You’re walking or driving, perhaps reading a book or story, maybe watching something on TV. Basically, you’re passive. You’re letting the scenery, the story, whatever, come to you.
Then something catches your eye, or you hear something interesting, or smell something that triggers an old, forgotten memory.
You stop being passive. You become interested. You focus. You stop letting information come to you, and seek it out. You become active.
This happens with good writing. You introduce the reader via the familiar, the common, the understood, and hook them via the specific, the distinct, the exact.
Writing is about detail.
Specifically, writing is about the correct detail.
Only put in stuff which is going to be useful to move the story forward, to provide the reader with necessary information. Anything else, regardless of how beautiful and well written, gets in the way of the story.
How you add the detail is equally important. Embed the details in the story so they reveal something about what ever’s being described and who’s describing it. Ever notice two people can have two completely different reactions to the same thing? Write the specific differences in their reactions and you reveal the specifics of their different characters.
Describe a seashore with the ocean itself, then mention the waves, the height of the tide, now closer, now whether or not the beach is sandy or rocky, closer still, the birds on the beach, the worms and crabs they’re going after.
Do the same with a mountain, a rocket ship, an office, a park, a planet.
Again, examples from my own work.
Enjoy.
The Augmented Man
The Inheritors
The Book of The Wounded Healers
Tag
Empty Sky
The Shaman
Search: The First John Chance Mystery
Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me, schedule a critique of your work, or buy me a coffee.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.
Get copies of my books because it’s a nice thing to do, you care, you can follow along, and I need the money. My latest is my trauma recovery fantasy Chrysalis.
Wilderness House Literary Review EIC Steve Glines and I (Senior Fiction Editor) hold monthly open chats with authors interested in a) writing for us, b) improving their craft in general, and/or c) increasing their chances of being accepted by other markets.
Meetings are held via Zoom on the last Friday of each month from 9-10amET.
So, want to know how to write for us? Want to know what gets our attention? Want to know how to write better for whatever market you’re interested in? Join us for our next “Meet the Editors” Zoom session. Seats limited! Sign up and talk with us. We’re relatively easy going and fun to be with.
Last item, finding these experiments useful? Strengthen my ego and link/friend/follow me.
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