Well, first, if you look at the last photo I posted, you will see that in the photo above, the corn has grown so high you can no longer see the mountains -- all in a matter of weeks. Shows how fast the summer is moving! It is also one of the best corn crops in years... just the right amount of rain and sunshine.
Actually, what I really want to talk about is not corn, but writing emotional scenes. In the last blog, we discussed how to write scenes that the reader can connect to. Part of that skill is writing what the character is feeling - love, hate, sadness, even emptiness - and then analyzing what causes those feelings. It's easy to write the cliches... "her heart skipped a beat when she saw him." But what about him made her heart skip a beat?
One of the strongest human senses is the sense of smell. A smell can evoke a memory of a person or place. I was on a hotel elevator at a conference and the doors opened and a man stepped in. We nodded and then said nothing and watched the numbers click by. About half way down, he turned to me and said, "You're wearing X," I answered yes - I told him that he was very good at picking that up. How did he know. He said, "My girlfriend wears that perfume." I had made him think of her at that moment. When my mother died, I was cleaning out her things. I came across her bottle of perfume. I kept it. I take it out sometimes and smell it, It somehow makes me feel close to her. I smell the salt air or decaying fish and shells at low tide and I return to my childhood by the ocean. I feel an overwhelming hurt, wishing I could go back - just for a few moments. You need to make your readers feel that when they read your words - if only I could go back.
What I'm trying to say is that you have to evoke these memories and feelings in your readers by association to an experience that they have had. Paint a scene... he enters a room and knows that she was here because her smell lingers. If you're a man, you will remember a woman in your life who left that lingering scent in your nose, in your head and in your heart. Maybe it's the aroma of tomatoes, beef, and onions from your mother's beef stew recipe that causes you to picture your family around the kitchen table having dinner, talking and laughing. Most families have those moments. If you're a woman, how about the smell of his aftershave. It evokes the first time that you stood in the bathroom doorway watching him shave. He stood, still glistening from the shower, a towel wrapped around his waist, slowly swiping the razor down his cheek removing the foam. His eyes connect with yours in the mirror... and? You can write very sexy scenes with out being explicit... make your readers feel and sense the heat.
Describe what intrigues your character... if male, maybe it's her eyes. Maybe they are large and fringed with long lashes. Maybe they change color with what she wears... blue to blue green to even a stormy grey when she's angry. Maybe it's her hair - blonde and long or red and curly, with a slight scent of flowers. He smells that flower and remembers... If female, maybe it's the way he flicks his hair when he's nervous or maybe the way he kisses... slow and soft, or hard and insistent. His smile that reaches his eyes and let's you know what he's thinking...
You get the picture by now... describe the scene, what the character feels and then let both your character and readers think about it - remember.
All I have for now... keep writing! I am still making my way through the sequel to Fiona. I think that I'm at the end point. I hope I am.
Till,
Judi
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