Saturday, October 18, 2008

Watching from the Wings







One of my present revision problems is breathing life into a character who is often off stage in my story. I learned much from reading Hattie Big Sky. In this novel, Hattie has a friend who is fighting in WWI. Consequently, he never appears in Iowa or Montana where the story takes place. We meet him through Hattie's letters to him, a few of his letters to her and small memories (sometimes called back-flashes). Larson didn't have to resort to using two points of view or long flashbacks to get this character on the page.

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