We are informed by our experience. A lot of my experience comes from cinema. I am informed by cinema.
Many readers have told me they can “see” the scenes I write, that my style is “cinematic.” I take this as a compliment, as it is something for which I strive. I want the reader to see it in their mind. I won’t provide each hair or feather or leaf in a scene—that would be awful—but I want my words to paint just enough of the picture that the reader has all she needs to move forward and fill in the details she wants.
But I am definitely informed by cinema. Case in point: a scene I just came across during my re-edit of The Spirit of Thunder. I remember writing the scene, I remember storyboarding it out in my head. I remember knowing exactly what inspired me to construct the sequence as I did. (more…)
There’s a peculiar sound you can hear in my house, whenever the TV is on. It’s a little sound…something like…”muh.” You’d hear it more often during news broadcasts and unscripted shows than at other times. It wouldn’t take you long to realize that it comes from me.
There are few classes of words with a worse rep than adverbs. The title of this post, taken from George Meredith’s The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, is pretty much the gold standard of bad adverb use. Editors hate them; many writers eschew them. I, however, will stand up in their defense.
This past weekend, I gave myself some time off to enjoy “Borderlands 2” on Xbox, but that doesn’t mean I did nothing, writing-wise. I did a lot, actually…
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 