Writers and readers are limited by the writing craft when the passage involves time.
The rope tightened around the beam. Brady turned his cap backward and hit the accelerator. As the shed fell a ghost of dust and roof debris lingered in the air for just long enough to register to an observer's eye.
A phone rang inside Mrs. Landrey's house. She rocked forward in her chair and when the effort seemed ridiculous, she settled back and let it ring.
Joline adjusted her backpack. In a single smooth and thoughtless moment she raised the kickstand and pedaled onto the road. A half a tick later the sky seemed to trade places with her feet. She didn't hear it happening.
These three events happened at the same time. Because of the nature of reading it is impossible to present them at the same time.
A writer has to rely upon both the art and the craft.
She may opt to begin and end the narrative with actual clock time and maybe a calendar date as a header and footer.
3:07 PM October 16th 2018 Chicago's east side. Or Take it Nationwide or Worldwide.. Everything leads up to or away from this moment and for decades people will remember where they were when this event happened.
In choosing the order of presentation the writer might consider what is most important to the plot at the moment.
Maybe, the bicycle accident is going to be more important.
Because we cannot present things on a page simultaneously we must take a lot of things into consideration.
I'd probably put each scene on an index card and arrange and rearrange them on a cork-board.
When we are certain a reader is going to accept these thing coinciding at one moment in time, we can take the reader to the next page.
Of course, we can complicate time by telling the story leading up to the first event, then away from the second event involving the missed phone call.
Join us on Wednesday night at 8PM EDT at the Writers Chatroom and we can talk about time.
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3:07 PM October 16th 2018 Chicago's east side.
The rope tightened around the beam. Brady turned his cap backward and hit the accelerator. As the shed fell a ghost of dust and roof debris lingered in the air for just long enough to register to an observer's eye.
A phone rang inside Mrs. Landrey's house. She rocked forward in her chair and when the effort seemed ridiculous, she settled back and let it ring.
Joline adjusted her backpack. In a single smooth and thoughtless moment she raised the kickstand and pedaled onto the road. A half a tick later the sky seemed to trade places with her feet. She didn't hear it happening.
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When You Really have to Tell
As writers, we hear the advice to show, don’t tell. We can almost use it as a mantra. I suspect it is a bit of wisdom used by writers, editors and publishers as an item to tick off of their master lists.
Back in Kindergarten and Grade School we had an event called Show and Tell. It was me who brought the skeletal remains of a bird’s head. I wonder if this information is tucked away in my ancient transcript files along with the admonitions to stop talking aloud in class.
A few days ago, I was in the most dreadful of places with the most dreadful thoughts. I had to describe what I thought was going on inside a dark, damp and messed up place. The beginning of the most recent event happened while eating a 5 Guy’s cheeseburger with a plastic fork.
At first it was unsettling. Something had broken and coming out, it was every bit as big as I imagined it. It actually felt a little better so I downplayed the whole event, until the oook set in and the heat and the oook.
There was no way out of it. I had to go across town and climb up onto a swoopy chair and let strangers move into my mouth with sharp metal picks and hooks and some frozen probe.
For those times when you have to describe a setting, less is more, may apply, but we need to make the less – more.
I am making the effort not to confuse touch with feelings. I am presenting three links to help get us onto Sunday’s Topic. Sometimes You Have to Tell.
Writing Tips: How to Describe Setting using Touch
In terms of show, don’t tell, there are two broad strategies to think about. When used together they are brilliant tools to really paint a picture in your reader’s mind. The first is to use figurative language (but more on this in another post). The second is to use sensory language — to draw upon the five senses to describe the setting.
One of the key things that a passage of descriptive writing should do is appeal to all five of the senses. Appeal to the sense of sight only (how things look) and your writing will lack dimension.
I am leaving you with one more link. This is to a list of words to describe texture.
Describing texture is a problem for both established and new writers, who often forget to write with senses other than sight. In reality, writers should use every sense.
Who are You? Your Author Bio is Waiting for You
Ask around, it seems most of us are aware of our bios being out of date. But talking about ourselves is not something we do so well. There are also a lot of rules, guidelines and suggestions covering everything from word count to first or third person.
Come to Sunday’s Topic Chat and let’s see if we can take on the bio writing task.
If you can’t come to chat or just want to prepare or brush up here are some websites.
Not only is it useful to know what you need to include in an author bio, it is also useful to see examples of how your vital information should look. This article will cover both what you need to include in your author bio and some examples of tight professional bios.
You have to knock ’em dead with two or three dazzling sentences that show you’re a likable, credible, and accomplished expert.
When readers read your bio, they must believe you’re the answer to their prayers — a superhero who will swoop in and solve the big problem keeping them awake at night.
While researching this topic I ran into two articles about paid reviews. Attitudes and feelings about paying for a review are extreme. Some are acceptable and some are highly frowned upon.
There is no right or wrong way to get reviews for your books. If you have the money to pay for a review, and feel comfortable doing it, then do so. It pays to remember that getting reviews for your book is akin to getting publicity for it. Time, effort, some money spent, and being tenacious are needed.
If your book isn’t selling, reviews are usually not the culprit.
That being said, if you have no reviews, or are staring at two reviews with a 3.5 Amazon rating, you likely don’t believe me. Only the ice-water of harsh experience convinced me otherwise.
But although they’re hardly the skeleton key to success, reviews are still important for a few reasons we’ll discuss below. Thus, I’ve assembled a comprehensive mini guide outlining a number of techniques and services that you can use to get legitimate, unbiased Amazon reviews (no black hat stuff here).
If you cannot make it to the topic chat feel free to follow the links above and check into review options on your own. Hit Reply on Our Blog and tell us about your experiences.
During our Open Chat nights we touch on random Writerly things. If you have a question, come in and ask. If you have news, share it. If you have discovered something helpful, we want to know.
