Writers Tricks of the Trade Volume 5, Issue 5

PRESS “CONTROL” THEN CLICK “BUY” TO PURCHASE THE BOOK 8 REASONS AND WAYS TO non-fiction, and formats from trade paperback to hardcover. WORK WITH EMOTION MORGAN ST. JAMES 1. MAKE A FICTIONAL CHARACTER SEEM REAL TO THE READER. Forget just stringing together a series of words describing physical attributes and how the character carries out routine or off-the-chart situations—perhaps spiced with inner thoughts. There is more to creating someone with feelings and emotions and a physical presence. Doing that doesn’t have to be daunting. Because the reader sees events through the eyes of these players in the story, at all costs avoid moving paper dolls or overblown figures through the scenes. 2. PUT LIFE INTO PHYSICAL DESCRIPTIONS This is a place where adjectives, adverbs, similes and metaphors are your friends as long as they aren’t overused. Sprinkling them in the right places sparks the reader’s imagination. It allows them to draw parallels to familiar images and see them in their mind’s eye. Overuse them, however, and it minimizes everything. Why? Because with each new spouting of a simile, metaphor or more adjectives or adverbs than should ever be huddled together in the same sentence, the reader begins wonder how many more of these they can endure. 3. TAP INTO YOUR OWN IMPRESSIONS RATHER THAN USING CLICHÉS To avoid clichés, reach into your own experiences and picture things that impressed you. Put the image into words and apply it to something about your character. For example, the woman had shining blonde hair. If it was straight, did it just hang there or shimmer like a golden shawl? Why would I choose the simile of a golden shawl for this example? Because I pictured a former business partner and friend who had hair like that. I could never look at her without thinking of a golden silk shawl. Let’s say the hair isn’t straight, but curly. Is it in tight ringlets perhaps described as coiled little ringlets like the fur on a pampered poodle? Maybe this blonde hair undulates in luxurious waves reminiscent of waves kissed by the glow of the sun as they push toward shore. In each of these examples we picture a different person. And, every reader will have their unique vision of that person. Simply saying “her straight blonde hair” or “curly blonde hair” would never launch imagination in the same way. 4. CREATE YOUR OWN REFERENCE FILE So often these images are fleeting, triggered by something someone said, something we remembered or saw, but even with Herculean effort, we can’t pull them back when we need them. They lurk right at the edge of recognition, then slip away. One way to capture them is to keep a log. When an image like that pops into your mind, distinct images and emotions ride on their coattails, leaving you with a describable impression. Reach for the little spiral notebook—we SEPT - OCTOBER 2015 PAGE 16 THE RADIO SHOW IS PRESENTED BY WRITERS OF SOUTHERN NEVADA WATCH FOR NEWS ABOUT COLD COFFEE PRESS HTTP://WWW.COLDCOFFE EPRESS.COM WRITERS TRICKS OF THE TRADE  BLOG  BOOK  EZINE  RADIO SHOW  FACEBOOK Many of the archived radio shows now on You Tube WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE

Writers Tricks of the Trade Volume 5, Issue 5 | Page 26