Salon Insights 1.31.14

[Elizabeth]

• I love Julie’s synopsis. It’s clear, hooks me into the characters and plot, makes me want to read more. High stakes—it’s clear that this story matters at the highest level to the characters. I’d love for everyone to create a paragraph like this about your projects—the tighter the better. Bravo!
• Details most capture me as a reader—one of our most important tools for creating convincing worlds and characters and situations.
• The details of complicated characters and stories and places are so intriguing and connect us (as readers) to them even when they are very different from us or what we know.
• If we readers already know how the character is thinking or what s/he is feeling, we do not need to be told—it actually takes us out of our identification with the character, distances us.
• Showing is much stronger than explaining. Keep us in on the joke but see if the action can convince us of whatever you might be trying to explain. In early draft writing, let yourself explain—you might figure something out you need to know or feel your way to the action that will show what you are explaining. That’s the goal for later drafts.
• Unexpected but specific and logical enough to be believable—that’s the combination we are looking for as readers. This allows us to be surprised (by the unexpected) but to keep the faith with the story.
• Second person: Can be a great way to generate material (as can first person rants or any other way of playing with voice that gives you access to your material). It is difficult to “tell” a second person narrator things he or she already knows—it can lead the reader to doubt the second person address. Very often, second person actually just makes the “you” into a character. In these cases, there isn’t an “I” addressing the you.
• Beats: From acting, where each new motivation or action to attempt to get what the character wants is seen as a new “beat.” In narrative we often shift beats through lines of physical description or action. You’ll see me noting a new beat or the need for an extra beat—often one line that allows us to shift direction.
• Mediation: In early drafting (and sometimes even later, when we do not know this trick), we often use mediation in our sentences. What I mean by this is: I saw/ He noticed/ She looked/ I heard, etc. Usually the POV (point of view) does not need to be established—it already is established. If you cut these mediating phrases, you end up honing in on a stronger, more effective sentence and instead of “saw” or “noticed” as the verb, you get a juicier, more vivid verb. Isn’t that awesome? A great way to strengthen your writing during revision.

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