Comments on: Now. Yes, now.

By: Meredith

Meredith — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:00:47 +0000

Ouch! I think I do a too much of “but the reader needs to know” writing. This is really good advice. I intend to take it to heart.
.-= Meredith´s last blog ..Blow-me-away Blog Posts: Momentum =-.

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By: Danielle

Danielle — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:32:45 +0000

You can’t remind us writers in training often enough of the importance of making something happen on the first page. I go back to your blog, “Flogging the Quill” regularly to remind myself.

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By: Ray Rhamey

Ray Rhamey — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:23:54 +0000

John, all novels refer to past events in some way, and that’s not the point here. The point is that the narrative, as much as possible, happen in the “now” of the story. Flashbacks to past events can work when they become, for a short time, the “now” of a story because they are well told scenes, with conflict and drama. References to the past can be woven into an immediate scene without having to break into a flashback or exposition.

I don’t think what I wrote says to write a novel with “no references to past events.” But I’ve read many manuscripts that drop out of the immediate scene to deliver pages and pages of backstory. In my individual, subjective experience, that stops the story.

Hey, it’s your call. Writers are free to include anything and everything they think is needed. But if you’d read the 300+ opening chapters that I have in the past year or so, I think you’d come to see what I mean.

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By: John

John — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:09:05 +0000

Regarding the last paragraph of your post: If you could point out a successful, full-length novel currently in print that contains no references to past events, I’d like to read it.

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By: Jessica Scott

Jessica Scott — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:34:03 +0000

You bring up a good point and something that I’ve continued to try and exorcise from my own writing. For me, I’m trying to introduce military life to civilians so it’s similar to writing about another country or at least another culture. I find myself very much in the ‘but the reader needs to know’ mode a lot more than I’d like. But I’ve found that by figuring out how to explain in the now, rather than backstory helps, even though I still struggle with it.
Great post!

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By: Dwayne

Dwayne — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:59:39 +0000

Great post, Ray.

Some writers are brutal to us readers – it’s so unfair; they don’t give me anything to imagine during those first paragraphs and pages.

And reading without anything to visualize is sort of like chewing on hay – it’s bland, to say the least; or even worse, it’s like walking in the dark waving your hands around looking for something to grab on to. Not a pleasant feeling, right?

So I’m all for starting in the NOW and, in general, knowing who’s doing what, rigth from the start.

Dwayne

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By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:38:42 +0000

It’s funny – every time I think I am in the now, I find I am closer, but maybe not right there. Taking a break from my intro and revisiting it goes a long way toward recognizing that.
.-= Jonathan´s last blog ..100 Comments! =-.

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By: Richard Mabry

Richard Mabry — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:52:54 +0000

Ray,
As always, excellent advice. If I can’t tell through whose eyes I’m viewing the opening scene, in whose situation I find myself, I’m less likely to feel like investing more time in the work than it takes to skim those first sixteen lines.

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By: Therese Walsh

Therese Walsh — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:35:28 +0000

It’s too easy for readers to give up on a book. Better give them a reason to latch on early, and “now, yes, now” is a great formula for doing just that.

Thanks for a great post, Ray!

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By: Chantal

Chantal — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:16:02 +0000

To achieve the urgency of the “now”, I think it helps to write a book in the present tense. Even if you change the tenses later.
.-= Chantal´s last blog ..The Life of an Expat, Part 1 =-.

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