By Adele Annesi
Word for Words is by author Adele Annesi. For Adele's website, visit Adele Annesi.
In the last post, we considered how the right details can draw readers into a story, especially one that spans genres. To practice the art and craft of detail selection, try this exercise, based partly on a technique called "dreamstorming," from Robert Olen Butler's From Where You Dream.
Bring a pen and pad of paper (not your laptop or other e-device) to a quiet place — it could be a room in the house, or out in your car or to the local park. Quiet, in this sense, is more about being away from technology and anybody who's likely to interrupt. Close your eyes for a few moments (sunglasses help if you'd rather keep a low profile). Open them and jot down the first things you notice — but only jot, just sensory perceptions, like these:
Amber stripes of afternoon sunlight
[Jewel tone] drapes
[Children] laughing, playing [games]
Peach-colored clouds
[Pale blue] sky
Fading light
[Pine trees] stretch [upward]
Sit for a moment, not looking at your list but taking in your surroundings. Then go back over the list and replace any ambiguous words. Examples above are in brackets.
Next to each phrase, add another phrase describing your emotional response to the sensory perception. Now, of the phrases you've written, arrange them in an order — it could be less intense to most intense emotion, or the reverse, or from the top to the bottom of your field of vision, or the reverse. See if you can craft a flash fiction or creative nonfiction piece from what you've written.
If you'd like to share what you've created, email me. Happy writing!
As a former Scholastic editor, I'm interested in classic stories, particularly those with good illustrations. While visiting friends over the Thanksgiving weekend, I saw in their bookshelves the golden anniversary edition of author Kenneth Grahame's 1909 landmark The Wind in the Willows published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1959 with gallery quality illustrations by Ernest H. Shepard, and a lesson on the art and craft of writing in the preface by Frances Clarke Sayers.
Sayers said this:
"Much of the success of his [Shepard's] mingling of two worlds is due to Kenneth Graham's inspired choice of detail. With a sureness that never transgresses the actuality of either world, he instinctively selects the appropriate object which makes the animal human. When Mole is being traced by Rat, having foolishly gone off to the wild wood on his own, it is not by his paw print that Rat indentifies Mole's trail, but by the imprint of his galoshes!"
The key to detail is select that which doesn't transgress the "actuality of either world." For writers who are blending worlds or genres, look for the appropriate object that identifies one world with the other, in this case shoeprints instead of paw prints.
Tip: What story are you working on that blends two genres or worlds? Consider how you can mingle the two in a way that connects one with the other without abrogating either. Share your results with us.
