The reader's imagination is a powerful writer's tool

cj Sez: A lot of the passion, or eroticism, a reader finds in a story is often the part that’s left unwritten. For me, what one imagines to be residing between the lines of a story—the perceived hidden meanings—can be more erotic than detailed descriptions.

The calendar says Autumn; the temperature does not.

The reader’s imagination is a powerful tool for writers.

 Writers can never predict how their words will be interpreted because their readers are coming from a multitude of backgrounds, and each has a different set of life experiences. That’s both exciting and fearful. Words, syntax, and semantics have to be as exact as we can make them, all the while knowing that the reader will most probably interpret them differently. Yet it is unfair and insulting to intelligent readers to tell them what is meant through the use of Italics and adverbs attached to dialogue.  Example: “How dare you do that,” she exclaimed angrily. (Suggested alternative: “How dare you do that!” This draws the reader into the story by allowing him or her to place their own word emphasis.)

I’ve had the pleasure of having a reader tell me how much she enjoyed (or did not enjoy) a particular scene or dialogue exchange. When I asked why, her interpretation of the scene or dialogue was nowhere near what I had intended. Obviously, words do not have universal meanings. In particular, writing with and about passion and eroticism tends to invite a lot of critical judgment and opinion.

Erotic is far more than the sexual and sensuous description.

For me, the definition of erotic is nebulous. It is sitting on the floor of a darkened room immersed in music…it is snowflakes melting in my eyelashes…the smooth caress of summer breezes...the warmth of the sun…the whistle of an elk and the cry of a loon in the northern wilderness...it is pleasure that fills me with laughter and pain that makes my heart ache…it is intelligence with a quick wit and gentle humor…it is the harmonics of a deeply resonant baritone…the touch of a guiding, strong hand at my waist…it is the fragrance of herbs crushed between the palms of my hands...it is the touch of silk, satin, skin on skin…the velvetiness of a baby’s cheek…the taste of dark chocolate melting on my tongue...it is the aroma of a pipe and the coarseness of a woolen shirt…it is the heady sheen of an athlete…it is a decision made confidently that culminates in success…it is trees dressed up in spring green or autumn blaze…pewter clouds and blue skies…it is sounds, feelings, sights, smells, tastes, touch, memories…it is imagination.

Okay, that’s all for today. You-all guys keep on keeping on and I’ll try to do the same.

Cj   

“Bad Day at Round Rock” in The Posse Western anthology of 8 short stories @99 cents

Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook

Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo

California Kisses—10 book publisher’s bundle @ 99 cents (includes Deadly Star)

The Great Outdoors  8 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter) 

Bodies in Motion — 10 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter) 

Note: The “look inside” invitation on the book bundles gives you a taste of the first book.

Newsletter sign-up:  cjpetterson@gmail.com

Stop by my author pages for more info . . .

Simon&Schuster Author Page

Amazon Central Author Page

(I’m thrilled to be a published author. Thank you.)   

Do you believe the English language is difficult?

cj Sez:  Here are a few of the community outreach programs that Simon & Schuster is doing:

Besides partnering with storm-relief national and local nonprofit organizations to provide books for displaced adults and children AND donating 250 “Best Of” titles to Texas public schools and libraries affected by Hurricane Harvey (Librarians who need information on the offer should email education.library@simonandschuster.com ), it has been announced that S&S will be offering the same support to Florida organizations affected by Hurricane Irma.

Yay, Simon & Schuster !

A reminder of how fluid and difficult the English language is (from a 2014 post):

This quote came from fellow blogger, Sol Sanders a few years ago:  “Perhaps the glory of the English language is that it so expressive. Its remarkable heterogeneous origins have given it an almost limitless vocabulary. And American English, particularly, has used that tool with an enormous flexibility to make it the international means of communication. One is able with a minimum of linguistic dexterity to capture every meaning, or almost every nuance.”

Mr. Sanders’s comments were part of an introduction to his essay on what today’s journalism and media do with the English language. The gist of his blog was that journalism and media people over-complicate their sentences with words that muddy their meanings—changing nouns into verbs and, perhaps, calling a shovel a “hand-held, earth-moving tool.” My take is that media and journalists employ an old trick of confusing the issue to persuade readers to their (the writer/editor’s) points of view

I’ll admit to a few personal dislikes of those words with muddied meanings. One is the word “impactful;” a noun turned into a verb turned into an adjective by adding ful on the end. What the Sam Hill does that really mean?

The fact is, the English language is a living language. It’s constantly evolving as we create new words and new definitions in response to new technology. The rather sad result is that the generations cease to understand each other at an almost exponential pace. Many times I need an interpreter to understand teen-talk, and I can’t text (a noun turned into a verb because of technology), like my family does for fear I’d forget how to spell.

Still, for me as a genre writer, the gloriously expressive English language is what makes my craft so fascinating. I adore language and anyone who accurately uses a large vocabulary with familiar ease—especially if he has a warm, baritone voice and a sense of humor. Oh my.

Yes, I use nouns as verbs. Yes, I deliberately obfuscate . . . and add the disclaimer that it’s for the sake of mystery. I am drawn to the syntax, symbolism, and syncopation of a well-drafted sentence that is the hallmark of successful mystery/thriller/ suspense novelists. It’s using that “minimum of linguistic dexterity to capture every meaning, or almost every nuance” that appeals to me, and, I think, to readers of those genres. They want to try to decipher the code, find the clues, and solve the crime. Mystery writers like trying to confuse the issue.

I’m still working on my craft. How are you doing with your genre?

Okay, that’s all for today. You-all guys keep on keeping on and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

“Bad Day at Round Rock” in The Posse Western anthology of 8 short stories @99 cents

Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook

Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo

California Kisses—10 book publisher’s bundle (includes Deadly Star) @ 99 cents

The Great Outdoors  8 book publisher’s bundle (includes Choosing Carter) @99 cents

Bodies in Motion — 10 book publisher’s bundle (includes Choosing Carter) @99 cents

Note: The “look inside” invitation on the book bundles gives you a taste of the first book.

Newsletter sign-up:  cjpetterson@gmail.com

Stop by my author pages for more info . . .

Simon&Schuster Author Page

Amazon Central Author Page

Pop Quiz: The royalties on the publisher’s bundles are shared among the number of authors in the bundles. Guess how much that amounts to. (Obviously, I write for the sheer joy of writing ... I do, but I’m also thrilled to be a published author. Thank you.)   

Trouble in Tallahassee launch...Bouchercon in Toronto

cj Sez: Summer is winding down, and one of my favorite cartoons illustrates the lament of most everyone returning to their regular fall, winter, and spring school and work schedules…

I, however, am eagery looking forward to moderating autumnal temperatures on Alabama’s Gulf Coast. The summer heat has been hellacious this year (or at least it was to me). I haven’t ventured into my yard for longer than thirty minutes at a time since June, and boy, do I have the weeds to prove that. The flowers seared by summer heat will soon relinquish their places to autumn replacements, and my potted vegetables will give their all for a few more weeks of bounty.  

The arrival of September also brings with it the launch of new novels. One of those is Trouble in Tallahassee  . . . Familiar Legacy Book 3 . . . which launches September 12.

Trouble in Tallahassee, written by Claire Matturro, is a romantic mystery featuring that super sleuth Trouble, the black cat detective. This is book #3 of the new series called FAMILIAR TROUBLE. In this novel, Trouble finds himself in Tallahassee and wanders into the lives of young attorney Abby Coleridge and her temporary and troubled roommate, law student Layla. When the student disappears, leaving behind a blood-splattered note and a stash of cryptic flash-drives, Abby sets out to find her. Trouble, the black cat detective, lands in Tallahassee, Florida, in the nick of time. Can he sniff out the salient clues and save them—and himself—from a fiery end?  Ooooh. Sounds like a mystery to me.

Available now on Amazon:  http://amzn.to/2eMtf77

Upcoming conference:  Bouchercon, the Anthony Boucher Memorial World Mystery Convention, is an annual convention of mystery readers, fans, writers, and enthusiasts. This year it’s being held in Toronto, Canada, October 12-15. http://bouchercon2017.com/   I went to Bouchercon 2016 in New Orleans but will miss Toronto. Are you going this year?

 In the Did You Know department . . .

On the Writers in the Storm blog site, guest blogger Susan Spann, a California transactional attorney whose practice focuses on publishing law and business, offers advice on the important do’s and don’ts about workshop and conference-related blogging and social media shares. Read more about possible copyright infringement here:

http://writersinthestormblog.com/2017/09/the-law-and-ethics-of-conference-blogging/

That’s it for this post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

Qrtly newsletter sign-up:  cjpetterson@gmail.com

cjpetterson/author on Facebook    

Simon&Schuster Author Page

Amazon Central Author Page

“Bad Day at Round Rock” in The Posse  --8 short story Western anthology @99 cents

Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook

Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo

California Kisses—10 book publisher’s bundle (includes Deadly Star) @ 99 cents

The Great Outdoors  8 book publisher’s bundle (includes Choosing Carter) @99 cents

Tidbits ...and Have a safe and happy Labor Day

cj Sez: Sending all y'all my best wishes for a safe and happy Labor Day holiday.

My publisher, Simon and Schuster, is among the industry giants stepping up to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey…

Help Offered to Libraries, Bookstores, Shelters

As Texas’ coast awaits the second landfall of the Harvey storm system—which at this writing has produced close to 50 inches of rain in some areas—Simon & Schuster’s education and library marketing department has announced help for damaged libraries.

Any Texas public or school library damaged by Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey can have 250 “Best of” titles to help restore collections. Librarians who need information on the offer are asked to email education.library@simonandschuster.com

Read more here:  https://publishingperspectives.com/2017/08/simon-schuster-relief-hurricane-harvey/

**

This from a Crimson Romance editor:   “An editing tip: I've noticed this summer, throughout submitted manuscripts and my own reading, a growing tendency to emphasize specific words in a sentence. Save this move for those times when the italics are needed to keep the reader from misunderstandings if they were to read it another way.

“Most of the time, the stressed words only serve to lock the reader into how you would (arbitrarily) read it, taking away the reader's autonomy. It wears folks out mentally to have to perform the book to a rhythm that might not be their own.

“It also makes your characters sound alike, and the poor italics must cover so many other technical jobs (book/magazine/movie titles, self-thoughts, foreign words), it makes your manuscript look intimidatingly busy.”

**

James Lee Burke “tells” his readers what is happening here….or does he?

“The evening sky was streaked with purple, the color of torn plums, and a light rain had started to fall when I came to the end of the blacktop road that cut through twenty miles of thick, almost impenetrable scrub oak and pine and stopped at the front gate of Angola penitentiary.”
― James Lee Burke, The Neon Rain

cj Sez: Every adjective in that sentence works with the verb to carry the action forward. The reader is on the road with the character, sees what the character sees, and ends up where the character does. Burke could have told his readers something to the effect that “It was raining the evening I drove twenty miles through a thick forest and stopped at the end of the blacktop road in front of Angola penitentiary.” Instead, we read a fantastic opening line, and a wonderful example of showing not telling.   

Burke’s poetic descriptions are not purple prose. They grab readers and drag them into his story. There is a beauty in the drama, yet the ominous intensity of the moment is conveyed.

Showing vs telling? Yes there are places in a story where some narrative telling may seem appropriate to move the story along, but perhaps not as many as you might think. Showing does a lot to appeal to a reader’s intellect as well as improve pacing. I suggest you can write your descriptions, tell your readers everything, then re-write in a way that shows them. How to do that, you ask? Read, read, and read some more. Get familiar with how your favorite author handles the task. It just takes practice …writing and re-writing and re-writing and re-writing, and . . .

“There's nothing like rejection to make you do an inventory of yourself.”                              James Lee Burke 

I’ve had a few of those. (Makes for elephant hide skin.)

That’s all the tidbits for this post.’Til next time, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. 

Please continue to pray for strength, courage, and comfort for the victims of Hurricane Harvey and all those volunteering to help with rescues.

cj

A brief word from my sponsors:

“Bad Day at Round Rock” short story in The Posse anthology @ http://amzn.to/2lQRvcD

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