Drumroll. Trumpets. All other kinds of musical fanfare! I’m finally ready to announce…the Super Secret Project!
Find your voice. Wow your readers.
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Inspiration Monday: The Bradbury Version
This month in the InMon library, something a little different. But first, let’s look at last month’s submissions. This was a particularly good run, I think. I really enjoyed this serial from Tara, this well-placed replay from Kim, and another from Tara.
Now. What’s going on?
I’ve been dipping back into Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing, a brilliant, short, not-really-zen gem about finding and sustaining your writing inspiration. Bradbury wrote 1,000+ words a day, every day, from the age of 12, but it wasn’t until his twenties that he really started to find his voice. He says:
“…along through those years I began to make lists of titles, to put down long lines of nouns. Those lists were the provocations, finally, that caused my better stuff to surface. I was feeling my way toward something honest, hidden under the trapdoor on the top of my skull. The list ran something like this: THE LAKE. THE NIGHT. THE CRICKETS. THE RAVINE. THE ATTIC. THE BASEMENT. THE TRAPDOOR. THE BABY. THE CROWD. THE NIGHT TRAIN. THE FOG HORN. THE SCYTHE. THE CARNIVAL. THE CAROUSEL. THE DWARF. THE MIRROR MAZE. THE SKELETON.
“I was beginning to see a pattern in the list, in these words that I had simply flung forth on paper…I discovered my old love and fright having to do with circuses and carnivals. I remembered, and then forgot, and then remembered again, how terrified I had been when my mother took me for my first ride on a merry-go-round.”
That terror, he goes on to say, led him to write Something Wicked This Way Comes. He details several stories he eventually wrote based on most of the items on his list, including those that became The Martian Chronicles and Dandelion Wine. Then:
“In sum, a series of nouns, some with rare adjectives, which described a territory unknown, an undiscovered country, part of it Death, the rest Life. If I had not made up these prescriptions for Discovery I would never have become the jackdaw archaeologist or anthropologist that I am. That jackdaw who seeks bright objects, odd carapaces and misshapen femurs from the boneheaps of junk inside my head, where lay strewn the remnants of collisions with life as well as Buck Rogers, Tarzan, John Carter, Quasimodo, and all the other creatures who made me want to live forever.”
What strikes me about this (aside from, “good gravy, that man could write!”) is its similarity to the thing that originally inspired Inspiration Monday: the prompting method of my first true writing teacher, Miss Judy. She’d spout a list of phrases, long pauses in between, and we’d scribble ideas into our notebooks. They were simple phrases, not wordplay, but evocative. And (though in not quite as dark a way) they touched on the same wonder, intrigue and terror that Bradbury describes.
The magic is that the words are connected first with imagery and emotion. The scenes that get burned onto your brain, and the feelings deep down in your gut that, if you could only recreate them for your readers, might spark something equally familiar and hair-raising.
So here is my proposal
This month’s InMon assignment (and I don’t know if we’ll continue this, but let’s see where it goes), is to make our own lists. Reach back and find the things that frightened and fascinated us as children. Moments we loved and hated. Things that shocked us, stayed with us. Books and cartoons we were obsessed with, and were embarrassed to be obsessed with. We’ll keep each item as simple, short and evocative as the phrases above.
Post your list on your blog at the end of the month, and please leave me a link in the comments of this post. I’ll be trying the exercise along with you. Perhaps each list will only mean something to the person who created it. But I’m curious to see if the same words are evocative for the rest of us, maybe for different reasons.
The following month, we’ll each choose prompts from our own lists and write something. I’ll hash out the details as we get to them.
What do you say? Interested?
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Alan W.: Backwords
This InMon entry was sent to me by Alan W.
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Even Stephen Hawking had pretty much doomed time travel to the science fiction shelves despite being the only person on the planet that would have any concept of how it could be achieved anyway. No one had come to his party to confirm it, so that was that.
I read his book, “A Brief History of Time”, well… the first 8 pages anyway, that’s the extent of my understanding of all things scientific, but as a person who harboured the dream of becoming a published and world class author, my imagination held on to the concept with great hope.
I’ve been pounding away at this piece now for the better part of 6 months and had only achieved about 12,000 words. Not exactly the habits of a great author, but I wasn’t deterred by this; I’m a lazy shit at the best of times and my infrequent return to the pages of this “masterpiece” was always an occasion of great enthusiasm until something newer, shinier and more of a distraction caught my eye…and my magpie brain.
So as usual, I’m pouring words into the keyboard at a fair clip and constructing another scenario for Lasen, the hero of the story when, quite clearly, a voice said “Use the backword”.
I sat silently for a few seconds, trying to determine whether I’d actually heard the words or whether my train of thought in the story had strayed for just a moment and become audible.
They made no sense in the context of my current writing, so no it wasn’t Lasen speaking so I continued for one keystroke and the voice, this time, bolder, “It is Lasen speaking actually” and now an undercurrent of apprehension was evident in my chest.
“How can it be” I said, apparently and cautiously to myself.
“Just say the backword and I’ll tell you”
“I don’t know what the backword is”, and now I was starting to get freaked out. I was having a conversation with myself and it wasn’t me that was answering.
“It’s my name backwards; or any character in your book. Go on, say it”
I had to let this percolate into my logic and common sense and assess how I was going to proceed from here.
“Don’t think about it Alan, just say it. It has to be out loud”
“Then what happens Lasen?”
Logic and common sense had abandoned me and had decided to leave me to it, as they sprinted, screaming into the distance. I continued.
“You have to admit, talking to myself and being answered by some disembodied voice claiming to be the character I’m writing about isn’t exactly in the realms of sanity.”
“Maybe not in your world, but it’s about dimensions and the human race hasn’t even begun to grasp dimensions in a way that can be applied to the 3 dimensions that it lives in”
“So what’s the dimension you’re in?”
“The first paragraph you wrote alluded to it”
And now he was talking about this story. Could it get any stranger? I thought to myself
“Well it could, but I’m pretty sure I’m pushing the boundaries of your understanding. As you said earlier, you don’t really “get” science”
“Great. Now telepathy is a thing” and I could feel panic rising.
“Just part of the dimension. Look, I’m actually communicating from what you call the future and the reason I can do it is because I read your book.”
“I haven’t written one yet”
“But you did, or will anyway and in my dimension, characters can be made to exist, and I do. Your book was very popular and became what is termed “Creation”.
“Creation?”
“Think of it like how you make movies in your dimension”
And the fact that I had apparently become a famous author, according to the voice in my head, started to excite me.
“That’s it, get excited. You’re famous here and by saying the backword, you can get a taste of it now”
“Sounds promising Lasen” I said telepathically, and the idea was truly appealing
“Or should I say Nesal?” this time out loud.
Lasen looked at the words on the screen. How should he continue with the story? So he just typed…
“Alan was surprised to find that he was still in his study and unable to move”
“Lasen. Lasen… nothing” panic gripped his brain and that was all that his consciousness could perceive.
Lasen closed the lid on the laptop, looked out at the bright sunny day and decided to go exploring.
The End of the World: Friday
Rounding out the week. Happy Friday, everyone!
Catch up on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
It started in a way I didn’t expect. I guess no one did. At first, it seemed like some dark cosmic joke. We had just enough time to realize we didn’t have time. There wouldn’t be any save-the-planet mission. No watching the news, holding our breath to find out if we’d survive. Just time to come to terms with it. Like we were all terminal cancer patients, or death row inmates. But I realized, sitting in an old church more crowded than I’d ever seen it—the timing was perfect. It was a last chance, a now-or-never. When we’d each have to decide, once and for all, whether or not to be saved.
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What’s your verdict on voice #5?
6 Elements of Character Appearance that Go Way Beyond Eye Color
Image by DryHundredFear
A black fedora crouched low over his hooked nose and stiff blonde mustache. He hugged his fraying coat tightly around his body, as if he was afraid it would run off on him, like the second button had. But the really curious thing about the man was the half-carat diamond ring squeezed onto the little finger of his left hand.
Today’s topic comes to us from Alex T., who asks:
I was wondering how to pick how your characters look. I know it isn’t that important, but I’m a little stressed about it.
Oh, but Alex, you’re wrong! Character appearance, done right, is immensely important. It reveals character traits—there’s a reason mad scientists generally have unkempt hair.
Choosing your characters’ appearances is a matter of two things: deciding what you want to reveal about their personalities, and asking yourself the right questions.
- Physical Basics. Eye color, hair color, skin tone, build, age. Also known as the laundry list, this accomplishes very little for you. It allows your readers to picture a kind of doll, but not a person. Know these details (you can choose them based on the character’s ancestry and possibly class), but don’t focus on them. And for heaven’s sake, don’t write a whole paragraph just about the eyes.
- Distinguishing Features. Here’s where we get to the meat. Something noticeable about the character. A misshapen nose, a mole, a gap between the front teeth. This can relate deeply to their past: an old war injury, scars from an abusive relationship, laugh lines, or something they’ve been self-conscious about since birth.
- Type of Clothing. Clothing says a lot about your character’s personality, status, and even occupation. It can also do a lot for your setting. A business suit or space suit? Overalls or miniskirt? Denim jacket or a coat of purple dragon fur?
- Quality of Clothing. Is it old, new, designer, knockoff, handmaid, hand-me-down? And whichever it is, why? Does your character wish he had nicer clothes, or does he just not care? This says something about your character’s present and past. A man in expensive but old clothes may have lost a fortune. A girl in ill-fitting fashions from the last decade might be wearing something passed down from older sisters.
- Presentation. Is your character neat or sloppy? Pressed and buttoned or wrinkly and disheveled? A rich tomboy might wear expensive stockings covered in runs and grass stains. A poor but ambitious man might wear a second-hand suit that is always painstakingly pressed.
- Poise. Think about Heath Ledger’s Joker or Tony Shaloub’s Monk. Mannerisms make a huge difference in a character appearance and speak a lot to state of mind. Do they slouch, or stand straight, or point their nose in the air? Do they limp or shuffle or glide or skip? A confident person will stand tall and look straight at you. An anxious person might fidget and look at the floor.
One Final Rule of Thumb:
Don’t describe every detail. You are not reporting to a police sketch artist; you are giving your readers an impression. Pick a few key details and let your readers fill in the rest.
For instance, without looking back at the description at the beginning of this post, can you remember the color of the man’s coat? Black or grey, right? Right. Only, I never said what color it was. I gave you the color of the hat, but that detail allowed you to make an assumption about the coat, and probably the pants and shoes, too.
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Now that you know what your characters look like, here’s more help with describing them.
Writing in first person? Here’s how your narrator can describe himself.
Need help building your protagonist? Maybe you need to find his voice! Join us for Voice Week, September 22-26.
Got your own writing question? Drop it in the Suggestion Box.
6 Elements of Character Description that Go Way Beyond Eye Color
