Writers Tricks of the Trade Volume 6, Issue 5 | Page 18

E IS FOR EMOTIONS AND EXPERIENCE
EXCERPT FROM WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE BOOK
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE ABCS OF WRITING FICTION
One of the most important qualities a fictional character can possess is to 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.
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 beorhuddled
adverbs together in the same sentence, the reader begins wonder how many
more of these they can endure.
Tap into your own impressions rather than 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.
Creating 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 all should have one of those—and flip to the
section you’ve set aside for just such visions. Assume you imagined hair badly in need of care. Maybe you would
note: her blonde hair reminded me of a field of hay long past the time it should have been harvested.

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2016

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WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE