On Your Mark . . .
What I said last night about being unable to find the way into a scene seems to have resonated with a few people, as illustrated by Anne Frasier's comment and some emails I've had. It has made me think about how to approach a scene -- or how I approach them.
My beloved copy-editor, Judi Cross, who has tangled with many of my books over the last 17 or so years, has often pointed out to me that I garble my tenses. And I don't do it to annoy her, regardless of what she thinks. I do it so I can plunge myself, my characters and my readers immediately into the action at hand.
Sometimes the only way to do that is to dive in in the middle of the scene, right where the tension is high, and then back off just a little to develop the setting and the mind-set of the characters going into it after. This, of course, makes me write in past perfect, which is the part that drives Judi understandably nuts, but she's learned to be a good sport about it. And if things get too garbled, she makes me take another look and straighten it all out chronologically.
But I do think that, despite the dependence on past perfect, jumping straight in -- even with a brief backpedal -- is a good way to do it.
It's easier, of course, when it can just progress chronologically. But sometimes the set-up is too long and boring that way. And a writer needs to drag readers into the action first, then give them the set up, which they wouldn't have had the patience for if they didn't already feel the tension.
I've been aware of this again as I've tried "tweaking" (editor term for what a writer might call "gutting") a scene at the beginning of Spence and Sadie. There is a long "set up" when the book starts. I didn't want to start it there because of the length of the set up. But setting it when the conflict was about to start meant I had to go back and do too much set up later. So I needed to hint at tension from the start.
I've got a first line now that I think will do it. As long as readers keep it in mind while I'm doing the rest of the set up, we'll be okay.
Or my editor can think of another way to accomplish the same thing. That's her job, after all. And she's good at it. I'm curious to see what she thinks.
In the meantime, at last . . . chapter nine.
My beloved copy-editor, Judi Cross, who has tangled with many of my books over the last 17 or so years, has often pointed out to me that I garble my tenses. And I don't do it to annoy her, regardless of what she thinks. I do it so I can plunge myself, my characters and my readers immediately into the action at hand.
Sometimes the only way to do that is to dive in in the middle of the scene, right where the tension is high, and then back off just a little to develop the setting and the mind-set of the characters going into it after. This, of course, makes me write in past perfect, which is the part that drives Judi understandably nuts, but she's learned to be a good sport about it. And if things get too garbled, she makes me take another look and straighten it all out chronologically.
But I do think that, despite the dependence on past perfect, jumping straight in -- even with a brief backpedal -- is a good way to do it.
It's easier, of course, when it can just progress chronologically. But sometimes the set-up is too long and boring that way. And a writer needs to drag readers into the action first, then give them the set up, which they wouldn't have had the patience for if they didn't already feel the tension.
I've been aware of this again as I've tried "tweaking" (editor term for what a writer might call "gutting") a scene at the beginning of Spence and Sadie. There is a long "set up" when the book starts. I didn't want to start it there because of the length of the set up. But setting it when the conflict was about to start meant I had to go back and do too much set up later. So I needed to hint at tension from the start.
I've got a first line now that I think will do it. As long as readers keep it in mind while I'm doing the rest of the set up, we'll be okay.
Or my editor can think of another way to accomplish the same thing. That's her job, after all. And she's good at it. I'm curious to see what she thinks.
In the meantime, at last . . . chapter nine.
posted by Anne McAllister at 4:13 PM
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