Karen here, and I'm so thrilled to introduce you today to my dear friend and critique partner Jennifer Fromke.
Jennifer won the ACFW Genesis award for women's fiction in 2010, and her debut novel "A Familiar Shore" recently released from Write Integrity Press. She's one talented lady. I hope you'll make her feel welcome!
Handing over to Jenn, who will be sharing her tips on how to sweep the reader into a different world.
*****
Take Me Away . . .
I read because I want to spend time in a
place that is not my real life. So when I write, I aim to catapult my readers
into my story-world. I’ve come up with a few keys to accomplish this:
1. Bring something from home
2. Sense it
3. Paint it
4. POV Perspective
5. Be Consistent
Bring something from home
My debut novel is about a woman who must
visit Charlevoix, MI for the first time in her life. Whether you are describing
a magical world that doesn’t exist or a real place people could actually visit,
it’s important to include items from the world your reader knows in your
description of that place. I once read a fantasy story about a world with
billowing orange clouds and blue trees. I know the colors well, and I know what
billowy clouds look like, so I could easily translate what I knew into a mental
picture of her story world. Had she named the clouds something different and
instead of trees, suggested the vegetation was blue, I wouldn’t know what to
picture in my mind. But because she brought some “items from home” along, I
could make the leap to her crazy new story world.
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Help the reader experience the same senses
your POV character experiences. Don’t tell me the air smelled odd. Tell me “She
inhaled the scent of fried seafood mixed with boat fuel.” This makes sense in
the first scene of my novel, because my character is walking toward a seafood
dive situated on the water, where fishing boats are just pulling in with the
day’s fresh catch of fish. Help us feel the trickle of sweat as it drips down
her back beneath a silk blouse. Telling the reader it’s hot does very little in
bringing the reader into your world. Showing a trickle of sweat will
communicate much more - and it will make the reader remember when he’s felt a
trickle of sweat on his back.
Paint it
Consider each sentence a brush stroke. A
painter usually starts with the background, using broad strokes. This will
include the landscape, the weather, general descriptions. This is a great place
to add landmarks - a water tower, a lake, the courthouse, a town square, Main
Street, etc . . . Next, a painter will paint a specific object in the
foreground. A writer will pick out something specific the reader can picture in
his mind’s eye. Then the painter will shade and add details. In the same way, a
writer needs to zero in on a few significant details.
POV
SHOW the reader what the POV character
thinks about the scene. Is he worried? Content? Angry? Confused? SHOW us his
unique angle on the scene and the reader will see things much better!
Let’s evaluate a short passage from A
Familiar Shore:
As soon as they
entered the city proper, pink, purple and white flowers lined the curb on both
sides of the street for several miles. Old homes with deep porches and brightly
brimming flower boxes gave way to antique shops, real estate offices and an
ancient Whippy Dip. The entire town screamed, “Visit me!”
The
flowers lining the street will ring true for anyone who has ever visited this
town - they are always there. And they are also a sensory image - most people
can imagine a road and flowers. The deep porches describe the architecture type
to a small degree and the ancient Whippy Dip will evoke memories from many
people who have either lived near one of these places or else stopped by one on
a road trip. These items are designed to evoke a memory in as many minds as
possible, broad brushstrokes. They bring something (from home) to this scene
from a vast array of personal experiences. The flower boxes provide detail,
which adds to the overall feel of the place, while giving the reader a specific
image to focus on. The town screaming “Visit me!” gives us the opinion of the
POV character. This line tells us it’s a touristy place and overall, it’s
positive.
Final Key: Be Consistent
If an author describes where certain
buildings are located within a town, the reader can make a sort of map in his
mind and use it throughout the story as characters travel between these various
places. Jan Karon does a fabulous job of this in her Mitford series. When
details in the story continuously line up, the reader is rewarded for
remembering these details when they are mentioned again later in the book. But
if the details shift or are not specific enough, the reader will be lost.
How do YOU draw your readers into your
story world?
*****
Jenn, thanks so much for these great tips and for taking the time to hang out with us today!
Here's the blurb for Jennifer's stunning debut novel:
Meg Marks is a young lawyer raised off the coast of the Carolinas. An anonymous client hires her to arrange his will, and sends her to meet his estranged family at their lake home in northern Michigan. After a shocking discovery, she finds herself caught between his suspicious family and a deathbed promise her conscience demands that she keep. Will she sacrifice her own dreams for revenge? Or will she seek something more?
Karen Schravemade lives in Australia. When she's not chasing after two small boys or gazing at her brand-new baby girl, she spends her spare minutes daydreaming about the intricate lives of characters who don't actually exist. Find her on her website, on Twitter or getting creative over at her mummy blog.
