  Action/Adventure
This week: Story Pacing Edited by: Legerdemain  
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Story Pacing
Next month is Horror/Scary month at WDC, with many of the upcoming contests involving horror and scary writing. For the action/adventure writer, some of this might feel easy. I'd thought I'd reiterate one of the important writing elements when it comes to emotional writing; pacing your story.
The best scary movies are the ones where you know something scary is going to happen, but the anticipation is what makes it awesome. The scary music starts to play; the camera pans oh-so-slowly across the screen and the darkness envelopes the victim. Then WHAM! The chainsaw comes out and next thing you know there's flying bits of gore and your happy camper is staring blankly at the screen without a body.
Think about the pacing of the movie and help translate that into your writing. Setting up the scene can be done slowly. Only use important information with perhaps only one "red herring" to throw off the reader. Use description to pan their imagination across the scene and build the anticipation. Longer sentences help slow the pace in this part. The readers need to see the darkened windows, but not the gingham curtains - stay focused.
Short dialog or scary sounds could come next. Use short sentences, straight to the point and pull the rising action to the top. At this point, don't spend time on the surroundings. Focus in on the characters and build the mounting anticipation. *sweatdrop* Use choppy short sentences caused by emotional distress. One of writing's most interesting tricks is its ability to mirror the action it depicts.
"One way to see if you're not being honest with your character's emotions is to look for excess emotional qualifiers. They're often an indication that you're "telling" the reader how to feel at this point, rather than letting readers develop their own feelings through the characters' actions and responses. When you see an emotional qualifier -- fearless, angry, tender, overjoyed, anguished, devastated, etc. -- ask yourself if it would be better to replace that qualifier with the series of small action-reaction events (eg, physical motions) that create the context for that emotion." ~Tara K. Harper
The point of greatest tension, the climax, should happen quickly and contain the turning point in your story. Then comes your falling action, wrapping the loose ends of the story and tying the characters together emotionally. I find that leaving a little "unknown factor" in the story gives the ending a bit of juice. It's something for your reader to think about and perhaps you'll write another story using that loophole.
I hope you find these tips helpful next month and I look forward to reading your scariest! Write on!
This month's question: What elements do you use to pull your rising action to the story climax?
Send in your reply below!  Editors love feedback!
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Excerpt: Even a fool could see that their flame of rebellion had burnt out. Just a few minutes ago, a smoke bomb, plummeting through a broken window of the broadcasting station they’d taken over, had sent several unwary men to the floor moaning and coughing, clawing at their eyes. Yet others had re-sworn allegiance to the oppressive local government.
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Excerpt: He heard a grunt behind, and turned to see his lanky companion, Balfor, trip over a rock and fall flat on his face.
Excerpt: Tom had been listening to this rubbish for most of the last day. In sixty-five years of marriage, they had never been apart. Now she was telling him to go off without her.
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Excerpt: Nicholas Ellsworth winced inwardly as the grumbling sailors more or less threw his field laboratory, which they took to be an outsized steamer trunk, onto the stern of the launch, then stood around as if waiting for a tip. Ellsworth wasn't having it. His admonitions to handle the irreplaceable equipment with care had been met with curses, and, he was willing to swear, a conscious effort to be even rougher in its treatment. He stood back against the ship until the men passed him with threatening looks, and climbed back to the deck of the side wheeler, then hopped lightly across onto the launch, last of the twenty-odd passengers disembarking here.
Excerpt: The clump clump of a heavy shoe beat upon his pounding heart. He clamped his hands over his ears and squeezed his eyes shut till tears ran down his cheeks. Louder and louder, stronger and stronger the pounding became till a hand grabbed his hair and raised his head.
Excerpt: It happened a year ago today, on Johnny's birthday. I can't imagine how many times I've replayed the events in my mind since then.
Some great suggestions and examples.
This round's inspirational quote - "Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words." ~Titus Maccius Plautus
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This month's question: What elements do you use to pull your rising action to the story climax?
Send in your reply below! Editors love feedback!
Last month's question: What is one of your common errors?
Doug Rainbow  replied: "Well" has more meanings than "healthy." It is an adverb and means "competently," proficiently," or maybe even "adequately." I hope I stated this adequately.
Lightbringer answered: "Alright / All right - Alright is not a word. All right is." - I thought the same thing until Lord Matt Bird pointed out otherwise. Both versions are actually grammatically correct, it's just that so many people have been told otherwise, that they persist in stating alright isn't a word.
Here's the link to merriam-webster's definition so you don't have to simply take my word for it: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alright
"Well / Good -Well means healthy. Good is an adjective and can be used with words like "be, look, feel"." - Not so simple. Well also means in a good or proper manner. See definition on this page: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/well
Fiona Hassan commented: When I saw that this newsletter was about grammar I thought, "Aww shoot, boring..." But I decided to read it and I'm glad I did: the farther/further and the alright/all right issues had been bugging me for years. So nice to have them cleared up.
Chickwit said: Arghhh
Oh how I mess up my Than & Then entries... Really it's embarassing but I have been haunted by them for 20 years.
I'm just going to print those on some card stock and keep them nearby for writings sake!
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Action/Adventure: September 19, 2012 Issue [#5270]
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