Lurking in the Shadows

Dust off that dialogue! Exercise those verbs. Pull up a perplexing plot. And if a needed word doesn’t exist, create it!

The path through the woods is broad, well-traveled, well lighted with no twists and turns. You know where the road began and you’ve got a pretty good idea of where it ends. If, however,  you find yourself smack in the middle of those same woods and you can’t even find which way to go; trees crowd against each other so thick they block out the sun, long, bare branches reach toward you like bony fingers, and you can hear someone or something panting behind you, which scenario sparks the imagination?

Libraries and bookstores overflow with a bounty of books. With so many to choose from, readers can afford to be picky. I am too. Why waste my time meeting characters that I don’t care about or wading through plots that are murky instead of mysterious?. Every writer wants his or her book to be the one that holds the reader spellbound and is remembered after the last page is turned. But the job isn’t easy. Writing may not be physically exhausting but it exercises a lot of brain power (does that kind of exercise use up the calories? One can only hope.) We have to hunt, search, rummage and beat the bushes for that elusive word that is a perfect fit for the puzzle we are creating. And, as I said, if you can’t find the word, make one up. “Snurl” is an example of a made-up word. A snurl combines “snarl’ with a curling of the lips. It would probably fit best on the face of a villain.

Every lead character has to have a problem and the way he or she solves it is what makes the book. Oh! By the way, the character has to be one the reader can understand or in some way, identify with, a person I can root for.  A few years ago I wrote a rhymed children’s story about a cat who was afraid of mice. “The mice are quick,” the cat meowed. “I could not catch a one. And they all would laugh at me because I cannot run.”

Poor Tom! I’m not much good at running either so I can sympathize. Fortunately, Tom met a spider who became his best friend. The spider inspired Tom to exercise until he was fit and trim. Tom became the Menace to Mousehood, the Bain of the Barnyard. And at the end, the spider gently poked in a moral: “When facing fear,”  she whispered, “He wins who only tries.” “Now I’m prepared,” Tom answered, “For I’ll always exercise.”

In the third Darcy/Flora (which, by the way, is in the editing stage), the book begins with dialogue from Darcy “What on earth are you talking about, Cub?” I asked the big red-faced man who jumped off the seat of his dirt mover. “What did you mean ‘there’s something in the well’?”   

And so begins the trail through a figurative forest with lots of twists and turns;  a long-buried secret lurking in the shadows, warnings, dangers and narrow escapes. Hopefully, the reader will be so intrigued, he/she will come along for the journey.

A special thanks to Joyce Oroz for Thursday’s interview on her blog: authorjoyceoroz.blogspot.com