Some links may be affiliate links. I may earn money if you buy something or take an action after clicking one of these links on this site.
Rob Knowlan is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
GTFOutages
This has been a weekend for bypassing the modern world. Oh well, at least I caught up on some much-needed R&R…
Procrastinate? Maybe Later
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow. ~Mark Twain
Yeah, this weekend has been a real doozy. The power went out Friday after lunch and didn’t come back until the evening. Fortunately, we did get a chance to watch the latest episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It’s shaping up to be just as great as Wandavision.
Then on Saturday, the electricity was in full effect (Thank God), but the internet kept dropping at inconvenient times. 😠For instance, at the exact split-second that I was trying to e-file my taxes…
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
And it didn’t come back until this morning. 😠But it did allow me to sleep in and catch a couple of episodes of The Sopranos. Yes, I know I’m a bit late to the game on that one but whatever.
I’ve always been an arch-procrastinator. Sometimes it works out in my favor, sometimes not. I don’t really enjoy being rushed about things that are not of life and death urgency. It gets done when it gets done. That’s just how it is. If you’re in a hurry, do it yourself. If it’s on my plate, I’ll get to it as I see fit.
Brief Inter-lute
J. S. Bach – Partita in C moll BWV 997
Evangelina Mascardi, Liuto barocco
In honor of my outage weekend, I figured I’d serve up something unplugged and totally retro for your enjoyment.
The Baroque Lute she’s playing has a LOT of strings. I had a fair amount of difficulty with the standard six-string.
Luckily, some people do not suffer from my “lack of prerequisite manual dexterity” and are able to play pieces like this for us to enjoy.
Making An Impression
Painting from nature is not copying the object; it is realizing one’s sensations. ~Paul Cezanne
One of the advantages of writing from a first-person perspective is that you can allow the reader to walk virtually in the character’s shoes. Being able to provide this kind of vicarious experience takes imagination and attention to detail.
What do you want your reader to see, feel, know? It’s all under your control.
Thing is, you’ve got to be able to pick the bits that matter. There are so many details you can include. However, which details should you include?
Depending on the feeling you’re trying to create, you might focus on certain things and ignore others.
Depending on the personality of the character, you might focus on certain things and ignore others.
Depending on the action of the scene, you might focus on certain things and ignore others.
For instance, imagine the living room of an upscale residence. What did you see in your mind’s eye?
- Was it a cold, static museum piece?
- Was it dark and crowded with the appropriated bits and bobs of cultures around the world?
- Was it ostentatious and edgy with modern art on the walls and chairs that looked like crayon-colored hands?
Now, take that room from a variety of perspectives.
- The police detective investigating a murder might be looking for empty spots where stolen items used to be.
- A guest waiting for an audience with the homeowner might either be impressed or repulsed by the decor.
- A bankruptcy liquidator will be tallying up potential values for the items to be seized.
- A burglar being chased by the guard dogs might only be interested in determining the most direct line to the door while not tripping over chairs or end tables.
There are a lot of ways to look at the exact same thing. Look at your own house.
Do you have an upstairs? If so, does it look different if you’re trying to get there with crutches?
Things you take for granted suddenly become major obstacles if even one thing changes.
A handicap (whether temporary or permanent), a power outage, debris from a break-in (whether robbery or hurricane/tornado damage) or other sharp departures from the norm can really set a character on their ear.
Depending on how you’re handling your POV, you can include details of what they see, feel, smell, hear and think. Getting inside someone’s head can also provide feedback about the setting.
I’m reminded of the scene in Batman where Knox and Vale wander into one of Wayne Manor’s galleries of armor and weaponry. Knox and Vale react rather viscerally to Bruce’s collection while he seems to have lost track of the fact that the room even exists.
The three characters are in the exact same room seeing the exact same stuff but having three completely different reactions.
Sure, Vicki Vale is going along with Alexander Knox’s jealous evaluation of the collection, but it’s clear that she’s actually impressed. Bruce, on the other hand, is fairly ho-hum about it.
Well, there’s Saturday’s post on Sunday due to outages. Hopefully, I can get some dinner done before the power goes out on us again. Hope you’re having a fully powered weekend.