Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Showing Emotional and Sensory Inputs as Characters Interact

I have been reading the Allegiant Series by Veronica Roth. No doubt it will go on to be as popular as “The Hunger Games.” The story lines are similar in some ways but different in others. In both cases they are about societies where the hive mentality of Socialism has gone insane. As if we don’t know already that Socialism is a complete crock. Still the more we can show young people what a bogus form of government it is the better off we’ll be.

Ms. Roth writes in first person. That takes some getting used to. All this I, I, I, gets a bit repetitive but she handles writing in the tense better than many I’ve read who took on the challenge. Another thing she does is frequently changing POVs from one chapter to the next. I won’t spoil the story by saying more except to recommend the series as a good read.

The weather is starting to warm up a little. Today we had a high in the lower 30s. I’ve been racing to catch up and finish my last HSP assignment by Sunday. The class I’m taking uses the same approach as The Exploratory Writing Workshop. This is to say that it uses common characters and vignettes due each week that include the lesson objectives. The things I’ve learned most is about POV writing, interior dialog and showing emotion and senses as the characters interact.

The reason I believe I’m deficient with emotion and senses is because I always felt that if the dialog is good the reader can fill in the blanks using their imagination. My wife agrees with Teresa, the instructor, that readers want the writer to make it easy for them to relate to what the characters are experiencing. Anyway I’m trying to get better at what the class is teaching.