Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Trying New Things

Trying new things

I think writing.com is a great place for a writer to experiment. In the Don Tomas de Torquemada serial I have Don Tomas speaking in first person and everyone else in third.

As an aside Friar Torquemada was a historical figure who was the first Inqusitor Gerneral of the State run Inqusition in Spain. In the automotive field "Torque" is used to describe rotational force, Since some of the torture devices of the period were screw type do you suppose the genesis of the word came from a pundit's tongue and cheek reference?"

Sorry I will try and stay focused but while never diagnosed my teachers suffered my lapses into the Attention Deficit Disorder..."Pay attention," they used to holler shaking me by the collar in the days when they could use a more hands on approach for expressing their frustrations.

This change in voice carried over into the contest vignette for this weeks Quickie Contest. When it received the obligatory review from the instructor, (one of my favorite writers on the site) he indicated that he felt it was too abrupt (taken with the page break) and I should try and smooth the transition out a bit.

The problem with doing so is I had already decided to bite the bullet on that one….After trying several approaches to reconciling a protagonist in first person with everyone else in third I concluded that it was better to make the cut abruptly and jerk the reader around a little rather than making it smooth and during the transition have the reader become confused over the change in voice. For better or worse I think I’m stuck with it and it has become a characteristic of my style of writing…Jerky is as jerky does, I suppose.

My background interest in playwriting has skewed my style of writing towards dialog. Instead of relying on exposition to carry the story line I tend towards banter….I use exposition to further the dialog rather than the other way around….Being dyslexic (Isn't that a nice word? When I failed the 5th Grade they told my parents I was retarded. They also thought my left hand was on the right side of my body.) I do a lot of things backwards and as a consequence what sounds right to me might sound left to anyone else...get it "right"/left..."wrong"/right? or is it vice versa?)

I also often get beat about the head and shoulders for violating the “Head Hopping Protocol.” I might not even fully understand it but I believe it means nobody in a work is allowed to think but the protagonist…..whenever I violate this rule I receive comments that my deviation gives the reader a “Headache.” I certainly wouldn’t want to be accused of that so I try these days to keep within the protocol.

In chapter 11 I was faced with a need to have Teresa do some thinking and used a work-around that involved having her share her thoughts with a dog….The dog became essentially a person and I was able to substitute their dialog and quotes for thinking and Italics. My first impression is that it adds to her character but time will tell… Anyone who is in a position to comment (members) is invited to toss in their two cents worth. These characters are less than a month old and still in the formative stage.