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mary rosenblum
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Hello, all
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mary rosenblum
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We're doing a very early
Friday After Hours today...hardly 'after' hours at all!
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mary rosenblum
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Since yours truely has to
spend the rest of the day and well into the night at a training seminar.
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mary rosenblum
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So we'll do this early for a
change!
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mary rosenblum
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This is our After Hours Forum
- the early version this week -- with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor.
I've published seven novels and more than 60 short stories and will do my
best to answer any questions you have. If you're new here, remember that
you need to click on the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next
to the red question mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a
question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and
type your question into the regular send bar if that works better for you..
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mary rosenblum
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I hope you all were able to
visit with Patrick Swenson last night. He is a great guest and very willing
to answer questions...
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mary rosenblum
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he even dropped into the
auditorium after the interview to simply chat with people.
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mary rosenblum
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Patrick is not an exception
among editors.
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mary rosenblum
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Most of them really do care
about writers and like to see writers succeed...
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mary rosenblum
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but they also have to do
_their_ jobs.
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mary rosenblum
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Which can make them seem much
less accessible than they really are. :-)
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jackie7777
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How do I develop the scene -
where do I start......
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jackie7777
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Do I let my character describe
it?
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mary rosenblum
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'Developing' a scene is kind
of a vague term, jackie. By that I am assuming you mean bring it to life,
make it visible to your reader?
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mary rosenblum
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Yes, if you are writing in
first person, your character must describe it.
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mary rosenblum
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BUT...remember that all
description in fiction needs to be filtered through the perception of the
Main character, unless it is a narrative piece...
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mary rosenblum
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intentionally told by the
author.
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mary rosenblum
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Which means that in first
person, you are much more limited in what emotional colors you can use to
add that 'emotional sound track' to the scene.
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mary rosenblum
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Confused you yet?
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mary rosenblum
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Let me be clearer here.
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jackie7777
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Can the author and the character
describe it?
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mary rosenblum
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Not in first person, jackie. YOu
should not allow YOUR voice to intrude in first person, since the reader
will simply read that as a lapse in characterization.
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mary rosenblum
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A first person story is told
by the main character. "I went down the street to Tommy's fruit stand
and bought a pound of canteloupe. Marianne loves cantaloupe...
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mary rosenblum
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and the way to Marianne's
heart has always been her stomach."
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mary rosenblum
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That is a first person voice
and our main character is talking. YOU, the author, don't get to tell the
story. He does.
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jackie7777
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Can I simply break when I want
to change voices?
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mary rosenblum
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Changing from first to third
person voice within a story, even a novel length work, is VERY problamatic.
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mary rosenblum
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Yes, you can do it. I would
not advise you to do it, especially as a novice writer. It REALLY jars the
reader...
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mary rosenblum
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so it is something to avoid
unless it adds more strength to the piece than the jolt to the reader
removes.
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mary rosenblum
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If you need to describe things
to the reader, you either need a main character who notices those details
and will mention them in first person OR...
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mary rosenblum
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you need to use third person,
where it is much easier to sneak in details.
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gerryd429
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Mary How about changing voice
from scene to scene?
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mary rosenblum
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Well, you should never change
voice within a scene and even changing from say, one third person POV to
anohter third person POV in a scene...
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mary rosenblum
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will throw a lot of readers so
that they have to read it again. (Not good).
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mary rosenblum
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It is best to change POV at a
scene break. But even at a chapter break, switching from first to third is
tough to pull off in such as way...
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mary rosenblum
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that it makes your story
stronger rather than weaker.
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roe
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I sat down, looked at her, and
waited. "Jackie is getting married next week." she said
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roe
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oops sorry isn't that changeing
to 3rd
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mary rosenblum
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No, it's simply adding
dialogue to first person, although you would need to indent and begin a new
paragraph with "Jackie"
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mary rosenblum
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Adding emotional color to a
scene is doing what movie producers do with the soundtrack.
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mary rosenblum
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You are cueing the reader to
expect: danger, romance, action, what have you.
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mary rosenblum
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Movie producers do it with
sound, we do it with words.
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jackie7777
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How do I make sounds and smells
come alive? Do I use......
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jackie7777
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descriptive words and or few
words and let the reader....
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jackie7777
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imaging?
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mary rosenblum
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Yes and yes, Jackie. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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That's the key to adding color
to a scene: FEW, STRONGLY DESCRIPTIVE words.
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mary rosenblum
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She woke to a bright, birdsong
morning.... colors the scene for the reader in a very few words.
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mary rosenblum
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Most will see sunlight, a
country setting, hear birds singing...and will fill in all the details that
make up a morning scene in their imagination.
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mary rosenblum
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She woke to bright sunshine
streaming in through her window and the sound of thousands of birds
singing. Outside, the garden glowed with bright green leaves and stalks of
purple and pink flowers.
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mary rosenblum
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This is the same scene. But
here, while we've provided more detail, we have added enough words to bring
the forward flow of the story to a halt as the reader examines the garden.
It's as if, in the first example...
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mary rosenblum
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we are strolling past the
garden and notice it with part of our mind as we are talking. In the second
example...
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mary rosenblum
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we stop on the walkway and I,
the author, point out specific details that I like. The story, like us, has
paused to examine the garden.
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mary rosenblum
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Now if the garden is
IMPORTANT, if we NEED to examine it because that image will play a major
role in the plot later, that's fine.
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mary rosenblum
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If it is just setting, the
first example...a brief color note...is stronger.
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mary rosenblum
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The story rolls on and the
reader has this background image of sun, country landscape, and birdsong.
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mary rosenblum
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This is our After Hours Forum
- the early version this week -- with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor. I've
published seven novels and more than 60 short stories and will do my best
to answer any questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you
need to click on the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to
the red question mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question.
Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your
question into the regular send bar if that works better for you..
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mary rosenblum
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We're talking about adding
emotional color to your scene, today.
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mary rosenblum
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Now our bright, birdsong
morning...is a sunny, upbeat, positive color
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mary rosenblum
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we can change that color.
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mary rosenblum
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She woke to harsh, summer
glare.
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mary rosenblum
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Not so positive and upbeat.
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mary rosenblum
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She woke to dreary winter
light.
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mary rosenblum
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She woke to dreary dawn,
filtered through smog.
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mary rosenblum
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Even in third person, the
emotional tint of the description gives us clues as to our character's
emotional state.
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diannalmt
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grey misty dawn
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mary rosenblum
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That is evocative, but to me,
that's a neutral tone clause. Some misty dawns are lovely. Some may be
dreary and depressing.
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mary rosenblum
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If I wanted to be SURE my
reader got an upbeat sense of that dawn, I'd probably do something like:
gray dawn decorated with delicate veils of mist.
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mary rosenblum
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We are seeing beauty, not a
strong need for antidepressants!
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mary rosenblum
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To set a dreary, depressed
scene:
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mary rosenblum
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gray, watery dawn or drizzly,
gray dawn.
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mary rosenblum
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These modifiers are worth
their weight in platinum, folks.
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mary rosenblum
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As are verbs.
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mary rosenblum
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A few good choices can save
you paragraphs of description and add an emotional color that you simply
can't achieve otherwise without a lot of narrative intrusion.
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mary rosenblum
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Instead of saying to the
reader: Cathy was sad.
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mary rosenblum
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Cathy demonstrates it:
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mary rosenblum
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Cathy dragged herself out of
bed and peered out at the gray drizzle.
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mary rosenblum
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Is Cathy thrilled to be alive
this morning?
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mary rosenblum
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Cathy bounced out of bed and
glanced out at the bright, birdsong morning.
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mary rosenblum
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Mood here?
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mary rosenblum
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They say the same thing...
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mary rosenblum
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Cathy got out of bed and
looked out the window.
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mary rosenblum
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And this third version is how
most novice writers do it...at least in the first draft.
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mary rosenblum
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And they they might add: She
was depressed. Or, She looked forward to her day with Jeremy.
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mary rosenblum
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And yes...you're right...this
is all yet another variation on the theme of 'show, don't tell'...
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mary rosenblum
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which has many incarnations.
:-)
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mary rosenblum
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Many words carry emotinal
nuance.
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mary rosenblum
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Many words carry no nuance.
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mary rosenblum
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Why use a word that has NO
nuance: walked, got out of bed, sat, when you could use words that carried
clues about the emotion of the character...
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mary rosenblum
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or the emotional tension of
the scene?
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mary rosenblum
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One of the exercises I
routinely use in workshops is to have students describe a particular scene:
a forest, the ocean, a street scene...
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mary rosenblum
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and give one version an upbeat
and positive emotional tone, while the other is done with a dark,
threatening, or depressing tone.
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mary rosenblum
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No people, just description.
The two versions vary enormously.
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t green
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Cathy dragged herself out of
bed. What good was sunshine and birdsong when Jeremy had left yesterday?
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mary rosenblum
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Yes. The Cathy dragged herself
out of bed is the 'colored description'.
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mary rosenblum
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The 'What good' sentence is
her internal monologue which explains the reason for the dragging.
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mary rosenblum
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And you can use it where no
character is present to suggest the emotional tone of the coming scene,
much as the soundtrack does in a movie.
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mary rosenblum
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The forest loomed ahead. Skeletons
of dead trees clawed at the leaden sky, tangled with skeins of rotting moss
and draped with grimy spiderwebs
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t green
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doesn't that "What
good" sentence also describe the physical scene?
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mary rosenblum
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Yes, but it does so through
Cathy telling us about it. This is one way to show us a bright scene, but
let Cathy tell us that to her, it is not bright and cheerful.
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mary rosenblum
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It is how you can sneak in
details that your POV won't actually notice.
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mary rosenblum
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If Cathy is speaking to us in
first person, for example, she might look around at her room and not even
notice the birdsong and bright sun, left to herself. She is miserable.
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mary rosenblum
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But we need to show the reader
the sunny day.
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mary rosenblum
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So we have Cathy kind of glare
disparagingly at the pretty day. "I dragged myself out of bed. What
good was sunshine and birdsong? Jeremy left."
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mary rosenblum
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One of the things to watch out
for when you are in the early stages of your career...
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mary rosenblum
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is the tendency to simply 'do
what is needed'.
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mary rosenblum
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You have miserable Cathy. You
need to show the reader the bright day. Okay, you do this.
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mary rosenblum
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Cathy got up. Outside the sun
shone on the garden and the birds sang. She started to get ready for work,
thoroughly miserable. Jeremy had left yesterday.
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mary rosenblum
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Yes, this tells what happened
and how she feels.
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mary rosenblum
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But it doesn't allow the
reader to see the scene for himself/herself and imagine it on their own,
figure out the emotional context for themselves.
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mary rosenblum
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The writer has simply offered
information, not a real scene.
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mary rosenblum
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There is a BIG difference
between information and scene.
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mary rosenblum
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Many many early stories are
mostly information.
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mary rosenblum
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Which is about as exciting as
reading the phone book or a manual on installing the dishwasher.
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diannalmt
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is that what happened in The
Stone Garden?
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mary rosenblum
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What's that diann?
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cloux
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so you don't want to have a
scene that reads like you are watching a TV show.
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mary rosenblum
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Well, TV and movies are not
good examples of strong prose, Cloux. That's for sure. :-)
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diannalmt
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lots of information &
telling
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mary rosenblum
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There's a lot of information,
but not a lot of telling, dian, not as far as I can recall. I have an
aversion to telling anything to readers. LOL
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mary rosenblum
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That doesn't mean you can't
use exposition, but for that you use your character's voice and syntax.
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mary rosenblum
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That way, the reader perceives
the exposition as your character's thought rather than the author's voice.
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mary rosenblum
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Jon got out and stared at the
city. Grimy place, full of tourist icons, like the Golden Gate. Too many
people, too many tourists, too many memories.
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mary rosenblum
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The description of San
Francisco is in Jon's words, so we read it as Jon's thoughts.
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mary rosenblum
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And it's really ME, the author
telling the reader that we have just arrived in SF.
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mary rosenblum
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But I'm also setting the
emotional tone here...Jon is not happy to be here, kind of depressed.
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mary rosenblum
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This is our After Hours Forum
- the early version this week -- with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor.
I've published seven novels and more than 60 short stories and will do my
best to answer any questions you have. If you're new here, remember that
you need to click on the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next
to the red question mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a
question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and
type your question into the regular send bar if that works better for you..
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pook
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I know i do the boring
information. are there examples of writing that doesn't?
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mary rosenblum
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Your task as author, pook, is
to make the information NOT boring.
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mary rosenblum
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Whoever told you all that
writing wasn't work?
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mary rosenblum
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It's creative, it's fun, but
it doesn't fall out of your brain, SPLAT onto the page, perfect! LOL
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mary rosenblum
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Goodness!
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mary rosenblum
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The idea may fall splat,
perfect.
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mary rosenblum
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But the CRAFT of writing is
taking that idea and refining, polishing, clarifying until your idea is one
that is instantly...
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mary rosenblum
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communicable from you to the
thousands of strangers who will read it without your immediate input.
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mary rosenblum
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That is what makes writing
different from storytelling.
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mary rosenblum
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When you tell a story to a
live audience, you are instantly aware of response. (Yes, I do this, by the
way... live storytelling).
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mary rosenblum
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You tailor your story a bit to
make sure that your audience 'gets' it.
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mary rosenblum
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And every audience is
different.
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mary rosenblum
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You can do that a bit with a
live reading, too.
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mary rosenblum
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BUT...
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mary rosenblum
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when we write a story to be
read by strangers later, not in our presence...
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mary rosenblum
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the craft is to make those
words, those scenes, those people...
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mary rosenblum
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be and do what we intend them
to be and do when we're not there in person to amplify and explain.
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mary rosenblum
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Craft...show, don't tell,
clear description, nuance, pacing...all those things...
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mary rosenblum
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are not just hoops to jump
through to satisfy an editor.
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mary rosenblum
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They are meant to make OUR
personal vision universal.
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mary rosenblum
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Without further input from us.
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mary rosenblum
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It is harder than you think to
translate that powerful and brilliant story into something that 10,000
strangers can share!
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jackie7777
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I thought writing WAS telling a
story(?)
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mary rosenblum
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That's the beginning, Jackie.
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mary rosenblum
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Now you have to make it a
story those 10,000 will also be able to enjoy. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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Writing is a mix of 'story'
and 'craft'.
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mary rosenblum
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Each one on its own, is
flawed.
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mary rosenblum
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Together they are greater than
the sum of the parts.
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dellexis
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And all this time I thought I
had to give every little detail....so readers would get the picture! There
goes about 10,000 words.
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mary rosenblum
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No kidding!
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mary rosenblum
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The longer I write and the
more practice i have, the less description I need to use.
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mary rosenblum
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I write about 20% shorter on
average than I did ten years ago. Stories are just as complex, but I need
much less description.
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mary rosenblum
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Remember that one of the
strengths of prose...
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mary rosenblum
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one of the reasons I believe
that books will never be supplanted by movies...
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mary rosenblum
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is that our readers SHARE the
creation of our worlds.
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mary rosenblum
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In a movie, you see only what
appears on the screen.
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mary rosenblum
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When you write, your reader
actually creates most of the scenery.
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mary rosenblum
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You provide the key details so
that his scene matches your scene at important points, but we each see our
own person, and landscape.
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mary rosenblum
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My main character doesn't look
like he will to you. Not exactly.
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mary rosenblum
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This gives our reader a
personal share in our worlds.
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mary rosenblum
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The story belongs to THEM,
too, not just to us. We don't control the entire thing. We simply direct
the reader down the right paths.:-)
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mary rosenblum
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Then we let the reader find
the end all by himself/herself...or at least think that he/she has found
the end . :-)
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sailor
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It seems the
"classics" we all read in school had a lot more description. Is
it the faster pace of life today that makes that a no-no now?
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mary rosenblum
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That is a topic for many
conversations at conferences, sailor.
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mary rosenblum
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I don't think there is a
single simple answer for that, I think the change in literary style has
several roots.
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mary rosenblum
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For one thing, novels were
paid by the word back then...no longer. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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For another, the readership
was different...it was an elite group in the early 1900s.
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mary rosenblum
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Not a lot of people could read
well enough or had the desire to read fiction.
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mary rosenblum
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And yes, we cannot avoid the
influence of media, of every decreasing 'bytes' of information, of
computers and the shorthand of email.
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mary rosenblum
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All these influences are
probably involved in the changes in literary style.
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jackie7777
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I like when the author tells me
that he was a stocky,......
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jackie7777
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short masn with graying
whiskers.
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mary rosenblum
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That's a good description. And
if you put a 'photo' of your 'stocky, short man with graying whiskers' on
the screen next to MY version, they wouldn't look at all alike.
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mary rosenblum
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You will add the facial
features, the skin texture and color, the expression, his body language...all
that will make him a real person for you.
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mary rosenblum
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I will add those same details.
And my short man isn't even going to look like a relative, I'll bet you.
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mary rosenblum
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But the KEY details are
provided. Short. When he can't reach the key on the sill over the door and
has to get a stool, neither you nor I will be surpirsed.
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mary rosenblum
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When he rubs his whiskers we
see them and we're not surprised, even though your guy has silky short
whiskers and my guy has curly coarse whiskers with a hint of red. :-)
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jackie7777
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Is it ever a good idea to give
your character an ethnicity?
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mary rosenblum
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Absolutely. If he is African
American, Latino, Asian, what have you, it is part of his image.
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mary rosenblum
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You do NOT want your reader to
find out on page 180 that the character is African American when we've all
read him as white. :-) Shatters the image in our brains and that is a MAJOR
jolt.
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mary rosenblum
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It can be hard to show to the
reader, especially in a short story.
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mary rosenblum
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But either do it, or don't
mention any ethic identifiers at all.
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wildcountryca
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Is it like painting a picture
with words then, I am having difficulty with my questions coming through
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mary rosenblum
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That one came though fine.
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mary rosenblum
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Yes, that is it exactly.
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mary rosenblum
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Only, even in novels, it is
more like Sumi painting. That is the Japanese brush painting with ink...
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mary rosenblum
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where a handful of brush
strokes suggest a waterfall, mountains, clouds, and a pool with koi.
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mary rosenblum
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Most details are left out, but
the strokes on the page allow our minds to fill in the right details.
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mary rosenblum
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So the picture is complete.
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sailor
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Is it true that a character
driven piece would tend to have more description than a plot driven one?
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mary rosenblum
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Not necessarily, sailor.
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mary rosenblum
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Desscription is pretty
independent of either plot or character.
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mary rosenblum
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It is the third leg of the
story-tripod: Plot, character,setting.
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mary rosenblum
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Ideally, all three legs should
be the same length. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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Uneven legs make for an
unstable tripod.
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wildcountryca
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if then you are conveying a
description of your character without action is that necessarily wrong?
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mary rosenblum
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Description is tough,
wildcountry. That is why LR starts with a character sketch. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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Think of a story as a stream
flowing downhill.
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mary rosenblum
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The water keeps moving.
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mary rosenblum
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That is how a story should
move...short or long...always flowing.
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mary rosenblum
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When you stop the forward
momentum of the story to stand still and describe, the story is dammed up.
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mary rosenblum
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Stopped. AND...if you describe
your character, it is clearly YOU the author talking...
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mary rosenblum
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and if this is not a narrative
written in the author's voice, that jars. SO...
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mary rosenblum
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how do you describe a
character in a story?
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mary rosenblum
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By action.
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mary rosenblum
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Annie ran the comb angrily
through her long hair, wincing at the snarls. Long., blonde hair. Her
sister would kill to have it and she hated it. Maybe get a haircut she
thought as she wrapped her robe around her.
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mary rosenblum
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Or maybe trade it to big
sister for her skinny frame. She stomped into the bathroom and turned on
the shower.
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mary rosenblum
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What good was blonde hair when
you were built like a whale?
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mary rosenblum
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Now this is an internal
monolgue, rather than strictly action, but we know that she is blonde with
long hair and overweight.
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mary rosenblum
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We could just do action, too.
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mary rosenblum
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Jeannie stretched up on tiptoe
to reach the upper cabinet. Shaking her red hair out of her eyes, she
groped for the champagne flutes. Her long nails clicked against the glass
as lifted them down.
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mary rosenblum
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Jeannie is short and has red
hair that is at least long enough in front to be in her eyes, and has long
nails.
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jackie7777
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How do I describe where MC lives
if I have never been there?
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jackie7777
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what's "lol"? Sorry I
am new.
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mary rosenblum
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Laughing Out Loud. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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One of those chat shorthands.
Don't worry, they drove ME nuts too, when I first got online.
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mary rosenblum
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Make it up, Jackie.
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mary rosenblum
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Or if your MC is a real person
and this is history, find out, and fill in the details out don't know from
imagination.
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wildcountryca
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so if I started with just hints
of the character
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wildcountryca
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and used a forward movement that
is better?
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mary rosenblum
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Exactly, wildcountry.
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mary rosenblum
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Readers are very patient.
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mary rosenblum
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I like to establish a
character's physical image within the first two or three pages, but not all
at once.
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mary rosenblum
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Readers pick up clues as if
they are following a trail of pebbles. :-) Joshua stood up as the seatbelt
sign turned off, stretching, wincing as he banged his head. (He's tall).
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mary rosenblum
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Maybe in the next paragraph,
as he chats with the stewardess, she asks him if he's in sports...a
basketball player...
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mary rosenblum
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so now we know he's lanky and
fit.
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mary rosenblum
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He runs his hand through his
wispy blonde hair as he blushes and says no, he's an accountant...
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mary rosenblum
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bit by bit we construct a
picture of our tall, lanky, fair, blonde, blusing Joshua.
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mary rosenblum
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That's 'blushing'... :-)
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wildcountryca
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is it wrong to start with an
internal dialogue of the character first? then physcial image?
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mary rosenblum
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Whatever works, works,
country. However, it is a bit risky to withold an image of the character
for too long.
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mary rosenblum
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The instant we're introduced
to a character, we start to see that person. If you give us regular clues,
we'll be patient.
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mary rosenblum
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If you give us NO clues, we'll
start filling in vague details suggested by that character's actions or
speech.
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mary rosenblum
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That character will remind us
of someone and we'll start seeing that person's image.
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mary rosenblum
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Then, when we find out what
the character looks like, we get a jolt.
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wildcountryca
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no it would follow the thought
for what I am thinging here as its emotion
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mary rosenblum
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If the monologue doens't go on
too long...like a paragraph...you're fine. If it goes on for pages, we're
going to come up with our own image of the person.
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mary rosenblum
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BUT...if this is first person,
which I assume it is...
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mary rosenblum
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you may never need to give us
ANY description. HOw often do we think of what we look like unless we're
dressing for a party or thinking about our physical health?
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roe
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We can start with inner dialogue
such as your descripton of the overweight blond, would actually be a good
hook wouldnt' it. sounds like inner conflict immediately?
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mary rosenblum
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Yes, inner dialogue can be an
excellent hook.
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mary rosenblum
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Or rather inner monologue, to
be precise...
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mary rosenblum
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unless you are talking to
voices in your head. :-)
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wildcountryca
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yes it is first person with
image following thought pattern just was wondering
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wildcountryca
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can I give you an example
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mary rosenblum
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Sure, wildcountry. go ahead.
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mary rosenblum
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It is very usual for novice
writers to totally forget about the scene.
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mary rosenblum
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It is just THERE.
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mary rosenblum
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It is mentioned in passing and
the words are usually 'default' words, with no attention to any kind of
depth or emotional color.
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mary rosenblum
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And consequently, you miss out
on a rich 'soundtrack' to cue the reader about the situation.
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wildcountryca
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"Is this all there is? what
is life anyway, Alexandera was pondering her surroundings and existance on
the street,
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mary rosenblum
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That's fine, wild. It's the
same sort of thing I was doing with our blonde and her thoughts about hair
and weight.
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mary rosenblum
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Tip for all of you:
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mary rosenblum
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Don't use was + ing verb.
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mary rosenblum
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It is a current fad in
conversational English, used incorrectly 90 percent of the time, and
weakens your prose.
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mary rosenblum
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Alexandra pondered her
surroundings and existance on the street...
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mary rosenblum
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that is much stronger.
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wildcountryca
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this is not the exact way I had
it and her age was included just was wondering thanks so just pondering?
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mary rosenblum
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Pondered, country. Just use
the simple past tense.
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mary rosenblum
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Description is VERY tough in
first person.
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mary rosenblum
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How often have you thought of
what you look like lately?
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mary rosenblum
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One trick that often works...I
did it with my internal monologue earlier...
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mary rosenblum
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let your MC compare his/her
features to someone else.
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mary rosenblum
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I like Jon. We look like
twins, a couple of tall, skinny beanpoles, except for his black hair, the
opposite of my platinum.
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mary rosenblum
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But still, a lot of people
think we're related.
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mary rosenblum
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This is our POV talking about
Jon, but we now know what he looks like, too.
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jackie7777
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The thought is in the past after
it is thought of, right?
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mary rosenblum
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YOu can do first person two
ways...in present tense, or past.
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mary rosenblum
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I walked down Spruce street
toward the dentist. All the way, I thought about how I was going to pay
Saul back.
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mary rosenblum
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That's past tense first
person.
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mary rosenblum
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I'm walking down Spruce Street
toward the dentist. All the way, I'm thinking about how I'm going to pay
Saul back.
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mary rosenblum
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And yes, I just said avoid the
'ing' form of verbs, but this type of first person is essentially a running
monologue so you use the character's actual voice.
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wildcountryca
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so when its first person inner
it may be important then
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mary rosenblum
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Well, any time you write
dialogue, you break LOTS of grammar rules! :-)
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mary rosenblum
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I don't know about YOU, but I
don't use correct grammar unless I'm addressing a conference or a class
full of students...and often not even then!
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mary rosenblum
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I sure don't use good grammar
with my friends. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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Well, I'm going to have to
close now.
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mary rosenblum
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Next Friday, we'll be back to
the usual time for the After Hours Forum.
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mary rosenblum
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And don't forget our casual
chats.
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mary rosenblum
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This Sunday at 5 PM pacific, 6
mt, 7, central, and 8 east coast..that's when we just get together to chat
about writing, weather, what have you.
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mary rosenblum
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And our Tuesday Forum is at
this time, but on Tuesday. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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I hope to see you all Sunday!
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mary rosenblum
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I'll post the transcript of
this in the usual place: Writing Craft: Forum Transcripts.
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mary rosenblum
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Have a great weekend, all!
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mary rosenblum
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See you Sunday.
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