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This week: High-speed Duct Tape Edited by: Legerdemain  
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High-speed Duct Tape
Does anyone actually use it on ducts? You know that stuff, the silver all-purpose industrial tape used for all kinds of reasons. And it's not just men that use it, c'mon ladies, admit it, you'll bust out the tape when you need help. Like the time you were trying to cut a mutant string off a new set a drapes, slipped and jabbed a hole through the window screen. Or when you accidentally drove over your husband's fishing rod in the garage. You poked a hole through the tent with a tent pole? Duct tape. Hey, a little strip is good for fixing a broken heel until you limp home.
Driving around town, I see it's an awesome car-repair product. It holds mirrors, bumpers, and plastic over a broken window. (Although I'm quite sure the duct tape works on the freeway, the plastic bag rarely survives.) It even covers those embarrassing political bumper stickers of losing politicians. I hope you have a roll in your trunk. You never know.
Anyhow, sometimes you need a little duct tape when writing and editing. You suddenly invent a doorman character and you get stuck thinking of a name. Don't just sit there pondering! Throw a duct tape name like Fred on him and worry about an appropriate choice later in edit. In the edit process, you realize a character acts a certain way but your reader doesn't know why. Duct tape! Write in a flashback or back history and your dilemma is over. And then, well...you're really not sure how to kill off a character. Stop smiling; you know what I'm going to say...
Duct tape!
This month's question: What creative way have you used duct tape?
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Excerpt: My hands gestured expansively at the side of the car. A giggle escaped my lips, “Actually I don’t even know what to think, Joe.”
Excerpt: We were about two hours out from LOSS when there was a loud ZAP, SPLAT, ZING and I could hear the air hissing out of the cabin. I yelled, “Hull puncture, put your helmets on.”
Excerpt: I guess when my head hit the floor it rolled into the corner of the bathroom behind the toilet, and you know how the mung builds up back there. I shuddered to think what was living in that big grungy clump of brother gunk. Anyway, I picked the gob of hair out of my teeth, rebrushed them, and then rinsed my head off under the tap.
Excerpt: “When I arrived at the Johnson home, Willie was sitting on the porch with an ice pack duct taped to the side of his face. He was smoking a pipe. I introduced myself. He asked where you were and I told him you were busy but that I’d try and help him. He refused to open his mouth for me. All he did was sit on the porch in that rocking chair puffing away on his pipe. I decided to try and trick him. I said, “Willie, smoking is bad for your health. You can get cancer from it and die.”
Excerpt: The overuse of adverbs is a very common problem amongst writers. It can sneak up on you like a shadow and seduce you like a succubus (or incubus). In fact, I've heard tell that "adverb dependence" might just be voted in as the eighth deadly sin! Or maybe I'm just making that up...
Either way, I'm here not only to explain why adverb overuse is a bad habit, but how you might break it.
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Excerpt: Not five minutes later, her sensitive hearing picked up whispering coming from overhead. Without pausing in her futile attempts at weeding, she listened to see what they could possibly need to whisper about. Fixing thatch should not need so much verbal diarrhea!
Excerpt: The air itself felt oily as it crawled into his lungs, and the hair on the back of his neck stood up.
At least he knew he was in the right place.
Excerpt: “I’m gonna be alright” Sara made a feeble attempt to squeeze Julie’s hand. “My car is totaled, so I guess I’ll get that new Jetta I’ve been talking about.” Her voice rattled and drool bubbled at the corner of her mouth.
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This month's question: What creative way have you used duct tape?
Last month's question: What tips do you have for staying in POV?
Free_Rip  replies: Good points, and a very nice anecdote. 
R.R. Martin does this brilliantly. In his Game of Thrones, every chapter is from a different character's perspective. I think it's a great resource to see how professional's switch perspective, and how they change the 'voice' of their writing when they do so.
Not that you'd necessarily be changing perspectives in your story, but knowing how to give a distinctive 'voice', work around what your character does and doesn't know, leave hints to the reader without making them too obvious, and having the character figure some things out and not others to a fairly consistent and believable degree of intelligence are all important and sometimes overlooked aspects of POV that he does really well.
Of course, a main question to ask is: 'what does the reader need to know?' and 'Can I believably let them know that from this perspective?' If the answer is no, that's where the fun starts. 
Lothmorwel submits: I have an issue with people being unrealistic with their first-person perspective. A character will simply do things, think things and say things. He won't analyse the way in which he sweeps his hair back from his forehead or explain how exactly he mutters under his breath or describe his whole outfit in detail. It irritates me when people say 'I gracefully strode into the room, my blue robes flowing around my muscular legs'. Most people don't think like that. If you want to make your lead character a handsome stud then find a different way to convey that meaning!
LJPC - the tortoise answers: POV is one of the hardest parts of writing. You have to decide on whose POV best suits the story, and whether 1st or 3rd-person, or past or present tense, would be the best choice. I know many who've started novels in 3rd and then re-written them to 1st! I think that's one of the most important points about POV. You can take your time deciding which nuances suit the plot best; you can experiment; you can always change the approach later. Great NL! -- Laura
Ralph ?responds?: As per POV, this might help a little. Pen it first person then go back to use of "I" and swap that letter for he, she, the. Of course what you wrote about not telling details the protagonist would not know is true, agreed. Now who in the hell wrote this? The author is un-known and cannot really tell fully at happened. Wait, that is not POV trouble, it is... brain damage.
Is this the porno website? Wait, that was first person. Are there such things as porno websites? Whew, at least get the first person POV out of it unless you are a reporter for the NY Times. ~RR
Hey, someone catch that stranger who was just using my computer without permission! ...the sicko lurker was on the man's computer while he was out saving puppies and kittens.
Capish?
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Short Stories: June 08, 2011 Issue [#4442]
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