Here’s the sixth episode of the Writing Talk Podcast.
In this episode of The Writing Talk Podcast, I’m talking about the ways that you can give your writing the edge by keeping it in the moment.
Writing in the moment is the opposite of being heavy handed. It keeps us rooted in the action. We experience the story along with the character and we feel as if we’re right there in the story. This is a story teller’s nirvana and I hope this podcast will help you to hone your writing skills a little further.
I hope you enjoy listening.
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Show Notes
Use the senses of the character carefully. Don’t overuse “he saw” or “he heard” etc. Just tell us what was seen and heard and we’ll understand. Give us the characters response to what they’ve seen or heard and we’ll be right there with them.
Use body language and internal sensations but don’t mix them up! Remember the pov (point of view) that you’re using, e.g. if we’re writing a scene from Brian’s pov, we don’t want to know about Jen’s heart racing. Give someone centre stage and focus on them then switch as needed.
Use economy. The longer winded a passage is, the more likely it is to slip into heavy handed writing and take us out of the all important moment. Get off your soapbox – don’t deliver a lecture or over explain. Avoid unnecessary verbs, e.g. in “tears began to well up in her eyes” the “began” is redundant.
Don’t just use fewer words but ramp up the impact of the ones you use.
Sequence – keep it logical and ordered so it’s clear for the reader. Avoid making times relative, e.g. try not to use “before” and “after”. These make the reader do some mental processing. Just be direct and tell us what happens.
e.g. After wiping his mouth he said, “I was already angry…”
Instead, take out the “said”: He wiped his mouth. “I was already angry…”
e.g. Just before getting up Gordon spit in his face.
I’m sure you can see the problem here. It reduces the impact of a very dramatic action.
Take care with “as” – it implies a relationship, e.g. “She sat up quickly, her heart racing as a cold sweat clung to her skin”
It doesn’t read well. Take out the “as” and give the cold sweat its own sentence for more impact.
Use internal dialogue – italics are not needed for this. e.g. What had woken him? What had he heard?
Reading of The Week – Trespass
https://books2read.com/trespass
Win a Reading in the Podcast!
Write a piece of flash fiction on the subject: Alone in the House. You have up to 500 words.
Post it up on your site and place a link in the comments for this post. I’d like it by close of play on Monday 30 November please.
Make it very in the moment and I will pick some to read out in future episodes. If you’d like a specific accent, please let me know and I’ll do my best.
Good luck!
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Thank You
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Links to Writing Resources:
The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression
https://books2read.com/u/bpjEdE
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Hey, I just found your podcast and really like it. I just listened to all 6 episodes and enjoyed the topics and insights. Here’s some feedback:
–The most effective thing you did in all the episodes was to read from an author’s work that illustrated poor writing. That was really gutsy and helpful. I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of writing podcasts and videos, and that’s the first time I’ve heard that done. Here’s another idea: Take a paragraph from an author you like and rewrite it to be bad to illustrate your point. Read the altered version at first. Then after pointing out the flaws, you can read how the author actually wrote it. That way you can mention the writer’s name and honor the author.
–I know you mentioned having guests on. If you do that, please keep to the topics and don’t meander. Personally I’d rather just listen to you.
–You mentioned opening up two Scrivener projects to get two windows. Did you know you can open up two windows in the same project? And with the synopsis and notes windows you can actually have 4 windows open. I anchor my main text window, then use the other window to flip between my list of characters, places, etc. for reference. I strongly suggest that anyone using Scrivener go through the self-guided tour built into the product. I did that meticulously, and it was the best 6 hours I ever spent. Saved me dozens of hours of frustration later.
–You listed the words “begin” and “start” as superfluous verbs. I agree. Did you also mention “turned”? I can’t remember. If not, that is one too. I.e., “He turned and left the room” should just be “He left the room.” Another big one is the verb “suddenly”. That actually detracts from the suddenness. For example:
“Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Mary and John jumped.”
Turn the adverb into an adjective and reorder it this way for better effect:
“Mary and John jumped at the sudden knock at the door.”
–One of the best things I ever did was listen to Brandon Sanderson’s BYU writing classes on youtube. It’s the full college classes, free. Since those don’t really compete with what you’re trying to achieve with your podcast, you might consider telling people about them.
–Over on this side of the pond, anyone with a British accent sounds like they really know what they’re talking about. Just thought I’d let you know. 🙂
At the risk of undermining the assignment for “Alone in the House” by my character’s own imagination, here’s a stab at being “in the moment”: http://www.thewritersrealm.com/home/writingtalkpodcast-feedback/
Thank you Stephen, that’s really great feedback. I’ll check everything out and I’ll certainly look at your work. It makes such a difference to get some feedback and I really appreciate you taking the time. Thanks again.