Updates to M. B. Weston’s Convention/Signing Schedule

Posted on September 24, 2012 by M. B. Weston

I’ve updated my convention/signing schedule on the website. Click here to see if I will be at a science fiction/fantasy convention or book signing in your area. Keep checking for updates, as there is more to come!

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The Writer’s Descriptive Techniques: #4— Use Comparisons that Relate to Your Main Impression

Posted on September 14, 2012 by M. B. Weston

 

Well-placed comparisons are powerful tools that not only help your reader better understand what’s happening in your story but also evoke your reader’s emotions.

We’ve all learned about the two comparison tools our Language Arts teachers taught us:

Similes: figures of speech that compare two unlike things, usually using like or as. Here is an example of a simile from A Prophecy Forgotten:

Running with precision, [the unicorns] sounded almost as one, and their white coats made them look like ghosts in the fog.

Metaphors: figures of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something which it is not in order to suggest resemblance. Here is an example of a simile from my short story, “The White Rider.”

The Society made a huge mistake. By stripping me of my social security number and my bank accounts, they made me a phantom. According to the world, I don’t exist. This makes me extremely hard to catch.

Is my character really a phantom? No. He’s human. But “phantom” gives the reader a much better idea of how he operates.

This post will focus on two tips for using similes and metaphors that will help enrich our main impression.

Tip 1: Use comparisons that will enhance the mood you are trying to create. When we use comparisons, we are drawing a connection in our readers’ minds to something outside our story. If we are going to bother drawing a connection, we should make sure this connection aids in helping the scene’s main impression.

For example, in this scene from A Prophecy Forgotten, my characters are staring at some snowcapped mountains. You will see the comparison, a simile, in bold lettering. (I really hate using like or as. I’d rather be more subtle with my comparisons):

Finally, Davian’s unit reached the Enbed Mountain range, which marked the eastern border of Morvenia. The snowcapped mountains towered over them. They reminded Davian of jagged minotaur teeth, and that alone was enough to keep him from exploring them.

I could have said, “The snow on the mountains sparkled like a mound of sugar,” and it probably did. However, I don’t want my readers thinking sparkly thoughts about a candy store. I want them to feel uneasy.

Later in A Prophecy Forgotten, I used this metaphor:

Davian flung himself off Cassadern and stared at the gates that used to be beacons of hope and rest that welcomed him home from his many missions. Now they were shadows that concealed unsurpassable evil and treason.

I wanted to make sure the reader felt how Davian felt, and I wanted to show how Elysia had changed since the beginning of the story. Hence, a metaphor about the gates, especially since I made a big deal about them the first time I discussed the gates. (You can read that here in Chapter One of the sample chapters.)

Make sure to use comparisons that will affect the mood of the scene. This will help enhance your main impression and affect your readers’ emotions.

Tip 2: When using comparisons, remember that you are bound by your POV (point of view) Character’s knowledge. Your POV Character is the character whose voice you are writing. It’s the character “holding the camera” per se. In the above example with Davian, I used minotaur. Because I’m writing from Davian’s point of view, I must stick with comparisons to things which he is familiar with. I can’t compare the mountains to something from our world because Davian wouldn’t think those up.

This is especially important if you are writing fantasy, science fiction, or steampunk. In my steampunk short story, “The Survivor,” I ran into a problem. I needed to describe the wreckage of an airship (What is steampunk without blimps?), but no one in the Victorian Era had actually ever seen an airship. After reading a bit about the Hindenburg crash, I knew I needed to figure out how I might describe the ribbing of the balloon melting, but from the point of view of someone from the late 1800’s.

Angelica and the officer turned and watched what resembled a molten, round skeleton collapse to the ground with a metallic groan.

I figured that people in the Victorian Era were familiar with skeletons and rib cages.

Later in the story (during a flashback), Angelica is staring out of the airship in the middle of the night, looking down at London. I wanted the reader to see how the Thames River would have looked like black nothingness against the lights of the city, which is what I often see when I’m looking out an airplane window when flying over a river at night. However, no one in the 1800’s has ever been on a plane, and describing black nothingness would take way too long. I tried to use a comparison that a person from the 1800’s would be familiar with:

Below, the lights of London flickered. [Angelica] watched the Thames River wind through the city, like a black snake slithering among embers.

If you keep your comparisons bound within the world your POV character lives in, you will keep your reader engaged in your story’s setting, and you will make your writing feel believable. Making sure these same comparisons affect the main impression of your scene will keep the reader on the edge of his seat, waiting for the last page.

If you’re new to this blog, I’ve been writing a short series on description techniques. Here are my previous posts:

Hope you enjoy them!

Fantasy novelist M. B. Weston is the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason. Weston speaks to children, teens, and adults about writing and the process of getting published. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit www.mbweston.com. Find out more about The Elysian Chronicles at www.elysianchronicles.com.

 

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The Writer’s Descriptive Techniques: #3—Group Related Details Together

Posted on September 13, 2012 by M. B. Weston

Increase the power of your description by keeping related details together.

I’m writing a series of blog posts on description techniques. Here are my last two:

Today we will focus on keeping related details together and how that can aid our story’s emotional punch.

I have an extensive teapot collection, and I love to use them in my decorating. Imagine coming to my house and seeing a teapot in the living room on a table. When you visit my kitchen, you see two teapots on display, and you find another two in my den. You might think, Hmmmm, I see a theme here, but that might be all, or you might find yourself distracted by other decorative items and fail to notice my teapot fetish.

What if instead I took all twenty of my teapots and displayed them together on a few shelves. When you walked into my home, you would think: Wow, look at that teapot collection! (Or, Wow, this chick is a little wacky about her teapots.) Whatever you might think, my teapots would have impacted you more grouped together than they would separately.

In decorating, collections always look better when grouped together. It’s the same with writing.

An example: In A Prophecy Forgotten, a few of my characters went to the county fair. The scene wasn’t about the fair, however, it was about my character with amnesia regaining her memory. I needed to get the readers to the fair, feel like they were at the fair, and then worry about the more important parts of the scene. This was my opening paragraph:

Gabriella’s eyes grew wide as she beheld the bright blues, reds, greens, and purples on the tents and carts at the fair. She took a deep breath, and several different smells hit her nose. Some she recognized, like popcorn, cotton candy, and sausage. Others, including a sweet aroma of fresh bread that Jim called funnel cake, she had never smelled before. She, Jim, and Tommy rode on rides like the Scrambler, which spun her around in three different directions at the same time and made her dizzy when she tried to walk afterwards, and the Bumper Cars, where she and Tommy banged into Jim at least ten times.

Boom! County fair. You’re there. I’m there. We’re all there. And now Gabriella can do what she needs to do without me worrying too much about the description. I also tried to keep the colors together, the smells together, and the rides together, which makes a bigger impression than scrambling them all together. (Below, I discuss the “Rule of Three’s.” While I have included more than three actual details here, notice that I have three sets of details I’m describing: Colors, smells, and rides.)

Here are a few tips to remember when you are setting your scenes and grouping your related details together:

When introducing a character, scene, or landscape, take a few sentences to give the reader a few key details. Remember to go beyond sight & sound.

In A Prophecy Forgotten, Lorraine is an important character. She is the mother of one of my main characters, and her horrible treatment of him is key to his development throughout the Elysian Chronicles series. Unfortunately, Lorraine only enters two or three scenes. I don’t have much time to mess around with her. I need my readers to hate her immediately. I introduce Lorraine with this:

Tommy crawled toward the ruined tank, but a pair of enemy, black high heels halted his re-covery mission. He followed the heels up and saw his mother, Lorraine, a slender woman with perfectly highlighted blond hair wearing a business suit that showcased more cleavage than most offices found appropriate. Her manicured fingers were clenching a wooden spoon, and she was glaring at Tommy with what Gabriella called the “Psychotic-Glare-of-Death.”

Lorraine has black high heels, she dies her hair blond, and does her nails. No harm there. I make sure to add in the slightly risqué business suit and the death glare to show her personality. I also chose to use enemy to describe her heels [Tommy is playing with his army action figures]. The spoon is foreshadowing. We are now all on the same page when it comes to Lorraine.

Don’t forget to describe the effect the details have on your character. For instance, if your character walks into a dark room on a sunny day, it will take his eyes a moment to adjust to the dark—and vice versa. Mentioning how your setting affects your characters is key to effective description.

In Out of the Shadows, a few of my characters were able to escape from a dungeon in which they had been imprisoned. Note that the details of squinting, sunlight, and slits in his eyelids are grouped together. I’m letting the reader know how the new setting affects my characters physically.

Davian, Theo, and Klous climbed out of the cave, squinting at their first sight of sunlight. Through the slit in his eyelids, Davian saw the outlines of thirty mornachts unloading the sulfur on a small ledge overlooking the Cragdern River Canyon.

Always remember the Rule of 3’s (or 4’s). Surprisingly, the reader only needs 3 to 4 well placed details to get a clear picture of your setting. With each (major) character/landscape/scene, try to pick out 3 key details about a scene that will leave your reader with the best mental picture. Work the rest of the details into your narrative. (I love to stretch a rule as much as possible, so I will include groups of details as part of my three. See the description of the county fair above as an example.)

This is from a short story I wrote called “The Survivor” that will be published in Dreams of Steam III, a steampunk anthology by Kerlak Publishing that is due out in October, 2012. The year is 1886, and my character is riding in an airship. I don’t have time to describe everything on the airship, but I want the readers to feel as though they are right there with Angelica. My three details are in bold letters:

Angelica lingered in the dining room where plates of partially eaten food still spotted the tables. She sat on a plush, velvet bench right next to one of the French-paned windows that surrounded the bow of the hull, allowing patrons a full view of the sky.

The kind of china used and the color of the velvet doesn’t matter. The reader is there with Angelica, looking out at the night sky. (For more details on the Rule of 3’s, be sure to read Stephen King’s book, On Writing.)

Keeping your related details together in your description will add punch to your scenes. Just remember to keep three or four main details when you are setting your scene, and blend the rest into your narrative (which we will discuss in another blog post).

Stay tuned for the next post where we will be discussing using comparisons!

Fantasy novelist M. B. Weston is the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason. Weston speaks to children, teens, and adults about writing and the process of getting published. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit www.mbweston.com. Find out more about The Elysian Chronicles at www.elysianchronicles.com.

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The Writer’s Descriptive Techniques: #2—Choose Details that Enhance Your Main Impression

Posted on September 12, 2012 by M. B. Weston

Using descriptive language that affects your readers’ emotions will enhance the main impression you want your readers to take from each scene.

We’re focusing on description for the next few posts. Yesterday, I wrote about what it means to create a main impression in each scene and how that will help our readers fill in the details we don’t have time to describe (click to read: The Writer’s Descriptive Techniques: #1—Create a Main Impression).

While your characters actions and dialogue will help affect the reader’s emotions, it’s your description that will drive those emotions home. Description in a book is like a soundtrack in a movie: both can influence the scene more than the audience realizes. Today we will discuss the easiest main-impression-creating descriptive technique: choosing details that enhance your main impression.

Picture yourself at your favorite outdoor café. (I’m choosing Tommy Bahamas’ Naples because they have the best crab bisque in the world, and I’m hungry.) Close your eyes and imagine your your café. Pay attention to the details that you might often miss. Don’t forget the smells, the tastes, and the feeling of the breeze on your face.

Here are a few things I can think up with Tommy Bahamas’

  • The tropical décor
  • The smell of silk from their shops and coconut
  • Palm trees
  • Casually dressed waiters with Hawaiian shirts
  • The caliber of people who flock there
  • The types of people who hang out at the bar
  • The crab bisque
  • The terracotta tiles
  • The gulf breeze
  • The vase with an magenta orchid on each table
  • Sea green wooden accents

I can continue listing detail after detail, and if the restaurant was a scene in my story, I would certainly have enough details to totally bore my reader. I don’t have time to list all of these items. I have to choose the important ones that will make the biggest emotional impact while still helping my reader feel like they see everything I see.

The challenge is laid before us as writers, isn’t it?

You have your setting, now imagine a few scenarios within that setting:

  • Your character is running from the mafia, meeting a friend to ask for help
  • A first date between your characters
  • You character’s spouse has just left him, and he is alone at a booth

(Notice that each of those situations have the potential for emotionally-charged conflict. Our scenes should never be about our favorite restaurants. They should be about the story, the conflict, and the characters.)

With each of those scenarios, I want make sure to choose details about Tommy Bahamas’ that enhance the emotions I want my readers to feel.

  • If my character is running away from the mafia, I might point out how open the restaurant is, making it difficult to hide. I would mention the man at the bar wearing a trench coat with something bulky inside. I might include the fire on the grill that makes my character nervous. I would discuss how all the umbrella-topped tables would make a difficult getaway. The booths may be sea green, but I would make sure to mention how they echoed, making it impossible to have a quiet conversation. I would definitely mention the private room with the beaded strings for curtains. My character might not be as interested in the bisque as he is on survival.
  • If my characters are on a first date, I would muffle the sound and dim the lights. I would mention the candle on the table and the orchid. I would bring out more of the sensual details in the food—especially the flourless chocolate cake. I would be sure to mention the lights hanging from the palm trees and the cool breeze that blew a few strands of hair in the heroine’s face.
  • If my character has been dumped, I would make sure he isn’t sitting at a booth. He’s either alone at a table or alone at the bar. I would point out the happy patrons purposefully to show how lonely my character is. I would make sure one of them reminds him of his wife. I would mention how the food doesn’t taste as good as normal and how the palm trees and the rich coconut/silk smell from the adjacent Tommy Bahamas’ stores remind him of their honeymoon. Basically, I make the poor guy even more miserable that he was before he came to the restaurant.

Each of these scenes takes place in the same café; I’m just choosing details that will enhance the impression I want to leave with my reader. I’m also going to make sure to link my details with the feelings or thoughts they inspire in my characters to drive my readers’ emotions even more.

Here are a few examples of my own blah description in a few of my first drafts and how I changed the details to enhance my main impression:

  • I saw a barracuda swimming next to me. Boring isn’t it. It doesn’t leave the reader feeling nervous and scared. What about this? To my left lurked a three-foot-long barracuda—a thin, silver torpedo of a fish with needle sharp teeth—that glared at me as I passed. Details such as: lurked, torpedo, needle-sharp teeth, and glared give the reader a main impression of, “Oh dear. This ain’t good.”
  • Davian entered the Treetop Inn. I wrote that sentence in A Prophecy Forgotten, and quickly realized that I needed to add something in. I wanted my readers to feel cozy, so… The Treetop Inn had been the most popular meeting place in the City of Ezzer for five centuries. The vast tavern’s only light came from a few torches and patches of sunlight that poured through its multicolored crystal windows. It had plump, cushy booths for quiet conversations, immense, round tables with soft chairs for lively parties, and the best honeywine and the finest service in all Elysia.
  • In my second book, Out of the Shadows, I wanted to show how Elysia had changed. When I introduced the Treetop Inn, I used much different details: Maurice wiped the Treetop Inn’s bar for what felt like the fiftieth time. The lacquered counter already sparkled, but Maurice preferred wiping to gazing across the tavern of empty tables that should have been full of patrons talking or playing jalonga… A drop of sweat trickled down Maurice’s cheek and into the folds of skin between his chin and neck. Though the sweltering weather kept him from lighting fires in the fireplaces, his Treetop Inn still felt cold. [And later…] Davian removed his helmet and burst through the carved wooden door, barely noticing its creak as it swung back and forth. Usually, the Treetop’s wood-paneled walls made him feel cozy and comfortable, but not today—especially with the sterile aroma of soap instead of food filling the inn. He flew to the bar and hopped on a perching stool, ignoring the two merchants who strained their necks to peek at the Treetop’s newest patron. Davian glanced at Maurice, who wiped the far edge of the bar’s counter, muttering to himself.

Today’s assignment: go back to some of your scenes that need more emotional punch and see how you can change up some of your description. Also, make sure to tune into the next post where we will discuss how grouping related details together can help create a main impression.

Fantasy novelist M. B. Weston is the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason. Weston speaks to children, teens, and adults about writing and the process of getting published. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit www.mbweston.com. Find out more about The Elysian Chronicles at www.elysianchronicles.com.

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The Writer’s Descriptive Techniques: #1—Create a Main Impression

Posted on September 11, 2012 by M. B. Weston

Creating a main impression in your scenes will manipulate your readers’ minds into filling in the unwritten details for you.

I have been out of town and away from consistent wifi for over three weeks while I went on vacation and attended DragonCon. I apologize for the lack of writing posts. Now that I’m home, I intend to focus on my blog again. Before my vacation, I had finished a series of blog posts about writing a few weeks ago, and one of those posts dealt with description. (Click here to read my earlier post on description.) Because description will make or break your story, I want to cover it in more detail.

Creating a main impression can be one of your strongest allies when trying to get your readers to fully picture the details in your story. Today, we will focus on the concept of creating a main impression, and over the next few days, I will describe a few techniques.

Creating a Main Impression:

First, I must mention the writer’s quandary: word count. We are bound by word count because of our publisher’s requirements, our own rules, and our readers’ attention spans. We walk a fine line between describing our scenery and boring our readers with too many words. Creating a main impression is a technique that minimizes our word count by getting our readers to imagine the scenery without us describing it in full.

Think about Honeydukes in Harry Potter. J. K. Rowling didn’t give us every detail about the candy shop, but we all felt as though we were right there. When we saw the movie, it fit with our original picture. Rowling created a main impression for us and let our minds create the rest. If you do a good job creating a main impression in your reader’s mind, your reader will fill in many of the details you don’t have time to write. Often, the reader’s mind will create something scarier, more beautiful, or more fearful than you can do on your own.

To create a main impression, we must influence our readers’ emotions.

Reading a good book is an emotional experience. No one sits down to read a good fiction book and hopes it’s boring. Readers want to feel what the characters feel; they want to be part of the journey and experience our world. Everything we do with characters, plot, writing techniques, style, and description is merely a tool that helps feed our readers’ emotional experience.

Take this to the smallest element of your story: the scene. Each scene should create a particular emotion in your reader, and leave him or her with a main impression. This means we need to know the main impression we want to leave our readers with in each scene. Therefore, the first step to creating a main impression: knowing what emotion you are driving at in your scenes.

Go back through your story and concentrate on the scenes. Ask yourself these questions:

  • What main impression am I trying to leave the reader with here?
  • What emotions do I want my reader to experience?
  • Does my writing drive the reader to that emotion? (Yes, it is your job to drive the reader. You are the author. You have to do the work.)
  • Is the scene kind of “blah?” How can I rev it up? (BTW, if your scene is not emotionally charged, you need to change it.)

You need to know what you want your reader to feel in each scene before you can begin to create a main impression. So get to know your story. Develop an understanding of how you want to affect your reader’s emotions. And stay tuned for the next post where we will be discussing how to choose details that enhance those emotions.

Fantasy novelist M. B. Weston is the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason. Weston speaks to children, teens, and adults about writing and the process of getting published. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit www.mbweston.com. Find out more about The Elysian Chronicles at www.elysianchronicles.com.

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In Memory of the 9/11 Victims

Posted on September 11, 2012 by M. B. Weston

FYI, I posted a blog titled “In Memory of the 9/11 Victims” on my personal blog site. Click here to read it.

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M. B. Weston’s DragonCon Schedule: Monday, September 3rd

Posted on September 3, 2012 by M. B. Weston

Today, I am not scheduled to be on any panels–so far. However, you can find me wandering the halls of the Atlanta Marriott and the Hilton looking exhausted.

I still have a few books left, so contact me via Twitter or Facebook if you want to purchase one. I’m willing to come find you in return for a cup of coffee! 😉

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M. B. Weston’s DragonCon Schedule: Sunday, September 2nd

Posted on September 2, 2012 by M. B. Weston

M. B. Weston’s DragonCon Panel Schedule today is as follows. You can also find her on the DragonCon smartphone app under M. B. Weston (two names under Adam West):

——————-
Title: Reading: M.B. Weston
Time: Sun 10:00 am Location: University – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

——————-
Title: Autograph Session
Time: Sun 02:30 pm Location: M301 – M304 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)

Please note that Ms. Weston will not have a booth this year, but you can still purchase books at both her reading and her autograph session.

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M. B. Weston’s DragonCon Schedule: Saturday, September 1st

Posted on September 1, 2012 by M. B. Weston

M. B. Weston’s DragonCon Panel Schedule today is as follows. You can also find her on the DragonCon smartphone app under M. B. Weston (two names under Adam West):

——————-
Title: Belief Systems in SF and Fantasy 102
Description: A further exploration of the various kinds of belief systems found in sf and fantasy.
Time: Sat 02:30 pm Location: Fairlie – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

——————-
Title: Tolkien & Lewis
Description: Lewis and Tolkien and Fantasy and Faerie. Author M.B. Weston, Professor Constance Wagner and more!
Time: Sat 07:00 pm Location: Hanover C – E – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

Please note that Ms. Weston will not have a booth this year, but you can still purchase books at both her reading and her autograph session on Sunday.

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MB Weston’s DragonCon Schedule, Friday, August 31st

Posted on August 31, 2012 by M. B. Weston

M. B. Weston’s DragonCon Panel Schedule today is as follows. You can also find her on the DragonCon smartphone app under M. B. Weston (two names under Adam West):

——————-
Title: Coming of Age
Description: YA authors talk about the books they read as teens.
Time: Fri 10:00 am Location: A707 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)

——————-
Title: Villains in the Potterverse
Description: A discussion of those characters you love to hate: the bad boys and girls in Harry Potter’s world.
Time: Fri 02:30 pm Location: International South – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

——————-
Title: The Hunger Games- From Page to Screen
Description: So you’ve read the Hunger Games books, and you’ve seen the first movie. How did it fare in the transition from book to movie?
Time: Fri 05:30 pm Location: Hanover C – E – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

Please note that Ms. Weston will not have a booth this year, but you can still purchase books at both her reading and her autograph session on Sunday.

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