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Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Disaster Strikes in Many Forms
I'm particularly fond of disaster.
Especially when it concerns my heroine.
I like to write the darker side of fiction. When I'm writing, angst just automatically inserts itself into my paragraphs. The wilder and darker the scene the more my muse rubs her grubby little hands together and giggles gleefully. I believe that when writing disaster it should be written as though you were seeing it through your own eyes. You should be able to smell the burning building, the strong stench of blood. You should be able to feel the pain, the bone sticking through the skin, the way the blood feels rubbing between her fingers. The way her eyes burn trying to hold back the tears, the way her nose keeps running but then she realizes her nose is bleeding. You should feel the moment she pulls the trigger, walks out of the building and takes that first fresh breath of air into her lungs. You should feel the relief when she collapses against the hero, and cries those tears into his shirt and pulls the strength she needs from him. If she would've hesitated one second she wouldn't be standing there. If he would've been one second late, he wouldn't have made it to be there at the precise second. It's all about the scenery, the timing and emotion.
Disaster hinges all on a perfected second. One missed step in a disaster and all goes to hell in a hand basket. No laughter. No jokes. Pure hellish disasters leaves you forgetting to breathe while you reading along. Well written disasters has you reading pages like you're a prized thoroughbred racing in the Triple Crown. It leaves you gasping. It leaves you jumping out of your chair, screaming at the book, "OMG! OMG! OMG!". You can't put it down even if it's four am and you have a meeting at seven. And to write a disaster scene like this, you have to write the perfect lead in. You have to lead your reader right into the scene like you have them on a short leash. In this disaster you have a moment of truth so profound that a reader goes, "I should've known! How did I not get that!"
To get that perfect lead you have to have the ultimate twist. I won't give any details or examples because I don't wanna rat out anyone accidentally or even myself, but try to think of something that you would never think possible and make it happen. Stretch reality as far as you possibly can, make it believable and there is your perfect storm (the lead in). It's a moment that the hero/heroine looks in the face of what could be and does the opposite. They do the unthinkable. That's what made them your hero/heroine in the first place. You can't predict when the disaster is going to happen or how your characters will react (we can only manipulate to our satisfaction :) but the fact that we know our hero/heroine will try to save the day is a given. But will they do it victoriously? It's all up to you and the disaster.
Now, what is the best disaster scene you've ever read and what is something you think about when writing your disaster? Or do you not prefer disaster scenes?
Especially when it concerns my heroine.
I like to write the darker side of fiction. When I'm writing, angst just automatically inserts itself into my paragraphs. The wilder and darker the scene the more my muse rubs her grubby little hands together and giggles gleefully. I believe that when writing disaster it should be written as though you were seeing it through your own eyes. You should be able to smell the burning building, the strong stench of blood. You should be able to feel the pain, the bone sticking through the skin, the way the blood feels rubbing between her fingers. The way her eyes burn trying to hold back the tears, the way her nose keeps running but then she realizes her nose is bleeding. You should feel the moment she pulls the trigger, walks out of the building and takes that first fresh breath of air into her lungs. You should feel the relief when she collapses against the hero, and cries those tears into his shirt and pulls the strength she needs from him. If she would've hesitated one second she wouldn't be standing there. If he would've been one second late, he wouldn't have made it to be there at the precise second. It's all about the scenery, the timing and emotion.
Disaster hinges all on a perfected second. One missed step in a disaster and all goes to hell in a hand basket. No laughter. No jokes. Pure hellish disasters leaves you forgetting to breathe while you reading along. Well written disasters has you reading pages like you're a prized thoroughbred racing in the Triple Crown. It leaves you gasping. It leaves you jumping out of your chair, screaming at the book, "OMG! OMG! OMG!". You can't put it down even if it's four am and you have a meeting at seven. And to write a disaster scene like this, you have to write the perfect lead in. You have to lead your reader right into the scene like you have them on a short leash. In this disaster you have a moment of truth so profound that a reader goes, "I should've known! How did I not get that!"
To get that perfect lead you have to have the ultimate twist. I won't give any details or examples because I don't wanna rat out anyone accidentally or even myself, but try to think of something that you would never think possible and make it happen. Stretch reality as far as you possibly can, make it believable and there is your perfect storm (the lead in). It's a moment that the hero/heroine looks in the face of what could be and does the opposite. They do the unthinkable. That's what made them your hero/heroine in the first place. You can't predict when the disaster is going to happen or how your characters will react (we can only manipulate to our satisfaction :) but the fact that we know our hero/heroine will try to save the day is a given. But will they do it victoriously? It's all up to you and the disaster.
Now, what is the best disaster scene you've ever read and what is something you think about when writing your disaster? Or do you not prefer disaster scenes?
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14 comments:
*LOL* God, I love your titles. You do the same thing I do--pick the most random word out of your blog and use that as your title, even though it has little to do with the actual blog!
Disaster moments=BLACK MOMENT. Oh, sure, there is only supposed to be one "black moment" where ALL is lost, but life (and usually books) are nothing but a series of black moments. Where you're locked in a cell on your own ship--and someone starts shooting cannon--at your cell. "Stop blowing holes in my ship!"--but it doesn't do any good. No one listens to you anyway.
I love the idea of making your characters make the "desperate" decision--the one you couldn't predict they'd make--although it does have to be carefully balanced. It can't be something the character would "never" do--well, it CAN (and it probably SHOULD BE)--but by the time you arrive to the decision making, it has to be a decision the character is willing to make. The character has rationalized why that decision is a good idea now--OR acknowledge it's still a bad idea, but by God, his kiss is so delicious, she just doesn't give a crap anymore. To hell with what other people say!
Thank god you know the technical terms of what I was trying to say! Yes, yes, yes, the infamous black moment in the novel where everything you worked to build gets destroyed.
And I love totally random titles. I can't title anything worth a snot anyway.And I was running low on creativity last night at midnight. I was half brain dead. About 10 last night I remembered today was supposed to be Wednesday and voila, today is my day! Woe is me. I promise to do better next time. Professional... I am not.
A rose by any other name stills smells as sweet. Disaster moments are exactly the same as Black moments. They have all sorts of names for it--don't knock yourself.
I think my favorite is: "Oh, yes, it can get worse and it just did moment where all hope is lost" moment. This was prefaced by the moment called, "It can't get any worse than this moment" moment.
Great blog! :) And it totally made me think of pacing, which is so important in novels--which you have in spades--and which *I* tend to slow by talking about laundry or inner monologues.
I love black moments. They make me turn the page for more, more, more. I can't remeber the best black moment I've ever read, but I love the suspense, and emotion of the black moment. Like you I write from the POV of the character. I want to convey all of their senses on the page. A great black moment pulls the reader inside the story, as if they are experiencing the moment right beside the character. And you are so right...I love moments that the unexpected happens and you are in awe.
I have control issues so pacing is relatively easy for me. But dialogue is something I rather suck at. You have dialogue (and narrative) writing under your belt. You're fabulous at it. Your dialogue is perfect. I aspire to do dialogue as well as you. Even though it's witty and sarcastic most of the time. Much like you.
I was reading your post and couldn't help the images that were coming to me: those from some scenes in MD and WCA. I think in 50 years from now i'll have forgotten my name and how to pee but I'll still remember those scenes. And the feeling I experienced reading them. And that's probbaly what drew me to your writing too. Your ability to make me want to throw up at the darkness and violence but leaving me unable to drop the story or skip the scene. I always thought I wouldn't cope well with darkness and angst but since then, the more I read the more I like it. I loved that scene with Bella when Havers had to destitch her eyes. The ones in the Tomb too. And others from JD Robb's Vengeance in death. Gruesome, graphic and ... I was gripped.
And I love being lead by an author and realising that I should have seen what was coming, that there were all the clues but I was too engrossed in the reading that my brain didn't register them enough. And then going backward rereading and telling myself "oh shit how did I miss this?"
Of course I don't know shit about writing aside from the fact that it's damn hard so it's just a humble reader's opinion.
L, I could go into a moment like that for me while I was reading a book, (TS as you recall) and I knew it was coming but I still jumped outta my seat and started squealing "OMG OMG I can't believe that just happened!"
Black moments are my favorite moments in a book. I know I'm very warped.
Harlot, I did get rather gruesome in MD at the end. I had no idea whta I was doing either. It's one of those moments that the characters led me by the hand and showed me what needed to be written and I did it. Writing it from the reverse POV in the beginning of WCA was tougher than writing it the first time. Maybe it's the expectation of capturing a moment like that on paper. It's hard to write. There are a lot of elements to think about when writing that most people don't think about before sitting down a trying it out for themselves.
I humbly give my thanks for your compliments on my writing though. You listed my gruesome scenes right up there with JRW and NR. I've got a long way to go before I'm in that boat. And that's if Hellion doesn't pirate it first.
Oh, I suspect that devilish Boatswain Terri or Powder Monkey Lisa will pirate the boat before us, Sin. Those two are like that.
You do, do angst and the dark well, babe. Dialogue is superfluous when you're looking at the guy who just saved you from death. You just give that LOOK and you just KNOW. Oh, yeah, you've got that in spades.
Oh my, your descriptions in this blog had me on the edge of my seat. The blood, the trigger, the adrenaline rush. I thought I wrote angst but now I think I'm wrong. LOL!
I do love reading romantic suspense but I haven't read one in forever. And I don't read paras or horror so those I wouldn't know about. But those psychotic thrillers can suck me in. Brain is fried so I can't think of any specific examples right now but it's usually when I find out who the bad guy is and go "OMG! I can't believe it!!"
And how did I know Hellion would sneak in a line from POTC? LMAO!!!
Why thank you Terr. I rather think I can do better but as I said before it was midnight and my brain was mush. And we all write angst different. Yours is just as great as you think mine is. It's all about perception.
I'm still learning how to not overwrite, but this is another blog for another time. Maybe next week. You can overwrite a scene and blow it. You can underwrite a scene and blow it too. I should've mentioned this in the blog for today. Control. It's all about control and voice.
Yes, but dialogue is important in the other 330 pages written before that one scene, Hellion. I may be able to write one whole scene very well, but you write the whole picture very well. We all have strengths, we all have weaknesses. We just have to learn which ones to play up at the right time.
And I must say, your black moment was enough to make me grip the edge of the seat. Well written. You know that.
Very interesting I have to say. LOL. And so very very true. And you know by now that I love dark books. And angst. And all those things that makes you weep and bite your nails while you turn the pages, anxiously waiting to see what'll happen next.
Btw, you just brought all of those scenes back into my mind. You're amazing at making the reader picture your words.
Oh PI! You are so precious! Now that I bugged you to come visit us and made you comment, I feel kinda awful really. LOL
Thank you though. I think I have a talent for the morbid. We read a lot of the same things, PI. Though you aren't much for the baddy vamps. Tsk Tsk.
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