About Writing by L. Allen Stovey Writing Narrative Clear concise narrative builds believable characters. Establish the tone of your narrative and dialogue and stick with it throughout your book. Read, Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. Avoid passive verbs. Use the active voice and action verbs. Action verbs speak directly to the reader. The passive voice looks like this: Bud was trying not to cry. Tears were filling his eyes and were spilling down his cheeks. The active voice would read: Bud tried not to cry. His eyes filled with tears. Using active verbs makes your narrative powerful, direct, and easy to understand. Try to stay away from passive verbs like was and were (is and are). Tone and Style Set the tone of your narrative from the start and be consistent throughout your story. Tough ex-cop/private eye: Way back in the 1990’s when I still found my courage in Kentucky bourbon straight up and a beer back, I transferred to Dade County, Florida, were I trained police cadets for Miami PD and did limited time with Miami Homicide. I stayed busy teaching a criminal justice class at the local community college, way up in a Hollywood. Writing Scenes Tie scene descriptions into the story. Use background that fits the tone and feeling of that part of your story. Your characters moods and the action or narrative should take place in an appropriate setting. Romance might take place on the dance floor or on the water at sunset. You might not want to set the scene for a serious talk about financial matters at a happy hour in the local pub. Use your imagination but, don’t waste the opportunity to set the readers mood with the place where the story unfolds. Tough Guy Private Detective Story- Setting the Scene for the initial crime to take place: South West Miami lined it’s streets with pink stucco and plaster homes designed to look like tiny Spanish Villas. In the early evenings fog from the ocean rolled in, mixing with dust and carbon monoxide. The mixture clung like dirty cotton to the cracked walls of the houses and buildings. At night street lamps glowed inside the fog with a dirty iridescence that you associate with security lighting in prison compounds. The palms on the boulevard were blighted by disease, the fronds clacking in the foul breeze. The neighborhood yards were filled with more gray sand than green grass. You get the idea that this might be a place where bad things often occur. Set your Scenes to enhance your story and keep on reading and writing. If you can somehow think and dream of success in small steps, every time you make a step, every time you accomplish a small goal, it gives you confidence to go on from there. John H. Johnson, Publisher
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 03:16:36 +0000