Okay, you are into writing your novel and the scene you are about to write is on a day that is dark and stormy. But to describe it as this (dark and stormy) would be a really bland, and boring, way to express this. Yeah? Yeah.
I saw this activity a few months ago on an author website, and even though I was too late to participate, I read through the many answers to see how creative and unique writers could say the same thing. I was most interested to learn how other writers, especially the published authors amongst the participants, handled this in the hopes of being able to analyse my own handling of setting the scene and creating the required mood, so that I might improve my novel writing skills. Only, the problem was, from my perspective, many of the writers who did participate deviated from the true purpose of the exercise. Where what was being asked was to write this setting, nearly all of the writers that participated instead used the sentence as a jump-off point and started to tell (or show) their own mini stories that they were suddenly inspired to write. Not what the exercise was calling for.
So I thought it might be fun if we revisited this common novel writing exercise here.
Published or unpublished, why not write a few sentences (or a paragraph or two) setting this scene: 'It is a dark and stormy day' in the comments section below, and allow other readers to gain insight into the technique of Showing, Not Telling, and the concept that the same thing can be expressed in many different ways (our writer's voice and style).
Note. I was going to go first... but as soon as I started to write, I developed instant writer's block. So I'll let you go first, and participate once I'm not so tired, okay.
I saw this activity a few months ago on an author website, and even though I was too late to participate, I read through the many answers to see how creative and unique writers could say the same thing. I was most interested to learn how other writers, especially the published authors amongst the participants, handled this in the hopes of being able to analyse my own handling of setting the scene and creating the required mood, so that I might improve my novel writing skills. Only, the problem was, from my perspective, many of the writers who did participate deviated from the true purpose of the exercise. Where what was being asked was to write this setting, nearly all of the writers that participated instead used the sentence as a jump-off point and started to tell (or show) their own mini stories that they were suddenly inspired to write. Not what the exercise was calling for.
So I thought it might be fun if we revisited this common novel writing exercise here.
Published or unpublished, why not write a few sentences (or a paragraph or two) setting this scene: 'It is a dark and stormy day' in the comments section below, and allow other readers to gain insight into the technique of Showing, Not Telling, and the concept that the same thing can be expressed in many different ways (our writer's voice and style).
Note. I was going to go first... but as soon as I started to write, I developed instant writer's block. So I'll let you go first, and participate once I'm not so tired, okay.
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