On occasion I want to sit and talk about the technique of story. Lately I’ve been listening to The Stand, an epic by Stephen King. There are moments in this story that are absolutely brilliant simply because of how they are constructed. There are small moments, such as when he moves from the internal character voice to the external voice and the two are not the same and through that we get characterization. This is accomplished in a simple matter. He may write for example:
She asked, “What is that look on your face?” Tom saw it all going badly then. He thought about the many ways that he could explain the way he was looking at her; the possibilities through which he could explain away that hunger. Out loud he said, “You have something on your chin.”
See how the above presents a contrast that makes the scene more dynamic?
I’ve been thinking about those scene dynamics (ooh! that is now the official title of my eventual book on writing). I’ve been thinking about how I want to return to the world of fantasy but bring that modern sense of writing to the stage there and create a feel that at once shows you ‘this is not our when’ but feels familiar all the same. I’ve been thinking on this for months now as I get deeper and deeper into the sci fi writing that I am doing. It is so very different in concept than the fantasy from whence I started.
Some Thoughts:
- I’m serious about the Scene Dynamics thing… If y’all steal it I will point to this blog.
- On a personal note, the neck pain is horrendous. I’m excited to try to get in to a chiropractor tomorrow.