Occasionally I mention that one of my favorite authors is Marion Zimmer Bradley, who won awards for The Mists of Avalon and wrote a long series of books set on a world with telepathic humans and many alien races and star ships. MZB passed away some years back, and there is some controversy over her personal life which you can read about elsewhere. Regarding her writing, it is impossible for me to pick up a book of hers and not find craft-level gems within it.
I'm re-reading one of her later books as a pleasure-read (Exile's Song) and while it's not her best work it'll do, and I'm still amazed at all the useful tips within, the tools she had in her toolkit. Basically, she had built an amazing toolkit to draw from.
OK. Separate to all of that, elsewhere, we were chatting about show/tell and how to write emotion into the page without telling and the role of interiority and all that, and how do you pull off writing emotion without telling? It has been a struggle for me to get the emotional cues onto the page. This is a challenge I must conquer. My goal is to include an emotional cue in my current project at least once every 80-100 words. This feels impossible to me, but it is the benchmark set in The Best-seller's Code so I figure it's what I'll try to hit.
How to place an emotional cue in every 80-100 words? Surely it con't be done!
Imagine my delight last night to see six emotional cues in the following 100 words somewhere in the middle of Exile's Song:
There's a lot more going on in those words--bolstering the 'inner journey' with actions, internal debate, and setting and so on. But I had to simply sit back and take notice of all the lovely emotions running through. And I thought I'd share it here in case anyone has other tricks and tips and thoughts.
Have a lovely Thursday, lovelies.
I'm re-reading one of her later books as a pleasure-read (Exile's Song) and while it's not her best work it'll do, and I'm still amazed at all the useful tips within, the tools she had in her toolkit. Basically, she had built an amazing toolkit to draw from.
OK. Separate to all of that, elsewhere, we were chatting about show/tell and how to write emotion into the page without telling and the role of interiority and all that, and how do you pull off writing emotion without telling? It has been a struggle for me to get the emotional cues onto the page. This is a challenge I must conquer. My goal is to include an emotional cue in my current project at least once every 80-100 words. This feels impossible to me, but it is the benchmark set in The Best-seller's Code so I figure it's what I'll try to hit.
How to place an emotional cue in every 80-100 words? Surely it con't be done!
Imagine my delight last night to see six emotional cues in the following 100 words somewhere in the middle of Exile's Song:
Margaret turned and looked at his triumphant expression in disbelief as rain began to pour down on them. "So what are you planning? Are you going to try to rape me?" She could not keep the disdain from her voice, nor the anger. If she had been on foot, she would have used the self-defense techniques she had learned at University, but horseback was no place for that. She struggled to contain her emotions. Dorilys tossed her head and danced, jerking away so that Gabriel lost his hold on Margaret's arm.
The man gave a gasp, and all the color faded from his face. "Of course not." He looked horrified, as if he had just realized how his actions might be construed.
There's a lot more going on in those words--bolstering the 'inner journey' with actions, internal debate, and setting and so on. But I had to simply sit back and take notice of all the lovely emotions running through. And I thought I'd share it here in case anyone has other tricks and tips and thoughts.
Have a lovely Thursday, lovelies.
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