Friday, March 21, 2014

Springing Into Action - A Writing Lesson

Hi--I was thinking about Spring because it officially arrived yesterday. From that thought came the idea of springing into action.

If your character springs into action by kicking a golf ball in your story, that golf ball and action has to have meaning. Duh. So what the heck does THAT mean?

1) The action could show that your character is upset or angry and taking it out on the golf ball.
2) The golf ball may indicate setting, placing your character on the golf course.
3) The action may show that your character is the 'bad guy' and is cheating. This could be an indication of his or her lack of, humph, character and build to what happens later in the story.
4) The golf ball may be used later as a murder weapon in a thriller or mystery, as a comedy prop in a humorous story, as a 'remember when' in a slice-of-life story. And so on. You have foreshadowed by placing it into the story to be used later.

I forget who said it, but this is true: A good writer wastes no words.

What do you think?




2 comments:

  1. I totally agree! If an action doesn't have some kind of meaning in the story, it doesn't belong there.

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