One of my
favorite writing tips came from the late Ron Benrey. He taught it to me about
ten years ago. He called it The Magic Paragraph. It and much more are in his
book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Christian Fiction.
When Ron
left us to enter heaven and teach them all how to write, his wife, Janet, gave
me permission to pick up the mantle on his Magic Paragraph and pass it on. This little gadget has worked well for me.
The Magic Paragraph:
- Signal which head to enter.
- Record an appropriate sense, emotion or mental faculty
- Show appropriate action or response
- Repeat if necessary
Breaking
that down, the first one is fairly self explanatory. Begin by letting the
reader know whose POV.
Jane plopped her backside down on
the curb.
We know
we’re in Jane’s head. You don’t have to start with the name, but give it fairly
soon, so the reader knows who it is. In the book I’m writing now, I start it
this way:
The
morning fog was about as thick as the pea soup Great-aunt Lola used to make.
Claire hated that soup then and she didn’t much like this fog now.
I give you Claire’s name in the second
sentence. And you wouldn’t confuse the POV character with Great-aunt Lola,
because she wouldn’t think of herself that way.
In those same two opening sentences, I
have both the first and second bullets in the magic paragraph.
I signaled whose head to enter and then
I recorded an
appropriate sense, emotion or mental faculty for the character. Here’s
another one to follow Jane’s opening line.
Her
spirit was so low she could probably dangle her feet and not touch the water
trickling in the gutter.
Next is
to show an appropriate action.
For
Claire it’s: She
swished her hand back and forth in an impotent attempt to dispel it.
For Jane:
She pulled a crumpled tissue from her
pocket and blew her nose, wishing she could blow away her problems as easily.
The last item
is Repeat if necessary. You need to keep the reader grounded in your POV
character’s head. This little gadget, the Magic Paragraph, isn’t a formula per
se. It’s a guide to showing what’s in your character’s head. Take your reader
on the journey, making them privy to your POV character’s innermost thoughts.
Jane plopped her backside down on
the curb. Her
spirit was so low she could probably dangle her feet and not touch the water
trickling in the gutter. She pulled a crumpled tissue from
her pocket and blew her nose, wishing she could blow away her problems as
easily.
So there you have it, The Magic
Paragraph. Use it to help keep your story and your reader grounded in your character’s
POV.
Home to Chapel Springs, (available now)
A homeless author, a heartbroken
daughter, and a theatre ghost. There’s trouble in Chapel Springs.
There’s
always someone new in Chapel Spring, either coming home or stirring up trouble.
Bestselling
author Carin Jardine’s latest book is a flop. While the reviewers are happily
skewering her, her racecar-driver-husband walks out on her and she’s evicted,
because he hasn’t paid the lease on their condo for the last three months. Then
she discovers he also he drained their bank accounts. Homeless and broke, she
and her little boy have no choice but to retreat to the house she inherited from
her nana in Chapel Springs—the house that’s been gutted. Then, a stranger
knocks on her door. One that will change the course of her life.
After
the residents thwarted Howie Newlander’s plans for a Miami-style resort on
Chapel Lake, he’s running for mayor and spreading rumors about diverted water
and misused taxes. The Lakeside Players want to remodel the town’s old theater,
but it’s rumored to be haunted. When Newlander and Mayor Riley go head-to-head,
Claire gets caught in the middle.
Claire’s
youngest daughter is in love with a young man whose daddy is none other than
Mayor Felix Riley…the man who man who blames Claire for every wrong in Chapel
Springs. Having him part of her family isn’t in Claire’s plan. The years of her
heartache should warn her daughter off this boy. So far, her daughter’s heart
isn’t hearing the warnings.
With
hearts pulled in all directions, will they find a home in Chapel Springs?
TWEETABLES:
Excellent advice, Ane!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Normandie. It was a turning point for me and helped me get rid of a distant narrator. :)
ReplyDelete