The Thing About Writing…

Writing is an exercise in imagination. I write in scenes and, in order to write a scene effectively, I have to be there. I have to see, feel, and smell whatever is happening at that moment. That can be exhausting but I want my readers to see, feel, and smell what I do.

This involves using the right words in the right way to get across what I’m aiming for. Writing is leaving what’s going on at the moment and jumping into a whole new reality created only in the mind of the writer and the reader.

Not only must a writer create vivid scenes, those scenes have to be important and lead to a satisfying conclusion. Clues are dropped which point toward the solution of the problem. Who is that dastardly killer? A clue may point to a character that the reader loves to hate or it may point to a sweet little old lady without an enemy in the world. Clues are important but some of them are also false. The thing of it is, when the bad guy is discovered, the reader must agree that this is fitting. The reader must never feel cheated or disappointed by the way a story ends.

Each scene builds tension. Oh well, there are scenes which are brief respites to give everybody a chance to draw a breath–that all important coffee and discussion with a friend, the pure joy of a sunlit morning filled with bird song, but even beneath the tranquility is the ever-present tension.

Whether a writer sits gazing into space searching for just the right word or taps the keyboard for hours at a time, she is working. But, that’s okay because the thing about writing is that writing is fun!