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Mary Rosenblum
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Hello all!
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Mary Rosenblum
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Welcome to our Friday After
Hours Forum.
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Mary Rosenblum
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I wanted to talk about
creating your reality in prose today because I see a lot of weakness in
that area in both fiction and nonfiction in student and novice manuscripts.
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Mary Rosenblum
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It is, of course, a particular
challenge if you write, as I do, SF or fantasy. There you have to create an
entire universe from scratch! While keeping the plot moving.
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Mary Rosenblum
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But even if you have set your
story in Boston or Podunk, you still have to create a real, believable
Boston or
Podunk.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Where most novice writers run
into trouble is that they put in plenty of description...for them.
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Mary Rosenblum
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They see the world. They know what's
happening where. Details are not necessary, are redundant. So you leave
them out.
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Mary Rosenblum
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You have to develope a
writerly schizophrenia.
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Mary Rosenblum
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One half of your brain knows
everything -- you are creating the story after all.
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Mary Rosenblum
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The other half of your brain
knows ONLY what is on the page.
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Mary Rosenblum
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So that side of your brain
nudges you. Hey. Where are we? What's happening?
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Mary Rosenblum
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The other side of your brain
is seeing the living room, the red velvet couch, the big, flat screen TV.
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Mary Rosenblum
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If you write the scene for
that part of your brain, those details aren't necessary, they're redundant.
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Mary Rosenblum
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So you have to write for that
'naive' part of your brain, the one that can't see what you don't write.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Of course you don't REALLY
split your brain like that (it would be useful), but you have to train
yourself to read over
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Mary Rosenblum
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your scenes as if you don't
know anything. It takes practice. It's very hard at first.
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sailor
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I'm wrestling with dialogue
between characters in a different time and place - Bohemia in 1911. I've
written the dialogue somewhat formal because I think that's how my
characters would have talked, but one member of my critique group said it
was too "stiff" and I should use more contractions. I agree
that's how we talk now, but not so sure about people then. Any advice?
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Mary Rosenblum
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I'm going to side with you and
not your group member.
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Mary Rosenblum
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One of the hardest things to
deal with is dialogue from another era or in another language (even though
you're really writing in English).
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Mary Rosenblum
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Contractions ARE very modern.
Our speech patterns evolve all the time. So are our slang idiom.
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Mary Rosenblum
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If you have someone in 1800
great someone else with 'hey, what's happening?' it goes CLANG in your
readers' ears.
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Mary Rosenblum
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They should NOT sound like
modern people chatting on their way to work on the subway.
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Mary Rosenblum
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This is part of creating a
sense of place -- which includes time, of course. :-)
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Mary Rosenblum
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If your characters do not
sound like everyday folks talking, it alerts your readers...'something is
different here'
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Mary Rosenblum
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and then you can slip in a
clue that this is not 2007 and we are not in Cleveland.
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sailor
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Yes, time and place. So dialogue
reflects educational background as well.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Of course.
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Mary Rosenblum
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When I hang around with a
sheep farmer from Eastern Oregon who had an eighth grade education back in the forties,
I sure don't use the same vocabulary and syntax I use
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Mary Rosenblum
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when I'm on a panel in front
of a bunch of writers and readers!
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Mary Rosenblum
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Your characters should use the
vocabulary and syntax that fits each person's background --
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Mary Rosenblum
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education, cultural history,
class, maybe racial background.
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Mary Rosenblum
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I have to say that most novice
manuscripts feature characters whose speech is utterly interchangeable.
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Mary Rosenblum
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That is probably the most
common weakness in novice fiction and personal narrative.
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Mary Rosenblum
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It is very difficult to create
a rich environment for your story or narrative without telling the reader
all about it
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Mary Rosenblum
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which stops the action.
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Mary Rosenblum
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You really need to wait until
after you have finished the first draft and then work at weaving in a host
of little, specific details so that you begin to fill in
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Mary Rosenblum
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a nice, rich setting.
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Mary Rosenblum
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I frequently design scenes
intentionally to reveal the world to my readers because I have to construct
and define my worlds. They are not Cleveland.
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geezer
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Can't one tell just a smidge?
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Mary Rosenblum
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You have to, geeze. You can't
possible shoehorn in all the details without drowning the story.
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Mary Rosenblum
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But you do need to add enough
that the scene comes to life.
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Mary Rosenblum
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In highly dramatic scenes,
your POV won't notice details. He/she will be too busy with whatever
dramatic event is happening.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Your relaxed scenes allow you
to pack in the details, woven into action.
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Mary Rosenblum
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That's why I take quite a bit
of time to decide on an opening scene for a SF story.
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Mary Rosenblum
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I have to find a way to give
the reader enough of the world that it makes sence in the first few
paragraphs, while I'm hooking that reader in at the same time.
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Mary Rosenblum
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First few sentences, not
paragraphs, sorry!
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Mary Rosenblum
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I WISH I could use the first
few paragraphs!
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Mary Rosenblum
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When you're creating setting,
start with the points that will have the most effect first.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Say you're going to set your
story in a school room.
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Mary Rosenblum
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The POV is a daydreaming kid.
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Mary Rosenblum
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What two or three details say
'schoolroom' to you right off?
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Mary Rosenblum
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Maybe chalkboard?
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Mary Rosenblum
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Smell of chalkdust?
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doyou
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what's a good way to make a
relaxed scene seem action filled
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Mary Rosenblum
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Oops...sorry. Hang on I'll get
to that in a second, doyou. :-)
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megger
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Chalk dust, teacher, clanging
bell
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charie'
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desks, droning teacher, wall of
windows
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Mary Rosenblum
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So in your first sentence, as
Jemmy is doing whatever, you give us a couple of those details.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Readers are instantly in the
classroom.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Jemmy slipped the magic marble
out of his desk while Mrs. Klingensmith squeaked new spelling words on the
board.
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Mary Rosenblum
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As to your question, doyou,
you just use action. :-)
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Mary Rosenblum
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The action just isn't life and
death, that's all.
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Mary Rosenblum
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You've just finished a battle.
Your character tends to his horse, taking off the tack, washing it down and
watering it in the creek, staking it out to graze
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Mary Rosenblum
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and all the time talking about
the forthcoming Summit of Wizards with his buddy. He goes to collect his
bowl of stew at the fire
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Mary Rosenblum
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and sees the new recruit, the
really skinny young kid who looks vaguely familiar. When he carries his
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Mary Rosenblum
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bowl over to sit down and talk
to the guy, the recruit vanishes into the crowd of soldiers. The MC looks
around for him
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Mary Rosenblum
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as he finishes his dinner,
can't find him, and rolls himself into his cloak to sleep.
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Mary Rosenblum
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That's a relaxed scene, but he
has learned important and disturbing information from his buddy as he cared
for his horse
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Mary Rosenblum
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and of course the recruit is
important.
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Mary Rosenblum
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But because we see (and smell
and taste) the campsite scene, it will move forward strongly and the visual
images will help keep reader interest in a scene
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Mary Rosenblum
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that essentially is designed
to feed readers information.
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Mary Rosenblum
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What bores readers to tears is
a 'talking heads' scene.
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Mary Rosenblum
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That would be if our
protagonist sat down with his buddy instead of taking care of his horse and
getting his dinner and simply talked at length
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Mary Rosenblum
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with him about the forthcoming
Summit of Wizards.
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Mary Rosenblum
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We'd have dialogue, dialogue,
dialogue and nothing to look at.
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quixote
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blackboard? could be a 'teching
hologram" :-)
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Mary Rosenblum
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Ah, this suggestion for our schoolroom
scene is a good one, to skip back a bit.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Say our schoolroom is in the
future!
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Mary Rosenblum
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So you're going to open the
scene with the same magic marble but you have to start creating a future
school room so readers know 'when' they are.
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Mary Rosenblum
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So as Jemmy fishes that magic
marble out of his desk, Mrs. Klingensmith opens the blackboard holo and the
spelling words shimmer to ghostly life on the green square.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Jemmy wonders why she programs
the holo to look like an old fashioned blackboard as he slips the marble
into his pocket. She's so OLD.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Now your readers know this is
the future. Not the present.
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christopher houle
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any suggestions about flashback
scenes
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Mary Rosenblum
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Well, flashback scenes are
written the same way you'd write any scene -- with action, dialogue,and
vivid visuals.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Flashback is not just the
character remembering the past, mind you. In a flashback the character
relives the past.
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Mary Rosenblum
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So you write it as if it is
happening right now.
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Mary Rosenblum
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That's why your transitions
into that scene and out of it are so critical.
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Mary Rosenblum
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If the reader doesn't realize
he/she is stepping into a flashback utter confusion may result!
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Mary Rosenblum
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The most important place in
terms of visuals are at the start of your story and at the start of EVERY
chapter in your novel.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Even if your chapters are
really part of the same scene, remember that readers put books down at
chapter breaks. They need a quick reminder of where they are when they pick
the book up again.
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Mary Rosenblum
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So a visual detail or two will
remind them.
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Mary Rosenblum
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If the chapter takes readers
to a different character's POV, a different place and time, then that
visual start is VERY important. You need to orient the readers to
where/when/who in the first few sentences.
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Mary Rosenblum
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A good exercise is to find
something you have written in the past, then read it over asking yourself
'what do I see' all the way through.
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Mary Rosenblum
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It's not what you know about
the scene, now. It's what you see from the description that is actually on
the page.
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sailor
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Characters' names can hint at
time and place, too.
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Mary Rosenblum
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w
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Mary Rosenblum
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Well, we need that character
name right away! That's the who.
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Mary Rosenblum
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The where/when can take a bit
more thought.
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Mary Rosenblum
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I try to get the 'where' into
the first sentence. You can get the 'when' in a bit later.
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christopher houle
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then what do say about people
who write like Anne Rice
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Mary Rosenblum
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In terms of how, Christopher?
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christopher houle
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without addressing characters
direct names in the beginning
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Mary Rosenblum
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Remember that when a writer
makes a name -- has proved to readers that he/she will deliver a good
story, readers are more tolerant, trusting that they'll get through this
and get a good story eventually.
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Mary Rosenblum
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And sadly, a lot of bad
writing ends up on the best seller list.
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Mary Rosenblum
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It is not a good strategy to
say, "I'm going to write badly, because it's okay to write badly,
you'll still sell'.
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Mary Rosenblum
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That ain't necessarily so,
LOL.
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Mary Rosenblum
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YOu can always find published
examples of bad writing. That is not hard. :-)
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quixote
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Azimov comes to mind - just say
"Foundation"...:-)
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Mary Rosenblum
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Gosh, it has been a long time
since I read the foundation series, but as I recall you figured out where
you were within a page or so, each jump.
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gail
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I've just read "The
Drylands," Mary. Good read, btw. I was a little surprised you began
the story with a dream sequence, but felt it was very effective in setting
the scene. Plus, the details of the dream were referenced throughout the
story, so I was impressed with how successfully you used this
"device." I've heard it's not recommended.
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Mary Rosenblum
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I'ts not recommended. :-) It's
a dicey way to start a novel, but it was a major factor affecting the MC
and it was that or do it as flashback and that would have been more
problematical.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Whatever works, works. There
are no absolute rules in writing, but it is a very good idea to know why
the 'rules' are called 'rules' before you start tossing them. :-)
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quixote
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sorry "MC"?
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Mary Rosenblum
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Sorry. Main Character.
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Mary Rosenblum
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POV is Point of View
character. :-)
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Mary Rosenblum
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Your readers need to be
thoroughly grounded in the story, aware of where they are, who's talking, who's
listening.
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Mary Rosenblum
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You can do some things badly
and if the story is strong enough, readers will forgive you for it.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Or you can do those things
badly and the story isn't strong enough and the readers want none of it.
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Mary Rosenblum
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So it's a good idea not to do
things badly if you can avoid 'em.
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christopher houle
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perfect example Interview With A
Vampire
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christopher houle
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the story eventually tells a
name but the name is not what
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christopher houle
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makes it good or not
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Mary Rosenblum
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Oh, yeah, tha'ts where she
starts with that nameless interview, right?
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Mary Rosenblum
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Yeah. That's a great example
of a really bad start that was salvaged by the rest of the book, LOL.
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Mary Rosenblum
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The main thing with creating
your setting, whether drawn from reality or wholly imagined
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Mary Rosenblum
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is to slip in small, specific
details as often as you can.
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Mary Rosenblum
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It's like handing the readers
jigsaw puzzle pieces...they'll put the picture together.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Well, thanks for coming all!
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Mary Rosenblum
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Join us Sunday for our casual
chat.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Same time, same place, we just
talk about whatever.
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Mary Rosenblum
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I have a herding trial, but I
should be home by then.
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Mary Rosenblum
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I'll post the transcripts of
this Forum in the usual place; Writing Craft: Forum Transcripts.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Have a great weekend, all!
Happy spring!
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