Learning new skills

Well, today I let the finished story sit before I begin the next round of editing.  I worked on my erotica/romance as normal, but instead of editing, I pulled out the next story I was going to do.  I had already started it, just a little bit ( a couple thousand words), so I fleshed out the outline more.

I was inspired, so I wrote a scene near the end of the story, before the action of the finale.  It was supposed to be suspenseful and mysterious, gloomy and nerve wracking.  I’ve never actually written anything like that before.  Sure, I’ve written angst and emotional upheaval, but not a mystery or suspense type scene.  It would be an interesting challenge.

I’ve been learning How to control pacing and set a mood using words, so I thought I’d try it out in my first draft.  Even if I failed, it would give me something to improve when my next round of editing happened.  I was on a roll and got most of the scene down.  It flowed out easily.  I slowed some parts down with my writing, and let other parts speed up, also letting my writing carry the reader along.

After I was done writing for the morning, I let my guy read the scene.  I was looking for his opinion on how well he liked the idea, did it make him feel anything, and did he want to know what was next?  He answered a resounding love the idea, he felt freaked out and almost died when the skeleton moved, and couldn’t wait to read the rest of the story.  Success!  Obviously I still had to polish it later, and write the rest of the book, but my studies on word usage were going well.

Basically, for fast action, cut all unnecessary words and have things happen fast in short sentences.  The character’s focus will be narrowed, so ignore all but the essential details and action.  When building the mystery, add a few more descriptors, not just of the surroundings, but of how it makes the character feel.  It’s in the details, like ‘her mouth felt dry and her hands shook,’ not just mentioning that ‘she felt scared.’

The best part about being an author is the chance to try out so many different types of stories.  I can push myself and become a better writer with each new skill gained and book written.  It’s exciting, putting words to screen and seeing what happens.  Sometimes even I don’t know until I’ve written it down.

Go play with words.  Try to build a scene with those words, placing a character inside.  How do they feel?  What do they see?  Do they react to their scene at all?  Tell us how.  Happy writing!