Set the Scene, Part Two: The Reactions

In part one I discussed how to create a vivid setting with clear, brief details. But no matter how many fantastic details you have, and no matter how clear your scene is, you're still missing something if you don't have your characters interact, in some way, with their environment. That's why today's post, part two of three, is about

The Reactions

of characters, and how they can be used to not only further describe the scene, but also to characterize.

Things are filtered through your point of view character before they get to the reader, and so the reader's impression of the scene is generally going to be swayed in the direction of the POV character's thoughts.

Take a look at the following examples, all written from different points of view but all about the same setting:

Example 1

I threw down my bag and glanced around the apartment. Hopelessly, pathetically tiny. Who lived in places like this? Midgets? I swore the walls moved closer together every time I blinked. I'd have to tape my eyes open, because if it got much smaller, I'd be smashed between the walls with no C3-PO or R2D2 to save me.

Example 2

I set my bag down as I looked around the apartment. It was small, but not unbearable. And surely mirrors would make it seem larger. Yes, lots and lots of mirrors. And maybe if I painted the walls a light green, or maybe blue. My home wouldn't be a claustrophobic trap, not if I had anything to do with it.

Example 3

I closed the door behind me and nodded when I heard the lock click. I glanced around--the room around me was blessedly small, with no places for shadows or gaping chasms. I shuddered at that thought--who needed that much...empty? Who would want to be surrounded by endless, suffocating nothing? The walls hugged me, protective arms that shielded me from the outside.

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Take a second and read those again. The examples all take place in a small apartment, but the reactions of the characters are wildly different, and thus our perceptions of the apartment are different.

In the first, our POV character hates the smallness of the room and because of the character's comments, we feel the claustrophobia. The character is resentful and likely a complainer.

In the second, the character is okay with the smallness, but is eager to improve it and fix up the space. Because the character sees the smallness as reversible, it doesn't seem as bad. This character is likely a fixer-upper, progressive kind of person.

The third character is clearly agoraphobic, and welcomes the tiny apartment as a haven from the outside. The apartment feels tiny to us (or at least to me) but doesn't feel uncomfortable because the character sees it as just the opposite.

Use your descriptive skills, but remember that you can filter your description through your point of view character's eyes to both characterize and alter your reader's perception of the setting.

Activity:

Write three paragraphs about a setting of your choice, filtering it through a different POV character each time. How does your description change? How does it stay the same?

Question for the comments:

How do you think filtering description through the POV character helps the story?

Napoleon’s Protégés

Before I kick off today's post, I'd like to say a big HELLO! to my two new followers! Glad to have you. Also, I got some great feedback on yesterday's post--be sure to check out part two tomorrow and part three on Thursday.

Oh, I've added a list of upcoming posts to the sidebar, underneath the about me. I'll be updating that at the beginning of each week, so you can check it out and see what I've got coming up. :)

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Have you ever noticed the supreme egotism that a lot of writers have? I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just saying that a lot of us writerly types seem to have it. I know I do--a few friends of mine even call me Napoleonette.

It goes with the job, I think. We writers, it seems to me, either really, really despise our work or we think it's the best thing ever and that we are the epitome of writerly awesome. While it may be unbelievably egotistical to think so, I personally believe that it's better than the alternative. Self depreciating helps nobody.

Another reason it's good to be a little bit of an egotist is that writers should think of themselves first when it comes to quality of writing. I know from personal experience here that if you're not invested in your project and you don't write the story you want to write, everybody else can tell and it won't really get you anywhere. I believe the best way to go about it is to write for yourself first, and then go on to think of the readers. You can clean up your mistakes in a project you love, but if you hate the story, you'll probably find yourself not caring how it turns out.

In short, don't be afraid to be an egotist. You're a writer, after all. It goes with the territory. ;)

Question for the comments:

How do you think egotism helps (or hinders, or both) writers?

Set the Scene, Part One: The Look

In the past, I've gone on and on about characters, dialogue, story...all that good stuff. I haven't really paid much attention to setting. But setting is just as important as the rest. In fact, I like to treat it as its own character. You have as many, if not more, things to think about with setting as with the people who populate it.

This three-part series of posts is geared toward helping figure out what to do with settings. Today's post is...

The Look

Readers need good, strong details to make your fictional world clear to them, so they can see it in their mind's eye. But a lot of readers will skip over long paragraphs of setting description--any description, really. A good strategy is to hit 'em with a few details that really pack a punch. But how?

You don't have to describe every little thing in perfect detail. Get in a sentence or two about the entire setting, and then zoom in on details that you have selected to emphasize. Give an overview, then point out details that drive it home. Say you have a setting that's in the bad part of town. You could do something akin to the following (I've highlighted the overview statement in blue and the supporting details in purple):

"The house was in one of the worst parts of town, where many of the buildings were done in bright colors and you expected to hear gunfire at any moment. Dogs barked at my car as I passed, and people lounged on their porches, some smoking, many shooting me evil looks."

Granted, it was a quick example, but doesn't this paint a clear picture of the bad part of town? I didn't point out every little detail, and yet I still, I believe, provided a good look at the scene. Most readers have seen the bad part of town, whether by driving through it, living in it, or seeing it on TV, and can most likely fill in the rest of the details.

It's the same with the posh part of town, with the local supermarket, with the doctor's office, the zoo, a school, an office. Give a good overview of what it looks like, zero in on a few strong details that emphasize it, and then sprinkle other small details throughout the narrative and dialogue. It's the same with setting as it is with people--you don't need to describe every last thing. Give the reader a few knockout details and let their brains do the rest.

Activity:

Pick any of the locations I mentioned in the above paragraph and write a few sentences describing your choice. Carefully select details that get the picture across without bogging everything down.

Question for the comments:

There are lots of ways to describe a scene--this is just my favorite. How do you go about describing your settings without making your scenes drag?

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Coming up in part two: The Reactions--how characters' reactions to setting can help with characterization.

Saturday Plans

Hello, hello, everyone, and happy Saturday! The last remnants of last night's snow party are melting as I type, and my snowman is looking a little sad and melty. But, man, was it fun. We went out there at about ten, ten thirty and I didn't come in until midnight. You can read all about it here and see the pictures at my mom's blog, here.

Anyway, now that that's over, I'm going to be spending the day working on some bloggy maintenance--I'm going to go back and re-tag all my old posts, tweak the layout, and experiment with a three column layout. If you pop in, don't freak out--it will all be back to normal soon, I promise.

When I finish that, I'm going to try and finish revising chapter one of tSotD, and maybe start working on chapter two. Hopefully I can get that far. Wish me luck. :)

So what are you guys up to today?

Snow and tSotD

Happy Friday, everyone! How are you this fine evening? I'm great, and I'm mondo excited because they said it might snow this weekend. Living in southern Mississippi and being originally from central Florida, I don't exactly see snow that often. So I'm hoping we get some! It's cold enough, but conditions aren't quite right. Yet.

[Update: Snow! Snow! Snow! SNOW! SNOW!!! SNOWSNOWSNOWSNOWSNOWSNOWSNOWSNOW!!!!! It's SNOWING!!!! YAY!!!!]

And now for something completely different.

Since I've been on a revisions and characterization kick lately, and since I've been doing a lot of tips-tricks-opinions posts, I thought I'd throw out a little something-something that's a bit different, just to shake it up a bit. How do you guys feel about a WiP meme?

1. When did you start writing your current WiP?

12:00 am on November 1, 2008. It was my NaNo '08 novel. :)

2. Where does your WiP take place?

The majority of it takes place in another world, in the country of Adonia--a good portion of it in the Freyfeld Ruins, which, by the way, are completely awesome.

3. Who is/are the main character/s of your WiP?

Twins Valerian and Astra. Who, it must be said, kick some serious butt. Especially Astra.

4. Describe your main character(s) in one word.

Valerian: Cautious. Astra: Determined.

5. Open up your WiP to a random place and copy the first sentence you see.

“So? Just because somebody's related to a rotten person doesn't mean that they're bad.”

6. If you were going to have lunch with one of your WiP's secondary characters, who would it be and why?

Always a tough question. I think I'd pick Bran, because he's a great storyteller and can tell really good jokes. Plus he reminds me of my uncle, who rocks.

7. What do you consider your WiP's theme song and why?

Policy of Truth, by Depeche Mode. The lines "You had something to hide/should've hidden it/shouldn't you?/And now you're not satisfied/with what you're being put through" sort of sparked the idea that eventually became the story. The song really doesn't have much to do with the story at this point, but it's to blame for sparking my imagination.

8. What do you consider your main character's theme song?

Oh, man, this is hard. I think, for Valerian I'd pick The Red by Chevelle. For Astra, maybe something like Daylight Dancer by Lacuna Coil.

9. What's your favorite thing about your WiP?

I love the way the secondary characters interact with not only my main characters, but each other. They just work together so well, even when they're trying to kill each other, if you know what I mean. I don't mean that they're buddy-buddy, I mean that they play off of each other and for each other so well that the story seems to mesh better, to me. If that makes sense.

10. If you're WiP were to be made into a movie, who would you pick to play your main character? Your villain?

Aw, man, I don't know. I don't think about actors. I honestly don't know.

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So...yeah. If any of you guys do the meme, let me know! I'd love to read it. :) Have a good weekend!

How to Revise, How to Revise...

Jennifer Shirk (hi, Jennifer!) commented on yesterday's post and said that she'd never heard of an Editing Bay before. That made me think about all of the different random strategies that I use to work my revisions and edits. I have several, and today I thought I'd share a few of the ones I've used.

Sound like fun? I thought so.

1. The "Whole Hog" Method

This is the one I don't really use--just start hacking away at the whole manuscript, either printed or on the computer. It's a lot of work, and, personally, I think it's kind of daunting. But hey, it works for some people.

2. The Editing Bay

One of my personal favorites. In this one, I take one scene and copy it into a second document that I've saved as "Editing Bay" and work on small sections at a time. I just save it in that document and paste it back into the manuscript when I've finished. It's one of my favorites.

3. Print, Edit, Plug

I've just started working with this one. It's pretty much the Editing Bay strategy, but printed. I print out the section (usually a half-chapter or so) that I want to work on and, using my color coded system of pens (red for grammar/spelling/etc., green for sentence structure, and blue for things that are strictly story--plot holes and things like that), I make notes and corrections. When I'm done, I plug the edits and revisions into the document on my computer, read through it, make any additional changes, and then shoot it off to my beta. I LOVE this method. I think it may be my favorite.

4. Notes

This one I've worked with and I quite like. I use Microsoft Word's notes feature and make notes on why something isn't working, or where I need to "up it," or other things like that. Then I take all of that and plug scenes into the Editing Bay (it copies the notes, too) and break it up into the small bits and work with my notes to revise. It's pretty sweet.

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So, yeah, that's what I do. Sometimes I'll combine 'em or use something completely different on a whim, but basically those are the four that I'll stick with. What do you think?

Question for the comments:

How do you revise?