It's all in the detail

 

I’m busy adding detail to an important scene in my next historical romance story. I actually began it before I side-tracked myself onto Friday Night Murder and now that is published on Amazon KDP, I‘ve come back to the one that currently goes under the title of Maeve.

They do say that if the story keeps a fast pace then the reader feels intense emotions, reads faster and loses track of time. Every writer wants that, don’t they? So here I am, hopefully writing a story that moves at a fast pace. The heroine has been kidnapped and in mounting a rescue, her rescuers have caused a fire. She is on the wrong side of it and with no escape. So what happens next? I’m not sure yet, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out…

HISTORICAL ROMANCE WRITING

How much description should go into a historical romance? Usually I start like this:

OK, I have my great premise

Then I focus on a time and a place for this story

NO, no, no. 

Let's re-think that. 

In historical fiction, the setting should be essential and the first thing I think about. 

If readers feel my story could have happened anywhere, at any time, then I’ve failed at the very first hurdle. The historical setting must come first. I need a story that could have taken place nowhere but the one place where it did happen.

Once we have a time and place sorted, how to describe it?

I aim to make it vivid, but I remind myself not to overdo it. Especially not to do description in huge chunks. Today’s readers are impatient creatures, and won't tolerate long descriptive paragraphs as they did in the past. 

So instead, I should drip-feed descriptions of the setting into my story.

I should keep descriptions short and powerful and use every sense I have. We smell and hear places as well as see them.  Some places have an atmosphere and sometimes it is peaceful and sometimes it is threatening. 

I should not forget to describe the social and cultural morals of the time. Gin Lane without the gin would just be inaccurate.

Use metaphors and similes where Ican but I must make them original. Clichés are not what I want. If there is movement in the scene, that is better than a an unmoving one. If I can remember all this when I'm writing, then I should be well on the way to achieving my aim!

How to Write Fiction

Adam Fould's thoughts on How to Write Fiction have been printed in the Guardian recently and I have bookmarked them so I can reread them again and again. He quotes some lovely descriptions by famous authors but warns us that we break down reality and reassemble it according to our own thoughts and perceptions every time we write a description.
That was enough to make me stop and re-consider what I've written lately, and I resolved to go back and see what I can improve.

He quotes Flaubert: No matter whether good or bad, it is a delectable thing, writing! not having to be yourself, being able to circulate in amongst the whole creation that you are describing. Today for instance, as a man and as a woman, as lover and mistress both, I have been out riding in a forest on an autumn afternoon, and I was the horses, the leaves, the wind, the words that they spoke to each other and the red sunlight that made them half-close their eyes, eyes that were brimming with love.
Fould's article here is quite long, and if you go to it, you’ll read his analysis of how each description works on more than one level. As an interesting aside, it struck me that Flaubert’s words are not so far removed from Ian Rankin’s description of being an author - quoted on this blog a post or two back.

Evelyn Waugh’s paragraph from his 1934 novel, A Handful of Dust captures typical English weather. Outside, it was soft English weather; mist in the hollows and pale sunshine on the hills; the coverts had ceased dripping, for there were no leaves to hold the recent rain, but the undergrowth was wet, dark in the shadows, iridescent where the sun caught it; the lanes were soggy and there was water running in the ditches.
But there’s method and more than pretty description in those words. Read the article and learn more.
Foulds will be teaching a Guardian Masterclass alongside Sarah Hall on Fiction Writing in London on 28-29 January 2012 for those lucky enough to attend.

EDITS have arrived

I have the edits for TILL THE DAY GO DOWN

We were already programmed to running errands this morning, so we made the quick trip to the coast to buy dh's beer kit and a new barrel (so he can make more beer!) and came home. I got out of the car about a mile and a half from home and walked back so I got my exercise for the day (10,000 steps a day, remember), had lunch and began work.

It is a strange exercise, going over something you wrote several months ago. Already I have found two places where I use the same word in consecutive sentences, a sort of echo effect. I wonder how many more I'll find before I get to the end?

I love playing around with Adobe photoshop and late last night when I couldn't sleep I superimposed my painting of my heroine on a pic I took of Aydon castle. The result is not displeasing, but not very professional!

I have about another 150 pages to check over before I'm done. It won't take too long if I abandon my critiquing and writing till I'm through. I'm waiting for a book on Stirling Castle to arrive (paid 1 penny for it on Amazon!) before I can progress the current wip anyway, and I've been checking my favourite published writers to see how they handle POV and description of the hero.

In case you are wondering what I mean, here's the scene: My (male) hero and male friend open the story. Following the current trend for selecting one POV and sticking with it for a scene, I find it well nigh impossible to get any description of the POV hero on the page. He can describe his friend, but he can't describe himself. Well, he wouldn't would he? There are no mirrors in the border moors for him to glance into, and he doesn't think of his own looks/clothes as a heroine might do. Short of having him fall in a brook doing a Narcissus thing, I am going to have to break all the rules and retreat into omnisicent author to get him described on the page and please my critiquers - and later, my readers. A wide overview to open a scene, narrowing down when I need it, and opening out when I need it. Rules be damned. Far too restrictive.