Booth was motivated to find a time and place where he could sneak up on the president and kill him.
Sometimes, when two motivations come together, history is made.
Now add another dimension to it. What motivated other characters in those same novels? When you have several people interacting, perhaps all seeking the same thing but with different motivations, you've got the makings of a pretty good story.
Charles Bowden wrote a profile of a man who lost both legs and one arm in Vietnam. His story starts out with Max getting out of bed in the morning. "His day starts with his arm," wrote Bowden, "the one he has left. Using it to brace himself, he rolls off the bed and into his wheelchair as sunlight peeks through the window."
That's a case where it took motivation for the man just to get up in the morning - and for what?
Abraham Lincoln was motivated one night to relax from the stress of a long war and go to the theater with his wife. John Wilkes Booth was motivated to find a time and place where he could sneak up on the president and kill him.
Sometimes, when two motivations come together, history is made.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Looking at things sideways
I have often told my students over the years to imagine me holding up a large mirror in front of them. As they look into the mirror from where ever they are sitting in the room, they are all looking at the same thing - but from a different angle.
Roach Smith, a woman who has written several novels, has a novel way of looking at the world from a different angle. She always has a small notebook with her, one that can easily fit in a purse or glove compartment. When she gets an idea for something she wants to write about, she's wise enough to know she won't remember it unless she writes it down. That's a fairly standard practice for most writers.
But here's what makes Smith's approach novel. She says when she wants to describe a landscape, or, to look at the broad picture of something, she turns the notebook sideways. She says the physical act of writing on a wider surface triggers her brain to look at the big picture.
We all know that life has lots of twists and turns. As writers, perhaps the same should be true of our notebooks.
Roach Smith, a woman who has written several novels, has a novel way of looking at the world from a different angle. She always has a small notebook with her, one that can easily fit in a purse or glove compartment. When she gets an idea for something she wants to write about, she's wise enough to know she won't remember it unless she writes it down. That's a fairly standard practice for most writers.
But here's what makes Smith's approach novel. She says when she wants to describe a landscape, or, to look at the broad picture of something, she turns the notebook sideways. She says the physical act of writing on a wider surface triggers her brain to look at the big picture.
We all know that life has lots of twists and turns. As writers, perhaps the same should be true of our notebooks.
Monday, July 18, 2011
The role of the paragraph
A paragraph is more than just a block of words. It has form and function, but does not get the attention or respect that words and sentences do. What is the role of the paragraph?
Ken Fuson, retired columnist for the Des Moines Register, says creative writers should write in scenes, not paragraphs. A good story doesn't move from one paragraph to another but from one scene to another, says Fuson.
The late author Kurt Vonnegut said a paragraph has two purposes. It should either reveal character or advance the plot.
Other writers probably have other theories about paragraphs, and none are absolutes. But it's fair to say we should pay as much attention to writing good paragraphs as we do to writing good sentences filled with appropriate words.
As writers, we want to take our readers on a journey. Think of it as a long, enjoyable, engaging walk - and think of paragraphs as the sidewalk, the individual concrete blocks, that are the path we take to get there.
Ken Fuson, retired columnist for the Des Moines Register, says creative writers should write in scenes, not paragraphs. A good story doesn't move from one paragraph to another but from one scene to another, says Fuson.
The late author Kurt Vonnegut said a paragraph has two purposes. It should either reveal character or advance the plot.
Other writers probably have other theories about paragraphs, and none are absolutes. But it's fair to say we should pay as much attention to writing good paragraphs as we do to writing good sentences filled with appropriate words.
As writers, we want to take our readers on a journey. Think of it as a long, enjoyable, engaging walk - and think of paragraphs as the sidewalk, the individual concrete blocks, that are the path we take to get there.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Have you heard the one about...
Two men are traveling around the country doing seminars for their company. They arrive in the city of Natchitoches, Louisiana, where they are to give a presentation that night. As they stop to get a bite to eat, they realize they don't know how to pronounce the name of the town they're in - and that could prove to be embarrassing.
So one of the men approaches an employee and says, "Pardon me, but we're new here. Could you tell us where we are - and say it slowly so we'll remember how to pronounce it."
"Sure," says the employee. "BURGER KING!"
One of the reasons I love that story is because it's true. It actually happened. But in this context it is also a joke, and writers can learn a lot by looking at the framework of a joke. There's an introduction, a set-up and a punchline. It is clear, concise, complete, easy to understand and has a satisfying, fulfilling conclusion.
Those are the qualities I always hope my work has - and that's no joke.
So one of the men approaches an employee and says, "Pardon me, but we're new here. Could you tell us where we are - and say it slowly so we'll remember how to pronounce it."
"Sure," says the employee. "BURGER KING!"
One of the reasons I love that story is because it's true. It actually happened. But in this context it is also a joke, and writers can learn a lot by looking at the framework of a joke. There's an introduction, a set-up and a punchline. It is clear, concise, complete, easy to understand and has a satisfying, fulfilling conclusion.
Those are the qualities I always hope my work has - and that's no joke.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
The Golden Rule of writing
I read an article recently about a man who drives an old car that is rusty, dented, dirty and is even missing a door. The owner didn't care how it looked. It got him around town.
In the first sentence, the author referred to "the eccentric-looking car" - and I thought, wait a minute. Can a car be eccentric-looking? I went to my old friend on the bookshelf, Noah Webster, and confirmed that eccentric means "peculiar" or "deviating from the norm" and refers to a person or conduct.
Cars are a lot of things - but they're not eccentric. So the writer, whose job is to entice me, stopped me in my tracks in his first sentence.
This brings us to what writer Eric Cummings calls "the golden rule of writing: Intend every word you write. He recalls an incident in his college Creative Writing class in which he was asked to read his short story. He began, "Light barely flooded into the room." His professor stopped him and asked him what he meant. Was it possible for anything to "barely flood?" Cummings changed it to "light trickled into the room."
So the golden rule is "intend every word you write." A century ago, William Strunk put it another way in his masterpiece, "The Elements of Style," saying "make every word tell."
In the first sentence, the author referred to "the eccentric-looking car" - and I thought, wait a minute. Can a car be eccentric-looking? I went to my old friend on the bookshelf, Noah Webster, and confirmed that eccentric means "peculiar" or "deviating from the norm" and refers to a person or conduct.
Cars are a lot of things - but they're not eccentric. So the writer, whose job is to entice me, stopped me in my tracks in his first sentence.
This brings us to what writer Eric Cummings calls "the golden rule of writing: Intend every word you write. He recalls an incident in his college Creative Writing class in which he was asked to read his short story. He began, "Light barely flooded into the room." His professor stopped him and asked him what he meant. Was it possible for anything to "barely flood?" Cummings changed it to "light trickled into the room."
So the golden rule is "intend every word you write." A century ago, William Strunk put it another way in his masterpiece, "The Elements of Style," saying "make every word tell."
Friday, July 15, 2011
The most useless word
I once had a student who said she had to buy a sympathy card and chose one over another based on something I had said in class. She purchased the card that said "Thinking of you in this difficult time" instead of "Thinking of you in this very difficult time."
When she told me about this, I was impressed. I was not very impressed.
I have told my students over the years that the word "very" is most often used as a form of description, yet it doesn't describe anything. And it often gets in the way of powerful statements.
What's the difference between "big" and "very big?" In my mind's eye, I cannot picture the difference any more than I can picture "very hot" or "very smart" or "very ugly." Descripton should provide the reader with a word picture. "Very" just gets in the way.
Consider the father who rushes into his home and tells his family, "The floodwaters are coming. We have to leave very soon." It almost sounds like next week would be soon enough. But how about if he says, "We have to leave soon." There is a sense of urgency to it.
Author Florence King puts it another way. She says to compare what she calls the "mincing shallowness" of "I love you very much" to the "heart-slamming intensity" of "I love you."
Go through your work and see how many times you've used the word "very." Then delete them.
When she told me about this, I was impressed. I was not very impressed.
I have told my students over the years that the word "very" is most often used as a form of description, yet it doesn't describe anything. And it often gets in the way of powerful statements.
What's the difference between "big" and "very big?" In my mind's eye, I cannot picture the difference any more than I can picture "very hot" or "very smart" or "very ugly." Descripton should provide the reader with a word picture. "Very" just gets in the way.
Consider the father who rushes into his home and tells his family, "The floodwaters are coming. We have to leave very soon." It almost sounds like next week would be soon enough. But how about if he says, "We have to leave soon." There is a sense of urgency to it.
Author Florence King puts it another way. She says to compare what she calls the "mincing shallowness" of "I love you very much" to the "heart-slamming intensity" of "I love you."
Go through your work and see how many times you've used the word "very." Then delete them.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Finding just the right words
Writing is a lot like sculpting. You start out with a large block of clay (your subject matter.)
Then you mold it and shape it and give it the form you want, often eliminating much of the substance you began with (editing.)
It can be laborious. Mount Rushmore took more than a decade to complete. It may not take us years to complete what we are writing, but at times it will seem like we are trying to build Mount Rushmore!
How long do you suppose it took the sculptor to make sure Thomas Jefferson's nose on Mount Rushmore was the just the way he wanted it?
We should pay such attention to our words and sentences. I read a passage recently describing the way a defendant was dressed in court, quite differently from the way he was dressed when he was arrested. The author said the defendant was wearing a neatly-pressed suit with a white handkerchief peeking out of his suitcoat pocket. I tip my hat to the author. Peeking was not only a great word in that context; it was the right one.
I often tell people I can recite the best sentence I ever wrote - and I wrote it 25 years ago. I had been hired by a daycare center to write a script for a video it was producing. The video was 5-minutes long and was to be used to entice parents to choose this daycare center over others they might visit. My challenge was to convey to parents the significance of their decision.
I wrote, "If there's anything more important than the time you spend with your children, it's the time you don't...."
After all these years, I still love that sentence.
Then you mold it and shape it and give it the form you want, often eliminating much of the substance you began with (editing.)
It can be laborious. Mount Rushmore took more than a decade to complete. It may not take us years to complete what we are writing, but at times it will seem like we are trying to build Mount Rushmore!
How long do you suppose it took the sculptor to make sure Thomas Jefferson's nose on Mount Rushmore was the just the way he wanted it?
We should pay such attention to our words and sentences. I read a passage recently describing the way a defendant was dressed in court, quite differently from the way he was dressed when he was arrested. The author said the defendant was wearing a neatly-pressed suit with a white handkerchief peeking out of his suitcoat pocket. I tip my hat to the author. Peeking was not only a great word in that context; it was the right one.
I often tell people I can recite the best sentence I ever wrote - and I wrote it 25 years ago. I had been hired by a daycare center to write a script for a video it was producing. The video was 5-minutes long and was to be used to entice parents to choose this daycare center over others they might visit. My challenge was to convey to parents the significance of their decision.
I wrote, "If there's anything more important than the time you spend with your children, it's the time you don't...."
After all these years, I still love that sentence.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Whittle it down
I want to take some time today to discuss the importance for you to make sure you are not including a bunch of unnecessary words in your sentences, paragraphs and your entire writings.
As an example, let's edit and rewrite that first sentence.
Make sure you are not including unnecessary words in your writings.
We knocked out 22 words.
Now for a little more editing. Instead of "Make sure you are not including," let's make it "Don't use..."
Now our sentence reads: Don't use unnecessary words in your writings. Compare this to the first sentence and notice how crisp the latest version is.
As an example, let's edit and rewrite that first sentence.
Make sure you are not including unnecessary words in your writings.
We knocked out 22 words.
Now for a little more editing. Instead of "Make sure you are not including," let's make it "Don't use..."
Now our sentence reads: Don't use unnecessary words in your writings. Compare this to the first sentence and notice how crisp the latest version is.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Discipline: What it's all about
Robert Frost, the man who advised, "No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader," has this to say about the discipline of writing:
"Discipline. Tightness. Firmness. Crispness. Sternness. And sternness in our lives. Life is tons of discipline. Your first discipline is your vocabulary, then your grammar, then your punctuation. Then, in exuberance and bounding energy, you say you're going to add to that...and you delight in that power."
"Discipline. Tightness. Firmness. Crispness. Sternness. And sternness in our lives. Life is tons of discipline. Your first discipline is your vocabulary, then your grammar, then your punctuation. Then, in exuberance and bounding energy, you say you're going to add to that...and you delight in that power."
Friday, July 8, 2011
Everybody has a "what might have been"
When I am interviewing people for a newspaper story, I almost always ask them to think back to their high school years - what did they think they would be doing today?
Everyone has twists and turns in their lives. Sometimes those can be the most interesting aspects of their lives, so we shouldn't overlook them. It's true of fictional characters too. Think about it. What did Edith Bunker hope to do with her life before she met and married Archie?
Robert Frost wrote:
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I could not travel both...
"I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."
Which road did you take in your life? What road made all the difference in the life of the person you are writing about?
It is a question worth pursuing.
Everyone has twists and turns in their lives. Sometimes those can be the most interesting aspects of their lives, so we shouldn't overlook them. It's true of fictional characters too. Think about it. What did Edith Bunker hope to do with her life before she met and married Archie?
Robert Frost wrote:
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I could not travel both...
"I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."
Which road did you take in your life? What road made all the difference in the life of the person you are writing about?
It is a question worth pursuing.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Moments of harvest
We are writers.
We are of many roots, deeply embedded, spreading many seeds, imaginatively sown.
We share the moments of harvests enjoyed and harvests envisioned.
The love of writing, apart from anything else, makes us family.
Sometimes we just like to share some "pictures" from the photo albums of our imaginations: the thoughts, dreams and images that make us who we are.
We are writers, some of us for a lifetime, some of us for a moment or two.
We express ourselves through the characters we have known, both real and unreal, and situations we have experienced in our lives and through the lives of our characters.
We are writers.
We are in the big chase, not only as participants but as observers. And we pray we never lose our childlike fascination at what we observe - and our yearning to share it with others.
We are writers.
We are of many roots, deeply embedded, spreading many seeds, imaginatively sown.
We share the moments of harvests enjoyed and harvests envisioned.
The love of writing, apart from anything else, makes us family.
Sometimes we just like to share some "pictures" from the photo albums of our imaginations: the thoughts, dreams and images that make us who we are.
We are writers, some of us for a lifetime, some of us for a moment or two.
We express ourselves through the characters we have known, both real and unreal, and situations we have experienced in our lives and through the lives of our characters.
We are writers.
We are in the big chase, not only as participants but as observers. And we pray we never lose our childlike fascination at what we observe - and our yearning to share it with others.
We are writers.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
A great exercise in being concise
The key to good writing is to be clear, concise and complete. What is it that we want to say in our writing? What's the point? In what way do we want the reader to be fulfilled - for that is the ultimate goal. We should be able to write our main thought on the back of a business card. If we can't, we probably need to narrow our scope. Here is an exercise that forces us to organize our thoughts and yet be creative and have some fun. We're going to pick a subject and write a Haiku poem about it. Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry that is three lines long. The first line has five syllables, the second has seven syllables and the third has five. Don't worry about rhyming. Reach out and grab an idea. Then condense, condense, condense. Here is one I wrote on a simple topic: How I feel today.
My mind is alive.
It tells me to get moving.
My body just laughs.
Now you try it. Pick a subject, any subject - the weather, your favorite color, Uncle Charlie...and write a Haiku.
My mind is alive.
It tells me to get moving.
My body just laughs.
Now you try it. Pick a subject, any subject - the weather, your favorite color, Uncle Charlie...and write a Haiku.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
A shopping cart full of thoughts
When I go to the grocery store with a list, it always takes me longer than it would take my wife with the same list. Unlike me, she knows where everything is in the store. So she goes aisle by aisle and proceeds efficiently. Me? I look at the first thing on the list and zig-zag all over the store until I find it and then look at the second thing and zig-zag all over again. It is like walking through a maze.
In our writing, if we have not set a clear path for the reader, he or she will also feel like they are walking through a maze. The difference is, a reader can easily get out simply by refusing to read any more.
The second reason it takes me longer is that in my zigging and zagging, I find other things besides what are on my list and toss them in the cart. In writing, imagine the poor reader if every time we came up with a new thought, we tossed it in the cart with what we had carefully planned.
Here's a simple way to organize our thoughts. After you have determined your subject, write your "shopping list" - a numerical list of everything you want to include. For instance, if you were writing about Abraham Lincoln, you might write:
1. boyhood; 2. slavery; 3. Civil War; 4. wife and family; 5. Lincoln-Douglas debates; 6. presidency; 7. assassination...
When you've completed your list, probably 20-30 thoughts, go back through and put them in groups. In the Lincoln example, Nos. 2, 3 and 6 and 7 might go together in one group and Nos. 1 and 4 in another group.
Once you have them grouped, prioritize them. Which group do you want to write about first? Then what's next? And what's next after that?
That's how to fill your shopping cart. Try it. It works.
In our writing, if we have not set a clear path for the reader, he or she will also feel like they are walking through a maze. The difference is, a reader can easily get out simply by refusing to read any more.
The second reason it takes me longer is that in my zigging and zagging, I find other things besides what are on my list and toss them in the cart. In writing, imagine the poor reader if every time we came up with a new thought, we tossed it in the cart with what we had carefully planned.
Here's a simple way to organize our thoughts. After you have determined your subject, write your "shopping list" - a numerical list of everything you want to include. For instance, if you were writing about Abraham Lincoln, you might write:
1. boyhood; 2. slavery; 3. Civil War; 4. wife and family; 5. Lincoln-Douglas debates; 6. presidency; 7. assassination...
When you've completed your list, probably 20-30 thoughts, go back through and put them in groups. In the Lincoln example, Nos. 2, 3 and 6 and 7 might go together in one group and Nos. 1 and 4 in another group.
Once you have them grouped, prioritize them. Which group do you want to write about first? Then what's next? And what's next after that?
That's how to fill your shopping cart. Try it. It works.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Know where you are going
From Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland:
"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take," she asked.
His response was a question: "Where do you want to go?"
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat," it doesn't matter."
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When we leave our homes to go on vacation, we have some idea of where we are going - where we want to end up when we complete our travel.
Sometimes we have roadmaps or directions we've written down or perhaps one of those GPS devices on our dashboard.
We need to have the same approach in our writing. We need to have a destination. How we get there can take all sorts of interesting twists and turns but there has to be an end point in mind.
I have recently written a book in which I wrote the last chapter first because I knew exactly where I wanted the story to end. I could then write the rest of the book to head in that direction.
Try that some time with your own work. Write the ending first - so you won't be like Alice.
"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take," she asked.
His response was a question: "Where do you want to go?"
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat," it doesn't matter."
-------------------------
When we leave our homes to go on vacation, we have some idea of where we are going - where we want to end up when we complete our travel.
Sometimes we have roadmaps or directions we've written down or perhaps one of those GPS devices on our dashboard.
We need to have the same approach in our writing. We need to have a destination. How we get there can take all sorts of interesting twists and turns but there has to be an end point in mind.
I have recently written a book in which I wrote the last chapter first because I knew exactly where I wanted the story to end. I could then write the rest of the book to head in that direction.
Try that some time with your own work. Write the ending first - so you won't be like Alice.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Always consider the time element
The time element is an important and yet often overlooked aspect of any story we're writing. A history book may cover centuries from beginning to end. The reader must be able to put it into context and perspective. How much time has elapsed from one chapter to another? From one paragraph to another?
Effective use of the time element can create great suspense without using many words. "Her plane was due in at 4:40 p.m. It was now 6:15." Or "The execution was to take place at midnight. A clock on the wall was silent, and yet it wasn't. It seemed to be shouting, "Tick...Tick...Tick. It was 11:55."
I have recently completed a book about the 1964 Democratic Convention involving several powerful forces all clashing in a space of four days in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The suspense builds from one day to the next.
The author Jim Bishop wrote a series of books on famous days in history such as "The Day Kennedy was Shot" and "The Day Christ Died." The interesting thing about books like these is that the reader already knows the ending. The power of the story is in the telling - and the time element is a powerful tool for the writer.
Effective use of the time element can create great suspense without using many words. "Her plane was due in at 4:40 p.m. It was now 6:15." Or "The execution was to take place at midnight. A clock on the wall was silent, and yet it wasn't. It seemed to be shouting, "Tick...Tick...Tick. It was 11:55."
I have recently completed a book about the 1964 Democratic Convention involving several powerful forces all clashing in a space of four days in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The suspense builds from one day to the next.
The author Jim Bishop wrote a series of books on famous days in history such as "The Day Kennedy was Shot" and "The Day Christ Died." The interesting thing about books like these is that the reader already knows the ending. The power of the story is in the telling - and the time element is a powerful tool for the writer.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Go up in the balcony
Oscar Wilde said authors should always go up in the balcony to take another look at their work. You can see so much more than you can at ground level.
Think of your work, even if it's just a paragraph, as something that is being presented on stage. Figuratively walk up in the balcony and take a look down on it. What details do you see that you missed at ground level?
Perhaps you're writing about a man checking into a motel at midnight after a long drive. You write about the sweet young woman behind the counter who assisted him and gave him his room key. Perhaps the man checking in even felt an instant attraction to the desk clerk. Now stroll to the balcony and look down. What you see is the other side of the front desk and the little shelf just below the cash register that contains a plate of now-cold lasagna ... and a gun.
What do those two elements tell you? The desk clerk had the kind of night where she didn't have time to eat - and she felt the need to have a gun at her fingertips. That's a whole new perspective that would have gone unnoticed except for your stroll into the balcony.
Think of your work, even if it's just a paragraph, as something that is being presented on stage. Figuratively walk up in the balcony and take a look down on it. What details do you see that you missed at ground level?
Perhaps you're writing about a man checking into a motel at midnight after a long drive. You write about the sweet young woman behind the counter who assisted him and gave him his room key. Perhaps the man checking in even felt an instant attraction to the desk clerk. Now stroll to the balcony and look down. What you see is the other side of the front desk and the little shelf just below the cash register that contains a plate of now-cold lasagna ... and a gun.
What do those two elements tell you? The desk clerk had the kind of night where she didn't have time to eat - and she felt the need to have a gun at her fingertips. That's a whole new perspective that would have gone unnoticed except for your stroll into the balcony.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Anecdotal description
An easy way of getting beyond "police blotter descriptions" of people (height, weight, color of eyes, color of hair) is to think of an incident or episode in their life that shows the reader what your character is really like.
Years ago, I traveled by bus to Illinois to visit my aging father, a widower, whose days were numbered because of ill health. In order to make my travel connections to go home, I would have to leave my father's home at 4 a.m. on departure day. So I told my Dad, "Let's say our good-byes the night before. That way, you won't have to get up that early in the morning." And that's what we did. The next morning, as I arose and moved silently from a bedroom to the living room to the front door, being careful not to wake him, I noticed a light on in the kitchen. When I went to investigate, there was my father, with an English muffin on a plate which he handed to me. "I couldn't let you go on an empty stomach," he said. That was my father! (That's also the last conversation I had with him.)
Each of you may picture him in a different way, but you know him a little better by what you just read.
Anecdotes don't need to be sentimental. Sometimes they can be blunt and unnerving, just like the people they describe. President Lyndon Johnson was so overpowering with people he dealt with that he sometimes enjoyed making them feel uncomfortable. One time when he was Senate Majority Leader, he stood in the Senate parking lot, discussing a bill with other senators. As they talked, he unzipped his pants and urinated, never missing a beat in the conversation. He wanted to be the center of attention, and he was.
Years ago, I traveled by bus to Illinois to visit my aging father, a widower, whose days were numbered because of ill health. In order to make my travel connections to go home, I would have to leave my father's home at 4 a.m. on departure day. So I told my Dad, "Let's say our good-byes the night before. That way, you won't have to get up that early in the morning." And that's what we did. The next morning, as I arose and moved silently from a bedroom to the living room to the front door, being careful not to wake him, I noticed a light on in the kitchen. When I went to investigate, there was my father, with an English muffin on a plate which he handed to me. "I couldn't let you go on an empty stomach," he said. That was my father! (That's also the last conversation I had with him.)
Each of you may picture him in a different way, but you know him a little better by what you just read.
Anecdotes don't need to be sentimental. Sometimes they can be blunt and unnerving, just like the people they describe. President Lyndon Johnson was so overpowering with people he dealt with that he sometimes enjoyed making them feel uncomfortable. One time when he was Senate Majority Leader, he stood in the Senate parking lot, discussing a bill with other senators. As they talked, he unzipped his pants and urinated, never missing a beat in the conversation. He wanted to be the center of attention, and he was.
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