Showing posts with label description. Show all posts
Showing posts with label description. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
A Study in Samples: Gunmetal Magic: Information
Information in One of the marks of a professional writer is the deft handling of information, and there are some nice examples of this in this sample by Ilona Andrews. The first nice handling comes in a character introduction. If you recall in the last post, I mentioned that in Chapter 1 the sound in the MC's dream had a mirror in reality. It was someone knocking on the door: Mrs. Haffey. At Kindle Locations 193-200, the MC (Andrea Nash) describes the disheveled and worried appearance of her neighbor a floor below. She has come pounding on Nash's door in her nightgown. Just after this description and reveal of relationship, Andrews writes, "Normally Mrs. Haffey viewed her appearance as serious business. In terms of battle readiness, she was my hero--I've never seen her without her makeup and hair perfectly done. Something was really wrong" (Kindle Locations 193-200). Andrews ties physical description reveal into the plot, into what is happening now. She makes the description relevant. After all, Monica Wood in her book Description, declares that good description is not only accurate but relevant (4). Andrew's use of description here is not only relevant, it adds to story. It adds tension. Great job there.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
On Beginnings
Interesting question about beginnings in first person novels at the Absolute Write forums here: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=197912
Beginnings are hard enough when you write in third person, but when you can't even say the name in line one or hint at gender because you are using "I" instead of "he", it sucks that much more. It is even harder when you can't just skip the beginning and write it later when you know what your novel is really about. With my new method of writing, whether I write beginning and ending first or just all key plot points, I can't skip the beginning. It must be written. And it must work, because around it and other plot points, I flesh in the novel. Then let's not forget the problems that occur if this is not the first novel in your series.
It's tough, writing beginnings.
How do you do it? By not trying to stuff a ton of stuff in a paragraph one. Besides giving a picture of where my characters are, the key thing I seek to explain is gender. My main characters/pov characters are male. I'm not. And I sometimes put them in situations where the default expected gender is not male.
Beginnings are hard enough when you write in third person, but when you can't even say the name in line one or hint at gender because you are using "I" instead of "he", it sucks that much more. It is even harder when you can't just skip the beginning and write it later when you know what your novel is really about. With my new method of writing, whether I write beginning and ending first or just all key plot points, I can't skip the beginning. It must be written. And it must work, because around it and other plot points, I flesh in the novel. Then let's not forget the problems that occur if this is not the first novel in your series.
It's tough, writing beginnings.
How do you do it? By not trying to stuff a ton of stuff in a paragraph one. Besides giving a picture of where my characters are, the key thing I seek to explain is gender. My main characters/pov characters are male. I'm not. And I sometimes put them in situations where the default expected gender is not male.
