Setting up the mood in a scene requires the right words, but it also requires a setting that can boost your mood impact. Think of all of the scary movies where the heroine is walking down the dark basement stairs and someone is waiting there. We are all screaming, ‘No! Don’t go down there!” Of course she doesn’t listen. Then there is the moan of old stairs. The electricity goes out. The music or noises send shivers up your spine. Is this by accident? Absolutely not. How about the moment when the hero is going to propose? The candle light, roses, and soft music. Warmth and light fill the scene with a building sense of joy. All of these tricks are used by movies every day. We should use these […]
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Quick Skills: Inserting the 5 Senses into your Storyworld
I am a “List and Schedule” girl – I like to have a checklist when I build a scene to make sure I’ve inserted everything into it that I can to give it the strongest emotional impact. One of those checklists, and something commonly missed are the five senses. To really draw your Storyworld, you need to use your five senses to engage the reader’s emotions. Sight. Smell. Sound. Touch.Taste. When you walk into a room, all your senses are a part of your understanding of that scene. Before you sit down to write, make a sensory list of everything you perceive in that scene. You’ll use it as a “cheat sheet” as you build the scene. Sight, of course, is what a scene is usually built on, but remember […]
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Conversations: How to build emotion into your Storyworld
A glorious blue sky beckoned me onto the porch of the coffee shop where a light summer breeze rustled the impatiens in the containers, the tangy scent of deep friend donuts scenting the air. I took a sip of coffee, waiting for Sally, watching the lazy caress of the waves upon the rocky shoreline, listened to gulls cheering on the tourists. Today, I would talk to Sally about using storyworld to build emotions. A great story is about connecting with the reader at an emotional level. We want them to feel what the character feels and thus engage in their experience on the page. Storyworld helps build the emotional engagement. How? With the right use of nouns and verbs, and the way they are woven together, the reader receives an […]
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Quick Skills: POV in Storyworld example.
Yesterday, Sally and I talked about the importance of describing your Storyworld through the Point of View of the character. I used an example from one of my favorite books, Wiser than Serpents. This scene is from the POV of the hero. See if you can pinpoint the way his attitudes are woven through the scene to give it more life. ***** He’d never eaten deep fried frog on a stick, but David Curtiss was a patriot, and he’d do just about anything for his country. “Shei Shei,” he said as he took the delicacy from the vendor, fished out a New Taiwan Dollar and dropped it into the vendor’s hand. He wondered what might leave a worse taste in his mouth, fried frog, or meeting a man who had […]
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