What does a writer do?
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They write.
Yes, but… write what???
This is the lesson. This ultimately is what makes a good book, a good screenplay. There’s a number of things that we do. Understanding them and applying them helps to focus in your goals and make you a better writer.
- A Writer builds worlds. I don’t mean a literal world with faeries fluttering, but rather… I show you the grime on the shelves in the room. The tipped over empty soda bottle. The old empty food containers that have been there for a week. If you see the scene, then the writer did his job. In the screenplay version of my first novel, I describe the Ham Radio guy’s minivan as being “filled with junk but the Ham Radio rig was exquisite.” You should be able to see the inside of it now with those few words.
- A Writer builds characters. I don’t mean the “fill in your character bio” thing. There was a description of a woman I read once in a story. The writer described “dust trapped in the wrinkles on her face”. Instantly you knew everything about her, even though she was in one scene, and you never saw her again in the book. You knew her. If you can do that, your book becomes plausible. My Ham Radio guy in the book and screenplay I describe as having “excessive ear hair.” Yeah, you pretty much see him now, don’t you? I didn’t say anything about the mustard stain on his t-shirt, but you knew it was there without me having to say anything.
- A Writer builds emotions. And ultimately, this is the trick. If I write a scene you feel, then I have done my job. Writing costs you. You suffer as you write these scenes. I’ve written a scene where a mother begs and bargains for the life of her child. She knows she’s going to die. That scene cost me horrifically. I can’t even begin to describe the soul-wrenching sorrow as I wrote that scene. I’ve written scenes where people have to say goodbye to someone they love as that person dies. I cannot tell you how I suffered writing those scenes. These people don’t exist, but I suffered and wept for them as I wrote it. I’ve tried to describe the terror you feel as you are caught just outside the blast radius of a nuclear blast. I’m not writing this so I feel it – you’re going to buy the book in hopes YOU feel it.
- And the fourth goes without saying – the writer hopes to make a living writing, so that they can spend the rest of their days uninterrupted writing scenes like that, so that you too can feel them.
Conclusion
If you’re a reader, you now know some of the inside story of writing, and maybe get a glimpse into what it costs us to write.
Have you read a book where the emotion choked you up?
