So I had a few days of, sitting, pacing, cringing. My neck felt as if someone had tried to twist my head off! Thankfully, it's on the mend. I still wonder what in the hades I did to get myself in the 'land of hurt'? Guess I'll never know for sure...
Anyway...
What is it that makes a good book? A good romance? And, how do I plan on capturing that 'feeling' and caging it within a few hundred pages?
A good book, for me, is a book that evokes the emotion of the characters I'm reading about. Of course, I have to like the general story. (I'm sure many horror writers could induce me to feel fear...but I don't like to experience that particular emotion. No, uh-uh.) But to taste the bitter insult slapped in a heroine's face, to smile at a secret's revelation, to conjure the sense of freedom and adventure as sea-air blows and the hero sails into dangerous waters, to have my stomach drop at the description of a kiss or a touch....this is the powerful weapon of the writer.
The 'how-to' of going about harnessing these sensations is complex and difficult to describe. When I'm writing a scene, I try to imagine it playing out. Can I see my heroine stomping off? Does she hide her true self. Is she angry or hurt? Would my hero grab her up and kiss her senseless or cut her to the quick with the sword of truth? Hmmmm. I'm certain I don't know until I play out my own questions in my mind's eye, each scenerio building to cresendo, leaving me with that 'aha!' moment when I know I've hit on what I want to convey in that particular scene.
Is there anything more satisfying than gathering that perfection of language which enables the reader to 'see'?
With that being said, keep writing away this weekend! Find your perfect scene. What does the room look like? What expressions are on the faces of your characters as they speak? What nuances are lurking in a hand gesture, a nervous habit, an unguarded moment of exposure? Capture it with combinations of the twenty-six characters of the alphabet in black and white, locking them into place to be enjoyed again and again.
An Award!
A great big thanks to writer Michael Haynes for gifting me the Versatile Blogger Award! (Oy...seven more facts about moi - just what you've all wanted!)I'm supposed to pass this little green fellow along, but all my blogger friends have one of these buggers in their sidebars! I'll just participate....
1. My first (I think?) rock concert was Heart, 1987. Ann & Nancy are still my favorite female rock group.
2. I love wrestling. Not that silly television crap. Real wrestling. Here are my boys competing....
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| Hitting a switch |
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| Keeping the body lock |
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| Stretching before a match...that's my little guy in the center front :) |
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| Jr. Club Team |
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| Getting the win! |
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| This is my youngest attempting to run a half-nelson, heavy on the head. He should not be on his knees....but on his toes. This is from his first year. |
3. I have chickens!
4. Dog lover, here! Here's my little pup, Zutchka, when we first got him...
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| He would sleep with his face in the boys' boots |
5. Asparagus is my favorite vegetable. Today.
6. I can just 'feel' when situations, words, or actions aren't right. When I get my infamous 'gut-feeling', (my kids absolutely hate my 'gut-feelings', as I ruin many a naughty plans) I'm usually correct that something is awry.
7. I absolutely cannot look graceful while walking in high heeled shoes. I know, I know...many a model strut sexily down the runway - so it must be a learnable action, right? Not for this girl. It's always been more of a comedy when I've tried it in the past. I'm a flat-wearing-sort-of-girl. It's safer for everyone involved. Ha!
| Not for me.... |
| For me.... |
Congrats on the award! You have told of a common obstacle before every writer: how to show and not tell. It's a touch and feel job, like any. But the secret is how you feel it.
ReplyDeleteJulius
Friday, yippee!
ReplyDeleteI don't read many romances but generally speaking (and this is true for all genres) I have to connect with the characters. If I don't care for them right away, I loose interest in the book.
I'm reading a really well written romance by my friend and fellow writer/blogger, Diana Murdock - it's titled "Again" and it is available on Amazon and other sites. I love her style, the plot, the characters.
Congratulations on your blog award! Your list is fantastic! The puppy is sooooo cute, I want one like that. If you don't want these high heels, I will take them. They are lovely!Oh, and I like asparagus too. I steam it and serve it with a bit of olive oil and cut-up tomatoes. Yum!
Thanks, Julius! You well know my on-going battle with show as opposed to tell. Thanks for all your support. Chapter three anytime soon? I want to know what it looks like down in the underground place???
ReplyDeleteAngela - I'll have to add your friend's book to my Goodreads TBR list! I love a good romance. You can have those high-heeled cuties! I'll keep my flats - and live to walk on my ankles another day. Ha! MMmmmm-mmm-good... Steamed yet crisp asparagus with butter and kosher-salt. Delish! And yes, I have to agree with you on my baby boy...(the German Shepherd, I mean) He's my smoosh. He follows me around, snuggles around my feet as I sleep at night, knows what time to 'wake-the-boys' in the morning, and comes a running if I call. He's a good dog. ~ Nadja
Congratulations on the award. And I know that feeling of writing the perfect scene. It's like having great sex. I can't wear high heels either. I even had a drag queen try to teach me to walk in them. I'm hopeless. I'm a sneakers type of woman.
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend! :)
Yippee for Friday! And the no walking in heels? Well, even some of the models have a hard time of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHQXfCyaByE
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the award, Nadja! I'm glad to hear that your neck has gotten a bit better. I woke up a few weeks ago to find that mine had totally tightened up, and it stayed that way for days. I was helping my sister move into her new apartment, too, which made things extra painful.
ReplyDeleteBringing a scene to life is one of the hardest tasks that a writer faces, and yet when it's done right, it's also the most rewarding. I've found that I "see" my scenes in a few different ways: sometimes through a character's eyes, sometimes in text, where the words of a scene just pop into my head, and sometimes like the director of a play, where I'm blocking out movements, pausing, rotating, shifting things around. My favorite, though, is when I can let my mind go blank and just watch a scene play out like a movie, and I can *feel* everything that's supposed to be happening.
Love the random things, and I'm with Angela above -- I'll take any high heels that you don't want, though I probably shouldn't, since my closet is overflowing with them. ;) Enjoy the weekend!
Congrats on the award!
ReplyDeleteI visualize each sentence, which is probably why it takes so long for me to make it through a draft.
Chickens! How many do you have?
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the coop club.
Just getting around to visiting for the campaign. No idea if you're in my group. You commented on my campaign challenge & I want to say thanks, and yes, I love to see the words in my book, and don't want it to be horror either. Killing a fly is as far as I go, lol. And evil weave-ills in my MG book. 2 of my sons wrestled until 1 got a broken nose, 1 a dislocated knee. They changed their minds. Now they wrestle joysticks. I have all flat shoes too, to go with flat feet.
ReplyDeleteI 'see' the scenes, too, Lena. Sometimes from a character's perspective, sometimes as the director! Ha! Maybe all writers do this??
ReplyDeleteMaria...I first went to your blog because I heard you had chickens! Ha! My sister started keeping her 'girls' the year before me - that's what got me hooked in the first place! My boys just love them. They pick them up and carry them around and stroke those silky feathers and feed them bugs/leftovers/and veggie peels!
Sher - Thanks for the stop-back:)
Angela---that link was hilarious. That's what you should visualize when you think of me in very high heels...lol!
~ Nadja
Congrats on the award. I rarely wear high heels. They're not for me.
ReplyDeleteI love asparagus.
Have a great week.
Thanks Medeia! Are you joining Round 4? ~ Nadja
ReplyDeleteI hope so.
ReplyDelete