Saturday, November 16, 2013

Adding Details

Nothing beats firsthand experience for writing authentic sensory details. I know of two authors who walked barefoot in the snow, one who slurped raw turtle eggs, and another learned how to fire a flintlock rifle. 

In my novel, my protagonist must crawl through a tunnel while wearing a long skirt. The scene needed details. I considered crawling through a plastic tube on a kids’ climbing apparatus, but those tunnels are significantly bigger than the one in my novel. I constructed a small tunnel by balancing a sofa cushion over a chair arm and an end table. I put on my one long skirt and made the crawl. My first discovery was I couldn’t make it through on my hands and knees. I had to drop down to my elbows. My protagonist’s sleeves would get wet and dirty. Then my lower back hit the top, so I had to slide forward in almost a combat crawl. Her poor outfit! Then the knot I’d tied in the skirt to keep it out of the way came undone. Of course my furniture construction project was a cushier option than the stone tunnel facing my main character, but the details still helped me improve the scene. 

What have you done to make your novel realistic?

6 comments:

TimInMich said...

Very cool, Ann! That wouldn't have occurred to me. You've made me think of something that never occurred to me in all my giant writings: go meet a giant. Doh!
I've collected pictures and articles ... and now I've just done a bit of googling and found some new stuff! A list of tallest people on Wikipedia says that Adam Rainer is the only person known to have been both a dwarf and a giant! Hmm, hmm ...
And now there's a website called thetallestman.com. Gee, I'm glad you posted that, Ann.

Ann Finkelstein said...

Tim: I'm glad it helped. I almost didn't post that entry because I thought it sounded so silly. What writers do in the privacy of their own homes ... crawl under the furniture.

Wyman Stewart said...

Crawling on stone is hard work and hard on the body. Did you encounter spiders and other creepy crawlers? What odors did you smell in your tunnel? What time of year was this? Were there any noises outside / inside the tunnel? How long and dark was your tunnel or was it well-lit by daylight? Where was your tunnel located (imaginary); not many house tunnels, although they do exist. I think there is a Tunnel novel here! :-) Happy Tunneling!

(Did you think of consulting an expert (child) the age of your character? Kids tunnel.)

Ann Finkelstein said...

All good points, Wyman. It looks like I have more revising ahead of me.

Kristin Lenz said...

Fun to picture you doing this and what you learned. I've acted out certain movements from my scenes, but not quite to that degree yet!

Ann Finkelstein said...

I should probably have a party for my writer friends where we all have to act out our most challenging scene.