A Great Stillness – Guest Author Jack Blaine

Jun 23, 2011

Jack Blaine lives in a wet green part of America, where he writes books about how brave and cruel and wrong and kind people can be, and what that can make the world look like. His scifi novel HELPER12, is available on Kindle and Nook. You can read the first two chapters on his blog, at http://jackblainebooks.blogspot.com.

Imagine in great stillness . . .

I’ve been lucky to get compliments on the veracity of my writing—that is to say, people have told me that when they read some of the passages that I write, they can really see or feel the thing I am describing, without me going on and on about it for five paragraphs.

I’m really happy to receive those compliments, but I sometimes feel a little guilty, too, simply because coming up with the precise way to describe a certain feeling or a certain thing is one of my favorite parts of writing.

I get to close my eyes and think about what my character is feeling or seeing, which means I get to “go there” myself. This can be a wonderful, fun thing (think about when a character gets to eat something delicious, or feel the sun on her
face, or make love) or a horrible, difficult thing (think about when a character loses his only love to a lingering death, or is attacked, or betrayed by someone he trusts).

The trick, I think, is to really go there—to close your eyes and imagine in great stillness.

That’s when you come up with just the right word, the word that truly conveys the exact thing you are trying to get across to your reader. Is someone angry? How does that feel? It’s hot, and it’s tense, and it’s red, and it’s tight. What words do you choose to say it?

When the asphalt is hot in the sun, what is that like? It’s wavy air, and soft tar, and oozing like molasses out of the asphalt’s pores. It’s sticky. Which things do you need to say to get that vision in your reader’s mind?

Is somebody in aguish? How does that feel? It’s black and it’s numb
and it tears inside. What else?

Is somebody in love? What is that like? It’s giddy and light, and a little bit frightening, like you might fall off if you don’t watch for the edge. How do you paint that for your reader?

We all share experiences, at least baseline experiences. I may never have been angry enough to kill someone, but I have been angry. I may never have sustained a loss so deep it makes me want to die, but I know loss. I know love, and fear, and joy. And if I try, I can go to those places once more, and extract the essence of them to put on my page.

For me, it’s all about getting still, closing my eyes, and imagining. Pretty soon, the right word comes. It’s one of the best parts of writing. You get to go there, wherever there might be, to take a little trip outside your self.

It doesn’t get much better than that!

Helper12 is now available on Kindle in the USA, the UK and Nook.
You can find Jack on his blog or on Twitter.