|
Can you make a scene come alive by
letting your readers feel the intense emotion flowing between the
Heroine and Hero, or experience the electric hatred and fear
rampaging between the Villain and Victim? If so, you have a
skill to treasure. If not, take heart, keep writing,
listening, writing, reading, writing, editing, writing,
critiquing, editing and writing, and you will learn.
Notice I used the word skill, not talent, in the above
paragraph. That's because talents are inborn, in varying
guises and degrees. Skills, on the other hand, are what we
make of our talents. Developing skill is a matter of practice,
practice, and more practice. No amount of talent without
practice can propel a pianist, ballet dancer, or basketball player
to the top of his or her profession. So it is with writing.
Most of us cringe when we reread the first draft of our
first story or novel. How far we've progressed since then!
And that progress has come through practice, practice in
inserting a word, rearranging a sentence, deleting a phrase,
scrapping a scene, rounding out characters by giving them
lives-before-the-story-begins, including details that may bring
out suppressed longings, stimulate memories, and even call forth
new ways of seeing in our readers.
So where does your story begin? Not, I hope, in a vacuum.
I hope you quickly make it clear to this reader Where and
When the action is happening, as well as Who is involved and
(depending on the plot) something of the Why. Historical and
fantasy writers know they must immediately place us in the story
locale and time frame. Too often, though, unskilled writers
of contemporary stories lose me because they don't draw me into
the scene. I read their words, maybe even feel the emotions
they wanted to express, but if I don't see the scene in my mind's
eye, no amount of character charm or plot intricacy will hold my
attention. Draw me pictures in tantalizing bits and pieces
rather than in one dense paragraph. Make me see the
zebra-striped pillows, their once white zig-zags now grubby gray,
and the framed wild animal prints on the dingy white wall, their
once strong, earthy colors faded to unhealthy pink tones by the
hot afternoon sun pouring through a window unwashed since the
building was erected in 1984. Make me hear the sounds of
unruly street traffic seeping through the cheap construction.
And make sure I smell the cooked broccoli from the
vegetarian grad student's apartment down the hall.
New writers are constantly urged to include sensory detail to
make their story come alive, to make all of our imaginative
senses–Sight, Touch, Hearing, Taste and Smell--help place us in
the scene. For this reader, at least, Sight must come First.
(A fabulous resource on this subject is A Natural History of
The Senses by Diane Ackerman.)
©2004 C. J. Winters
|
