In Today’s Journal
* Your Characters Do It All
* Free Archives Still Available
* Of Interest
Your Characters Do It All
I had an interesting comment or two from a writer the other day. I thought I’d share part of that with you because the writer struck a universal truth.
The first comment that struck me was that the writer had a question but that “you might not be able to answer it because it’s about something far from your genres.”
This doesn’t matter. All the concepts I teach are the same through all the genres. Your creative subconscious is right there with you as you’re writing in whatever genre.
That’s also another great point about writing into the dark.
If you’ve read in the genre you’re writing, your creative subconscious will be aware of any genre-specific themes and aspects and any reader expectations for that genre.
So again, if you’re writing into the dark (trusting your characters and writing what they give you) you absolutely can’t go wrong.
The writer’s question and my response provide an excellent example:
Here’s the question: “In children’s fiction (middle grade and elementary…) should you tone [the description] down some, both for [to keep from] boring the young reader, and [because] kids tend to notice way less of the things going on around them?”
Assuming your POV character is also a child (middle grade and elementary), write whatever the POV character notices. If it’s true that “kids tend to notice way less of the things going on around them” then so will your POV character, yes?
(If the question is what you, the writer, should add to or omit from what the POV character gives you, the answer is Nothing.)
Three important points:
- What any human of any age perceives about the setting and the other characters always depends on his or her state of mind, level of tension or excitement, the situation itself, and the setting. And remember,
- Any description you write isn’t about what the characters want. Description is about what the reader needs.
- Description of setting and characters is what pulls the reader deeper into the story and makes him feel as if he’s “in” the scene.
Re state-of-mind, from infancy to pre-puberty, humans spend a higher percentage of time in Alpha (the brain cycles at 8-15 cycles per second, a dream-like state) vs. Beta (15-30 cycles per second, wide awake and problem solving) than they do post-puberty and on through adulthood.
As an aside, a magic-realism-sensitive character probably spends almost all her time in Alpha.
Anyway, this isn’t about characters so much as it’s about the writer.
In any genre set in any time or place, take a deep, calming breath, release control, and just trust the POV character’s perceptions. If s/he notices it, write it. If s/he doesn’t notice it, don’t. Do that, and you’re golden.
In other words, don’t omit anything s/he notices, but don’t add anything s/he doesn’t notice. It really is that simple. The only roadblock is that you have to believe it’s that simple.
Believing it’s that simple is easier to do if you remember the story isn’t important. It’s only a few minutes’ or hours’ entertainment.
Free Archives Still Available
For any writers out there who are not aware, I have four years of TNDJ archives available in fully searchable PDF files.
And they’re free. You only have to email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com and ask for them.
The archives are a treasure trove of information on the craft of writing fiction. Those particular four years include almost every topic I’ve ever covered in TNDJ.
This particular set of archives is like being set loose in the How to Write Fiction section of any major bookstore. Just sayin’.
Of Interest