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mary rosenblum
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Hello all!
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mary rosenblum
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I hope you had a very good
weekend and are drying out after Rita's rainfall.
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mary rosenblum
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Welcome to our Tuesday Forum.
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mary rosenblum
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I wanted to talk about adding
drama today, because it's something that a lot of novice writers have
trouble with.
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mary rosenblum
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They can create a dramatic
scene in terms of action, but often, the scene lacks drama even though it
should...
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mary rosenblum
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provide a powerful dramatic
peak.
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mary rosenblum
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And other times, you have a
scene will little or no dramatic action, but it needs to be a dramatic
peak..
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mary rosenblum
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so you can't rely on action to
provide it.
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mary rosenblum
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And actually, creating drama
is a matter of word craft and has little to do with action. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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This is the Tuesday Forum with
me, Mary Rosenblum, LR Web Editor, fiction and nonfiction writer and today
we're talking about adding drama. 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, or use the ask a question
icon in order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me!
You can also type /ask in front of your question to reach me.
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janecj333
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Mary, any comment without the
/ask doesn't even appear on your screen?
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mary rosenblum
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No, it doesn't Jane.
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mary rosenblum
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I wanted to talk about how to
create drama when there isn't a lot of action to use as a crutch..
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mary rosenblum
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and how to make a dramatic
action scene work to its greatest potential. It's remarkably easy to ruin
dramatic action.
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tkat_2
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My instructor suggested some of
my scenes be foreshadowed. Is there any other way to do this along with
using dialoge?
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mary rosenblum
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Sure, tkat. And foreshadowing
is very important.
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mary rosenblum
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If something seems to come out
of 'nowhere', say a couple of your characters get into a fierce fight...
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mary rosenblum
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the drama of the scene will
actually be reduced because your reader is distracted.
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mary rosenblum
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He/she is trying to figure out
just why this is happening here and now.
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mary rosenblum
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But if we see the tensions
mounting between the characters...even if it's just a couple of lines of
dialogue...
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mary rosenblum
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then we can focus on the scene
and we're not trying to figure out those 'hows'.
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mary rosenblum
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But you don't need to use
dialogue.
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mary rosenblum
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You can use the character's
actions...say our MC stares down the other character in a tense moment...
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mary rosenblum
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or avoids that character and
is always keeping an eye on him...
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mary rosenblum
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then when that character
attacks him, or he punches that character, we have the clues to tell us it
was coming.
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christopher dale
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You could also foreshadow
without dialog - depending on your sotry line. Something like 'Noticing the
forest's sudden silence, they waited... But then have everythign go back to
normal. Something happened, jsut not ready to reveal it - that would work
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mary rosenblum
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But I wouldn't use authorial
narrative to do it, chris.
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mary rosenblum
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That's usually pretty
noticeable to the reader and pops that reader right out of your world.
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mary rosenblum
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Let your POV notice that it's
silent.
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tkat_2
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re Chris's suggestion: You also
want to show not tell right?
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mary rosenblum
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Yes.
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mary rosenblum
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THat is nearly always your
better choice, tkat.
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mary rosenblum
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Let's say you want a monster
to leap out and attack your character.
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mary rosenblum
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If she is skipping along on a
sunny day in a familiar park...the reader is going to get a real jolt here.
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mary rosenblum
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But if she enters the park
skipping along and then hesitates...no birds are singing? Ardith shivered
for no reason. Where were all the dogs and joggers? She looked around at
the empty picnic tables...
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mary rosenblum
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And then...POW.
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mary rosenblum
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Out jumps the monster.
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mary rosenblum
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Now this is actually how you
build drama into a scene.
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mary rosenblum
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You coud have her notice that
this particular park is always empty three days before she actually visits
it.
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mary rosenblum
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We'll remember that she
noticed it's unusual silence back then when the monster jumps out.
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mary rosenblum
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Foreshadowing is simply
introducing rising drama well before the actual dramatic scene...:-)
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mary rosenblum
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And then interrupting it with
other action. It is a way to distract the reader...
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mary rosenblum
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so that the dramatic moment
comes as a surprise, but we have the earlier hint to keep the reader from
distractions.
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mary rosenblum
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You use it a LOT in mystery.
That is how you plant clues and then get the reader to forget them until
the climax.
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christopher dale
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unless we use Hollywood's
practice of making that a BABY monster and the REAL monster comes later -
LOL!
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mary rosenblum
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Yeah. :-) But Hollywood is
nearly always a very bad example for prose.
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geezer
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Wouldn't you want to jolt the
reader though?
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mary rosenblum
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Up to a point, geezer. You
want a nice steep rollercoaster drop, but you don't want to bounce the
reader right off the tracks. Readers and rollercoaster riders do NOT
appreciate that long fall!
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mary rosenblum
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But foreshadowing and building
drama are pretty much the same thing.
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mary rosenblum
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When you foreshadow you simply
interrupt the initial start of the dramatic peak with another scene.
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janecj333
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Mary, tell us more about this
authorial narrative taboo. I see published authors use it all the time to
create mood, describe setting
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mary rosenblum
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Sure. And if you're writing
narrative it works just fine.
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mary rosenblum
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Depends entirely on what you
are trying to achieve, jane.
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mary rosenblum
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There is no ONE way to do
anything.
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mary rosenblum
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Narrative is fiction where the
author tells the story.
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mary rosenblum
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The author's voice contributes
heavily to the effect of the story.
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mary rosenblum
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O'Henry's work is narrative
and it's very effective.
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mary rosenblum
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If you are writing strongly
charcter driven fiction where you want deep reader identification with the
character...
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mary rosenblum
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narrative tends to be a poor
choice, since it creates a screen of 'author' between that POV character
and the reader.
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mary rosenblum
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If the plot matters...as in
O'Henry's work and it's sufficient to create vivid characters...
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mary rosenblum
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but not necessary for deep
reader identification...then narrative can work fine.
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mary rosenblum
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But remember...just because
someone has done it doesn't mean that if YOU do it you will do it well.
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mary rosenblum
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There is a big gap between
narrative and good narrative. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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And that's generally true...
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mary rosenblum
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just because so and so did it,
doesn't mean that you will automatically do it as well or better. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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That's where practice and
craft come in.
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christopher dale
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And I think the reason I excel
in dialog is taht I lack a lot of GOOD narrative... 8-O
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mary rosenblum
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Most people do, chris. It's
not easy to write narrative that is more than a monotone.
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mary rosenblum
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Tanith Lee does it well in
dark fantasy.
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mary rosenblum
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She achieves a very strong
'fairy tale' narrative voice that really works well.
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mary rosenblum
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I can usually tell if she has
written a story without looking at the byline.
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mary rosenblum
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That's the litmus test of
powerful narrative in my opinion.
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mary rosenblum
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This is the Tuesday Forum with
me, Mary Rosenblum, LR Web Editor, fiction and nonfiction writer and today
we're talking about adding drama. 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, or use the ask a question
icon in order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me!
You can also type /ask in front of your question to reach me.
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mary rosenblum
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So let's look at drama.
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mary rosenblum
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And by the way, creating drama
through narrative third is much the same as creating it through limited
third or first person.
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mary rosenblum
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You use the same techniques.
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janecj333
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you mean you can recognize a
Tanith Lee story, without seeing her name on it beforehand
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mary rosenblum
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Most of the time, jane.
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mary rosenblum
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There are many writers I can
recognize without seeing their names first. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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I nan action scene, the action
itself provides a lot of dramatic power, whether it's a fight, a chase
scene, a murder, an angry confrontation.
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mary rosenblum
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And in these scenes it's
pretty much a case of 'stay out of the way and let nature take its course'.
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mary rosenblum
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By that, I mean, don't
distract the reader with too many words.
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mary rosenblum
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If the action itself drives
the dramatic peak, a lot of words act like fog to soften that peak and blur
it.
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mary rosenblum
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I have scene a LOT of action
scenes where it was a matter of peeling layers of words away so that the
action could actually drive the scene.
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christopher dale
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like a team going into a bunker
to find a trap sprung on THEM - and they end up having to fight and bak
their way out... Show the fight and the dialog of the soldiers int he
fight, don't hang on too much descriuption of the place....
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mary rosenblum
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Exactly, Chris.
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mary rosenblum
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And the reason is this...
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mary rosenblum
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the way you communicate drama
to the reader is to create the effect of that dramatic moment through your
POV.
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mary rosenblum
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Think of it this way...
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mary rosenblum
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if you are strolling through
the public park, you are going to notice a lot of details.
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mary rosenblum
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You have time, you are not
under pressure, you are not emotionally focused on a problem.
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mary rosenblum
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So you sell a lot. It's a nice
spring day, pretty flowers, kids, dogs, blue sky....all that stuff...
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mary rosenblum
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and the reader gets a nice
tour of the park.
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mary rosenblum
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BUT...
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mary rosenblum
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if you are running through
that park with a rabid dog on your heels...
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mary rosenblum
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what are you going to notice?
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mary rosenblum
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Most likely what is in your
way that may slow you down!
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mary rosenblum
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You might see grass...dodge
that swing set...head for that restroom, you can shut the door in the dog's
face...
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mary rosenblum
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that sort of thing.
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mary rosenblum
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So in terms of description,
you get snatches if image, and probalby not a lot of complex thought...
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mary rosenblum
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more likely an
incoherent...'ohmygod' sort of thing.
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mary rosenblum
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If you take that 'chased by
rabid dog' scene and you have the runner noticing the fall leaf color and
the blue sky and thinking about how she ran across this park to greet her
father when he got home from the hospital last week...
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mary rosenblum
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the reader is left with a
quandry...
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mary rosenblum
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Jane could you share your
comments as questions so that they can go into the transcript and people
who aren't present can share them, too?
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mary rosenblum
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I'd appreciate it.
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mary rosenblum
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That way we don't interrupt
each other.
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mary rosenblum
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It's a good comment. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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What Jane said was that some
of the tsunami victims afterward said they saw nothing as they ran because
of their panic.
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mary rosenblum
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And that is very typical of
panic situations...
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mary rosenblum
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and of course you DO see
things as you are doing whatever in a panic state...
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mary rosenblum
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you just don't remember much
of it afterward.
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mary rosenblum
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And that is where a lot of
dramatic scenes get spoiled...
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mary rosenblum
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because of a lot of
description or character introspection that leaves the eader wondering...
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mary rosenblum
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if the scene is really tense
or not.
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christopher dale
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One thing to remember though, is
that some people are trained to ignore certain things. So a soldier,
beating a retreat WOULD notice some thing. But that same soldier, running
from a wall of water would probably not notice anything - so to keep it
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mary rosenblum
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Exactly...and that is a matter
of characterization.
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mary rosenblum
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A trained fighter...a friend
of mine for example... will notice all the moves of his opponent in a fight
and remember them...
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mary rosenblum
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because he has had a lot of
experience in physical assaults...
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mary rosenblum
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while someone who is set upon
in an alley is less likely to see all those actions clearly...
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mary rosenblum
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he'll be stressed, unsure of
himself, fighting back.
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patchworkcat
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Just a comment, action scene
dialogue that is short and choppy can add to the intensity of the scene.
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mary rosenblum
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Exactly.
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mary rosenblum
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short, choppy prose generally
suggests emotional stress, physical action, exertion...
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mary rosenblum
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any situation where the POV is
under stress or out of breath or highly distracted.
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mary rosenblum
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Which is why long, complex,
multi-clausal sentences can really weaken a dramatic action scene...
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mary rosenblum
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They suggest that there isn't
stress or exertion or distraction.
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mary rosenblum
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This is the Tuesday Forum with
me, Mary Rosenblum, LR Web Editor, fiction and nonfiction writer and today
we're talking about adding drama. 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, or use the ask a question
icon in order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me!
You can also type /ask in front of your question to reach me.
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mary rosenblum
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The tougher task is to create
drama over the breakfast table.
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mary rosenblum
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Here you have no action so you
have to CREATE a sense of tension/stress/distraction.
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mary rosenblum
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And it is through language
that you communicate that sensation to the reader.
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mary rosenblum
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It is not enough to say..'she
felt tense'.
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mary rosenblum
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Telling us doesn't make US
feel tense.
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patchworkcat
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If it's not too far off topic,
would you explain the differences (and when they should be used) between
the ellipse (. . .) and the dash (--) in dialogue or even scene
description?
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mary rosenblum
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Patch, that's something that
each publisher handles differently.
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mary rosenblum
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Use them as YOU feel
comfortable and let your editor decide which one is preferable.
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mary rosenblum
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Myself, I use ... sparingly...
to indicate a strong pause, usually when a charcter ends a thought
abruptly.
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patchworkcat
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I didn't realize it was a
publisher's option. I thought it would be up to the writer.
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mary rosenblum
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You're only half of the
equation, patch.
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mary rosenblum
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While you are responsible for
presenting a poweful piece of work that is pretty solidly correct, grammar
and structurewise...
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mary rosenblum
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your editor is going to make
improvements and change stylistic bits like that to suit the house
stylesheet.
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patchworkcat
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True. I suppose writers tend to
forget that sometimes. lol
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mary rosenblum
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Yeah, especially early in
their careers before they've worked with editors.
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mary rosenblum
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And, to be honest, I have
received almost no editing beyond stylistic tweaks and comma-catching from
short story editors.
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mary rosenblum
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You see more content changes
from nonfiction editors (for high end markets) and book editors.
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sadie
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Can't you do that with what
he/she is thinking and body language?
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mary rosenblum
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It terms of creating
drama...yes that is exactly how you do it, Sadie. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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And again...
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mary rosenblum
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through language.
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mary rosenblum
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If you show that tense body
langauge and her anxious thoughts...
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mary rosenblum
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but you are also showing us
that kitchen in detail and letting her pause to think about her
backstory...
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mary rosenblum
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you have the same problem that
you do when you show us too many details during an action scene.
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mary rosenblum
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It gives the reader the sense
that she's not really very tense.
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sadie
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flashbacks? Can't they be
tricky?
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mary rosenblum
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They can be, sadie. They're
very useful in terms of letting the reader know exactly what transpired in
the past...
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mary rosenblum
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but they not only stop the
forward momentum of the story, they send it backward.
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mary rosenblum
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AND you run the risk that the
reader will like the flashback universe better than your story universe.
:-)
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mary rosenblum
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So be aware of what you do to
the pace and dramatic arc of a story when you use them.
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mary rosenblum
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A lot of novice writers use
them extensively to simply give us tons of back story.
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mary rosenblum
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Not the best way to insert
backstory.
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sadie
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Is that what you mean by
backstory? Perhaps, a brief flashback?
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mary rosenblum
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Backstory is simply the
who/what/where/when/how that we have to know in order for the story to
work.
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mary rosenblum
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Who is this character? Why is
she here? You can slip this into the ongoing scene....but...and this is a
BIG but...
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mary rosenblum
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NOT into a strongly dramatic
scene...at least not in any quantity.
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mary rosenblum
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Your POV may be thinking about
his relationship with his father until he and Dad get into it over the
Thanksgiving table, and you may be able to slip in some quick bits of 'he's
always like this' as son and he have at it...
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mary rosenblum
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but this is probably not the
best place for a long reverie about his gradeschool years and how Dad
changed or what have you.
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seigfried007
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Her fingers spidering over his
eyes. Her nails biting into his forehead. His skull crashed into the head
board again. They'll put me in the closet with the bad man. I can't fail
her this time. She stopped, a look of disgust. NO! NOT THE CLOSET!
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janecj333
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that's a very intriguing
comment, about the flashback universe. I know I use backstory when I feel
it is essential, and I love it
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mary rosenblum
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But don't confuse backstory
and flashback, jane.
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mary rosenblum
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Backstory is critical...a
story has no context without it.
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mary rosenblum
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But 'flashback' means sending
the reader back to relive an event with the POV...it is not a matter of
thinking about that event...
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mary rosenblum
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It's the kind of look into the
past where you write it as if it is happening NOW.
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mary rosenblum
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The difference is this:
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mary rosenblum
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Just like the Christmas when I
was eight, Jerry thought. When Dad blew his top and broke my new bike.
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mary rosenblum
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That's backstory...
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mary rosenblum
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we now know something about
Jerry's storm past with Dad and something about Dad's temper back then at
least.
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mary rosenblum
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Flashback would be: Jerry
closed his eyes, remembering. It had been there, under the tree. The
Schwinn Racer, metal flake red, just like he'd wanted, all glittering
silver with a skinny black seat.
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mary rosenblum
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He had stood there, frozen,
while his sisters whooped and grabbed for their gifts. He got it. He really
really got it.
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mary rosenblum
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This isn't just Jerry thinking
that his dad broke his new bike on Christmas when he was eight...
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mary rosenblum
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we are reliving the scene with
him.
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sadie
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Thank you! I understand the
difference.
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mary rosenblum
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And of course, the flashback
version is going to be MUCH more powerful than that thought.
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mary rosenblum
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BUT that is where you need to
be careful.
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mary rosenblum
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That drama in the past needs
to contribute to the drama of the present story...
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mary rosenblum
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if it does not, then it
actually can take away from the present story.
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sadie
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because you don't want to take
away from the scene at hand?
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mary rosenblum
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Yep. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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So sometimes, you need to tone
down that backstory and let it be that thought.
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mary rosenblum
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And other times, that vivid
reliving of the bike smashing scene might be a critical component of the
story.
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mary rosenblum
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It simply depends on what you
are trying to achieve.
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mary rosenblum
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But a LOT of vivid flashbacks
like this, unless they ARE the story, will tend to weaken the dramatic
power of your main story.
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mary rosenblum
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And sometimes the flashbacks
ARE the story.
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mary rosenblum
|
This is the Tuesday Forum with
me, Mary Rosenblum, LR Web Editor, fiction and nonfiction writer and today
we're talking about adding drama. 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, or use the ask a question
icon in order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me!
You can also type /ask in front of your question to reach me.
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janecj333
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when I read flashbacks in
published novels, the more powerful they are, the more they hold my
attention. If they are seemingly unimportant, I often skip them
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mary rosenblum
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And they should hold your
attention...that means they're appropriate to the story.
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mary rosenblum
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The ones you skip are probably
the ones that shouldn't have been there in the first place. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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Remember...sadly...publication
is no guarantee of quality.
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fiction_scribe
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could you talk more about when
"flashbacks ARE the story"? thanks
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mary rosenblum
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I'm trying to think of an
readily accessible answer. Hmm....think of Moby Dick...
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mary rosenblum
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there is a ton of narrative
there, and a lot of flashback.
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mary rosenblum
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This isn't an ideal example,
but it's one most people have probably read...
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mary rosenblum
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and the 'main story' of the
whale chase is not what is powerful about the novel.
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mary rosenblum
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That is contained in the
narrative and flashback.
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seigfried007
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you mean, 'when flashbacks are
more interesting than the story?'. shouldn't that mean you oughtta tell the
prequel? ;-)
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mary rosenblum
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Not necessarily, seig. There
are many many ways to tell a story..
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mary rosenblum
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and how you tell it is a big
part of that. :-)
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texasrose
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Is past perfect always used in
flashbacks? Thanks, Mary.
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mary rosenblum
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That would be a narrative
flashback, texas.
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mary rosenblum
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It has more the effect of the
character remembering the event...and softens the impact of the piece. I"m
not even sure I would call that a flashback...
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mary rosenblum
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Flashback tends to be written
in the tense of the main story and to simply take the reader back in time
to live an event over with the POV as if it is happening right now.
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mary rosenblum
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And obviously, the transitions
are critical!
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sadie
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Been there, done that! That and
when someone tells me the same thing 15 times in 4 paragraphs!
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mary rosenblum
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For the poor flashbacks, you
mean, sadie?
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mary rosenblum
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Yep. And the 15 times in 4
paragraphs is BAD editing!
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janecj333
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and I have read that editors
frown on flashbacks in first-time novelists' work
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mary rosenblum
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WEll, that's one of those
'rules' that really aren't jane.
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mary rosenblum
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Editors don't frown on
flashbacks per se.
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mary rosenblum
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It's just that first time
novelists don't usually handle flashbacks well and they cause problems for
the story.
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mary rosenblum
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If you use flashback WELL the
editor won't complain at all.
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sadie
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Yes, sorry, it took forever for
my comment to pop up.
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mary rosenblum
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Yes, sometimes there is a big
lag between when someone responds to a comment and when I get the
question...
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mary rosenblum
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probably has to do with your
connection or your software or what have you. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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That's why I take questions
out of order so often during my professional connection interviews. By the
time some questions get to me, we've moved on...
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mary rosenblum
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so I try to circle back and
pick 'em up later.
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mary rosenblum
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And, to get back to Jane's
question...
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mary rosenblum
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this 'rules are not rules' is
something you need to keep in mind about a lot of these 'never do this..'
caveats you read in books on writing.
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mary rosenblum
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DOn't use multiple POV for a
short story.
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mary rosenblum
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Don't open with a flashback.
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mary rosenblum
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etc, etc...
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mary rosenblum
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what you have to realize is
that these are not rock solid 'thou shalt nots'.
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mary rosenblum
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You can find tons of examples
of good fiction that breaks every one of those rules!
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mary rosenblum
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BUt...what they actually mean
is...this is very difficult to do WELL, maybe you should try something
easier first.
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mary rosenblum
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The only thing that matters is
'does this work'...
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mary rosenblum
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and that depends on what you
want to achieve as much as anything.
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mary rosenblum
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You can have a story that is
highly style driven, with little action, is an elegant look at human nature
in a slice of life vignette where nothing happens and nobody changes.
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mary rosenblum
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And it can be stunning.
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mary rosenblum
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And it can be awful, too, and
it's a WHOLE lot harder to have it end up stunning than have it end up
awful. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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You can have a story with 6
POVs in 3000 words.
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mary rosenblum
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Should you run out and try it?
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mary rosenblum
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Go ahead. Go for it.
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mary rosenblum
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Don't be surprised if it
doesn't work well...it's a good thing to try and it's very hard to pull
off.
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mary rosenblum
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Should you never try it?
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mary rosenblum
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No.
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mary rosenblum
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You'll never grow as a writer.
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mary rosenblum
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But just because it is
possible does not mean that you will get it to work every time. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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THat is what those 'rules' are
all about.
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mary rosenblum
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They are not rules.
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mary rosenblum
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They are 'lane markers'
saying...'Rough Road Here'.
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t green
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that's why i got myself a
"4x4" pen! lol!
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mary rosenblum
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There you go, t. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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With non-directional off-road
tread, right?
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janecj333
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yes, it is a rough road
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mary rosenblum
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It is, and many writers choose
not to take it. :-)
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t green
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of course... try something new
every day... you just might like it!
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mary rosenblum
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THat's a standard
recommendation of mine to students...
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mary rosenblum
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You grow by experimenting.
Just realize that you are not required to write a masterpiece every time
you sit at the keyboard or pad.
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mary rosenblum
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I have tons of scenes,
stories, what have you that are my experiments.
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mary rosenblum
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Some turn into stories and get
published, others haven't worked yet, but they've all been fun 'stretching
exercises'.
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janecj333
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Mary, how would you characterize
your sf writing...what subgenre?
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mary rosenblum
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I've been called a number of
things, jane. I write hard SF...my stuff has one toe in reality, and it's
strongly character driven. My favorite label is 'cyber humanist' and I got
called a 'cyber feminist' in one college textbook on sf in literature. :-)
That was cool.
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mary rosenblum
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Anyway, to summarize drama...
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mary rosenblum
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remember that fewer words,
choppier prose, help give the reader a sense of pressure, stress, tension,
exertion.
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mary rosenblum
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Long, languid, complex
sentences suggest leisure and relaxation.
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mary rosenblum
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The stronger the drama of the
scene, the more you need to strip your language to the bare minimum...
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mary rosenblum
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In scenes with little action,
character body language and the occasional thought can provide the drama...
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mary rosenblum
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that action would provide in
an action scene.
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mary rosenblum
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Pay attention to how people
move and hold their bodies in times of emotional or physical stress...
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mary rosenblum
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we readers know what stress
looks like and if your characters reveal it in the way they move, we'll
read it, even subconsciously.
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mary rosenblum
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Oh...I did have an email
question that I meant to address here:
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mary rosenblum
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I wish I could attend! An
editor and an agent like my story at the conference I attended this
weekend, but... there's always a but. :-) My current beginning (changed
from one too rambling and not dramatic enough) is now too
"dramatic" (I have to work in our office today.) in that it gets
into a rape scene before the reader knows--and therefore apparently would
care about - the character
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mary rosenblum
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Anyway--if you have some TIPS
for balancing those in the first page, I'd sure appreciate hearing them
(again?). It is what I would ask if I could be there.
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mary rosenblum
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This is from Tory.
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mary rosenblum
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Starting with a dramatic scene
can certainly work.
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mary rosenblum
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I haven't read Tory's scene,
alas.
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mary rosenblum
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Starting with a dramatic scene
can work just fine.
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mary rosenblum
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It could be that this scene is
so graphic that it may repell readers.
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mary rosenblum
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They don't care about any
characters yet and they may decide they really don't want to go here.
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mary rosenblum
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A friend of mine had a horror
story backfire that way.
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mary rosenblum
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She opened with an incredibly
grisly rape and murder scene and I watched an entire room of listeners at a
reading turn OFF.
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mary rosenblum
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There wasn't enough to entice
any of us to keep going after that!
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lore alley
|
so how do get readers to like
your character enough in a dramatic first scene that they actually care
that something bad is happening?
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mary rosenblum
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That's the difficulty...you
cannot do that.
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mary rosenblum
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This may not be the right
first scene.
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mary rosenblum
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If we care about the
character, we can suffer through the graphic violence here...
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mary rosenblum
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but if we don't like the
graphic violence and we have no guarantees that anything better will come
along...we may not read on.
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janecj333
|
this reminds me of a how-to
article or book (I can't remember) called How Not to Open With a Bang
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mary rosenblum
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No kidding. :-)
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sadie
|
Sounds a lot like when I read,
attempted to read, KISS THE GIRLS. I can take a lot, but right off the bat
I was being asked to deal with a lot of this guy's very sick perversions.
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mary rosenblum
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Now if you're writing for
seasoned horror readers, a first scene of people being disemboweled might
work. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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While a dramatic starting
scene...even in cinematic (no POV at all) can be very effective...
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mary rosenblum
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if the scene is distasteful,
you may shoot yourself in the foot.
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geezer
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Yet Koontz says to start out
with action
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mary rosenblum
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But action is not graphic
violence, rape, torture...it is ACTION.
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mary rosenblum
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And that is a very good way to
begin if you can.
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sadie
|
I teach my 4th graders to begin
one of 4 ways - suspense, dialogue, with a ?, or an interesting fact.
Something to grab the reader. But I don't think most readers can handle an
immediate jump into particauraly sexual perversions.
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mary rosenblum
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And that's the difference.
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mary rosenblum
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All action is not equal.
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mary rosenblum
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A scene of a young woman
jumping a hunter over a high fence and falling, people running to her
aid...that's an action scene with a certain level of violence...
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mary rosenblum
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she has fallen and is hurt.
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mary rosenblum
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Here, readers are more likely
to read on to find out if she is okay.
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mary rosenblum
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But that hook is your
introduction to the reader.
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mary rosenblum
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If someone is burning alive on
the first pages, I doubt I'm going to read on.
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mary rosenblum
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NOW...that said...if this is
by a writer I read often, whose work I trust...
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mary rosenblum
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then I'll say 'okay, you
grossed me out, but I bet you give me a good read, so I'll skim over
this...and you'd BETTER make this worth my while'.
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mary rosenblum
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ANd I will read on.
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mary rosenblum
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So you will find this kind of
'I"m doing it anyway' opening more often in established writers.
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sadie
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Yeah, but you know what to
expect down the road from that author. Us newbies don't have that yet.
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mary rosenblum
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My point exactly, sadie. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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And actually, it won't always
work for you.
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mary rosenblum
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The writer I mentioned earlier
was established...but she still lost a lot of readers with that opening.
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mary rosenblum
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But she does tend to throw
horror into her stuff, so I suspect a lot of folks figured things wouldn't
get better. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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And that book did VERY poorly
in sales.
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sadie
|
Exactly. I've had some of my
favorite authors try something different like this. Didn't care for the
book, but still was a loyal fan.
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mary rosenblum
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Yes, most of us are willing to
live with a less than wonderful book from our favorite authors...if they
don't do it too often. LOL
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lore alley
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so the accident scene (I
presented in the workshop several weeks ago) may be an okay first scene
even though readers don't know the character yet? but if I follow that
scene with one of him trapped in a burning vehicle and trying desperately
to escape (written in limited 3rd) I might turn people off?
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mary rosenblum
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I can't remember you scene in
exact detail, lore, sorry...
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mary rosenblum
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but if we are getting to know
your character as he struggles to overcome this situation, that's not going
to turn readers off.
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mary rosenblum
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Or it shouldn't. Most of us
have an automatic positive response to the person in trouble.
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sadie
|
It seems to be easier to take
the gore in the movies than in a book, at least for me. In the movies, it's
over in seconds. There is more of a detailed picture created in my mind
with the book that is lasting.
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mary rosenblum
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Yep. Which is why, in my
opinion, movies will never banish books.
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mary rosenblum
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Well, we've gone way over our
Oregon Hour. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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Gonna end up an Oregon Two
Hours if I don't watch it.
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mary rosenblum
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I'll post the transcript of
this in Writing Craft: Forum Transcripts.
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childatheart
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is being recommended for the
advance program for LRW genuine
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mary rosenblum
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Yes, Child, it sure is. :-)
It's a good course and since you're going to be sending work out for
submission, you have to have a certain level of craft to begin with.
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mary rosenblum
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Child you can find a bunch of
LR students in the audience to ask questions of.
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mary rosenblum
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I'll see you all in the AM...
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mary rosenblum
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for our casual chat.
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mary rosenblum
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Same time, same station. :-)
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mary rosenblum
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We just get together to talk
about whatever we choose to talk about.
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sadie
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Thanks, Mary. I don't get to
join often due to teaching. I enjoyed it.
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mary rosenblum
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Glad you could make it, Sadie!
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mary rosenblum
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Great that you teach!
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mary rosenblum
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Have a good week, all!
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