Move it

Happy Wednesday, everyone. Thank you all so much for allowing me to share some of my personal life with you on Monday.

Today, I wanted to really get back into the swing of things—and what better way to do that than to continue in our series?

Why do we need…

Movement?

Now, there are two different types of movement, when it comes to writing. There’s movements, or acts, within a story, but those aren’t what we’re talking about today. I literally mean movement, as in a character physically moving from point A to point B, or a car driving across the landscape of the story. It’s one of those things that we often take for granted, which is why I thought it would make a very welcome addition to our series.

From the point of view of a reader…

A story can get a little bland, to me, if nothing is happening. There are a lot of stories that require a couple characters to be in a room, talking, monologuing even, but it can get really boring really fast if a writer doesn’t at least add some movement into the scene. For instance, a boring scene is where two characters are standing in a room talking. An interesting one, to me, is the same scene with the movement of the characters’ hands and feet. Perhaps one is shifting back and forth, uncomfortably. Another might be playing with their hair, or might be unable to keep their eyes on one thing for any length of time. Even these little movements add a ton of detail and interest into any scene, and make me not get bored in reading it. Because sometimes, let’s face it, we readers can have short attention spans.

From the point of view of a writer…

I’m actually going to say practically the same thing. Don’t let your readers get bored. But don’t be repetitive, either. Find new ways to say the same thing. Grab your thesaurus if you’re out of words to describe the way a woman’s fingers are moving through her hair while she’s trying to pull it back into a bun. For that matter, find a different word for bun. But really, try to maintain interest in your readers by varying your word use in this way. Don’t just have your characters walk. Have some of them saunter, jog, skip, even hop if it makes sense for them to do so. They shouldn’t just blink, they should close their eyes for half an instant and open them again with a fury. Make your readers really feel like they’re in the story, by highlighting even the smallest of movements. It’s a lot of fun, once you really get into it.

From the point of view of an editor…

A lot of editors are going to tell you that these little movement details get to be convoluting and annoying after a while. They’re right, in some ways. As an editor, I want to see that you know when to use these strong movement details, when to key in on what the characters are actually doing, and when to skip it altogether. For instance, if a character is driving, I don’t need to know that their hands are on the wheel, unless it’s important for the storyline. Of course their hands are on the wheel. Otherwise, how would they be driving? So, I want to see that you know what you’re doing when it comes to movement. Don’t make your characters do things that don’t make any sense, and don’t tell me about ones that I don’t need to know. Which ones are which, you ask? Well, that’s honestly up to the story. If you need help figuring it out though, feel free to send me a message or email with a sample of your work. I’d be more than happy to help you out!

Movement is something we can’t ignore, in any story. We just can’t. It adds a much needed detail into your work, as long as it’s done well.

[love]

{Rani D.}

p.s. As promised, next week we’ll have some really fun giveaways going on! I’d intended to tell you all about it on Monday, but obviously that didn’t happen… So, check back in next week Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for chances to win autographed copies of my books!

More details to come. Promise.