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Printed from https://shop.writing.com/main/newsletters/action/archives/id/4270-Transport-Your-Reader-Into-Your-Story.html
Romance/Love: March 02, 2011 Issue [#4270]

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Romance/Love


 This week: Transport Your Reader Into Your Story!
  Edited by: Fyn Author IconMail Icon
                             More Newsletters By This Editor  Open in new Window.

Table of Contents

1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions

About This Newsletter

I love the description of Gothic churches before the printed word, that they were the bibles of the poor.~~John McGahern

I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.~~Eleanor Roosevelt

I open with a clock striking, to beget an awful attention in the audience - it also marks the time, which is four o clock in the morning, and saves a description of the rising sun, and a great deal about gilding the eastern hemisphere.~~Richard Brinsley Sheridan


In rating ease of description as very important, we are essentially asserting a belief in quantitative knowledge - a belief that most of the key questions in our world sooner or later demand answers to 'by how much?' rather than merely to 'in which direction?'~~John Tuley

Interesting phenomena occur when two or more rhythmic patterns are combined, and these phenomena illustrate very aptly the enrichment of information that occurs when one description is combined with another.~~Gregory Bateson




Word from our sponsor

ASIN: 0997970618
Amazon's Price: $ 14.99


Letter from the editor

Consider the following excerpts:

A.T.B: It'sWhatWeDo Author IconMail Icon
Spanish moss hangs from the boughs of live oaks, quiet poets lost in a sweet nostalgia that transcends all but a semblance of thought. A momentary gust stirs their sacred pen to paper, and they whisper soft and archaic musings, swaying with the eternal timelessness of their peaceful being.

Their sparse words are quick to fade, lost within the comings and goings of a World that moves as if to forget, making room only for what is yet to come, always so inexplicably fond of the future.

But a tree lives to remember. A tree understands that someday, despite all the overtures of a hurried world, the future will be no more substantial than another poetic whisper fading with a calming wind - measured in a length of Spanish moss, or in the distance between each intermittent circle of growth tucked safe within its trunk.


and this by DRSmith Author IconMail Icon


I awoke to a bright and cheerful Saturday morn, perfect for a casual stroll for a taste of Haymarket Square where Italian vendors hustled meats and produce from open crates and little stalls. After sampling fresh fruits and char-grilled sausages, I moved on, crossed the Common, and turned north onto Charles Street. I was content with window-wishing for exquisite things in a dozen high-end curio and antique shops when I came upon a fusty used book store- things I could afford.

The place was a potpourri of print, shelves crammed with books filled every nook and cranny. I leisurely browsed looking for nothing in particular when suddenly, I was infused with an odd sensation- as if some unseen, but gentle force guided me to a certain bookcase. I didn't resist, and without hesitation or distraction, I went straight toward it and stopped. There, just above my head about mid-shelf, I spotted a two-volume set: Isis Unveiled.


and this by yours truly:

The distinguished, silver-haired gentleman in the fourth row was edgy and kept changing his position in his wooden folding chair. He'd never had the occasion for attending an auction at Harriford before and simply couldn't understand the reasoning behind the spine torturing, unpadded chairs they used. Certainly, they could afford better seating. The auction houses of Sotheby and Christie both had fine, upholstered chairs, carpeted floors and, in general, a far more genteel atmosphere. This was more like he'd expect to find in an old barn on some back country road back home rather than in London.

Energy bristled about him as he kept crossing one leg and then the other trying to find a comfortable position. Now, with perhaps a half hour until the auction officially started, the waiting was testing his patience to the extreme and, normally, he was a very patient fellow. But not today. And yet, he felt as if he'd been waiting for over forty years for something, some clue. So another few more minutes shouldn't really matter. Yet they did. Every moment now seemed an eternity. He was so close.


Each of these pluck the reader away from their desk, out of their easy chair and from beneath cozy bed blankets and plops them down someplace else. Regardless if it be in the midst of a southern forest, a busy marketplace in Boston or a London auction house, we experience the uncomfortable wooden chairs to an impatient man, breathe in the aromas of an ancient forest and are besieged by the sensory input of a market or antique bookstore. In short, the reader is able to mentally experience that which the character is experiencing. It is made real, visceral and palpable.

While dialogue can move a story forward, it is the settings that bring it to life. If a writer can grab the reader and seamlessly transport the reader into the world of the story, it makes that read so much more satisfying. For those who have never walked on pine needles in the forest to suddenly know what they smell like,or for one who has never been to Boston and wandered its shops to feel the excitement of an odd little bookstore, the words used brought the experiences to life.

It is said that 90% of reading is in the imagination. When the writer gives the tools to the reader that firmly put them in the scene, as if they are following the character around, it becomes that much more of a submersive experience. If we read to escape, then how much better is it to let our readers truly escape into that which we are writing?

Let the reader taste that burnt, metallic taste of congealing blood when they discover the murdered victim lying in the library. Let us be able to inhale the scent of crushed lilacs as the heroine twists and wrings the bouquet her vanished lover leaves behind. Let us feel the mud squishing into our boots, the cold, uncomfortable, toe-chilling feel as we cross a rain-soaked back road. Let us bring forth the remembered caress of his hand grazing across a cheek that first time. Let our hearts thump against our chest and cringe as the lightning flashes showing our heroine cringing against the onslaught of the angry river leaving its banks to plunder the landscape. Make it real. Make it alive. Make it memorable. And your reader will follow along, vicariously experiencing that story you are sharing. Both will be the richer for it!


Editor's Picks

This Saturday was the 2010 Quill Awards. I offer a selection from the winners, honorable mentions, finalists and nominated entries. This is truly some of the finest writing on WDC.

The first three are the ones from which I pulled my excerpts above.
 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#1698860 by Not Available.


Image Protector
STATIC
BLAVATSKY'S BUS Open in new Window. (E)
Inspired by Carl Sagan, a personal journey that had stimulated the core of my psyche
#1676003 by DRSmith Author IconMail Icon


The Dust Jacket Open in new Window. (13+)
Like threads woven into a jacket, that what we touch adds a shimmer before we pass it on.
#1676761 by Fyn Author IconMail Icon





--- Open in new Window. (E)
Some days written through music, a short piece of prose.
#1648074 by Jaywalker Author IconMail Icon


Image Protector
STATIC
Strain Open in new Window. (ASR)
Lisa listened to the voice, barely an audible whisper, as she watched the man dying.
#1646271 by 🌕 HuntersMoon Author IconMail Icon


 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#1668048 by Not Available.


Controlling Nature Open in new Window. (18+)
What if the South could rise again? Speculative Fiction entry in the WYRM Gauntlet 2010
#1713285 by NickiD89 Author IconMail Icon


 
Image Protector
STATIC
Lovebird Open in new Window. (E)
2ND PLACE in the WDC Limerick contest. Just be thankful it didn't win!
#1707318 by Malister Author IconMail Icon


 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#1732111 by Not Available.


 What Wondrous Spells Open in new Window. (ASR)
Won an Enchanted Conversation contest
#1673074 by Ben Langhinrichs Author IconMail Icon


Lost Open in new Window. (E)
"So Emotional" - 1st Place (Form: Villanelle)
#1710317 by 🌕 HuntersMoon Author IconMail Icon

 
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Word from Writing.Com

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Ask & Answer

From the last newsletter...
embe Author IconMail Icon writes poetically:
What Valetine means to me
reading your newsletter,
love, romance,
by embe.

When I was young and gay
I tried to bed a maiden
saying I love her;
but she laughed
with lying eyes
confusing me.

Don't be silly
you're only a boy
trying to be a man,
holding your red rose
wishing to be with me
for sweet Valentine kisses.

Ashamed I turned and cried
not knowing how to answer
trying to say I'm sorry;
never to bother you
in my verses cold
my writing old.

Waiting now
another year away
to be with a new lady;
she's the one to love me
the boy trying to be a man
with sweet Valentine kisses.



Davina Author IconMail Icon writes:Awwww, Fyn! You made me get all teary! Guess I better get to work on that handmade valentine.
Hope you got it done on time!!!

Vivian Author IconMail Icon says: Thank you for highlighting my Valentine's story, written with tongue in cheek. "Once Upon a Valentine's DayOpen in new Window.

Any time! Also folks, check out Viv's latest book 'Stolen.' It is an engrossing read, a page turner and will hold you from first page to last!!! This lady is one fine storyteller.



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