Words paint pictures

Said so often but it really came home to me today when, having finished reading an admirably detailed police procedural, the main characters and their activities described with warmth; the progression of the plot with clarity, I returned to continue with the writing of one of mine.

I was immediately struck with the comparative stark sketchiness of my version of a police briefing. Perhaps because the book just finished* dealt with painting, I realised that my paintings and prints similarly outline; drawn with the minimum of detail for the viewer to get the gist.

In part, with writing, my knowledge of police briefings is scant enough to provide a reason for lack of detail, yet I am reluctant to go seek it, believing readers deserve to exercise their imagination.

 The degree to which they wish to has, of course, an impact on how much they are likely to enjoy my books. When I finally get them published (and this one I'm only 80% through writing.)

*Jackie Baldwin's 'Perfect Dead', set in Dumfries & Galloway, much of the action in 'art town' Kirkcudbright.

Tuning in

What a difference an author makes!   Having finished re-reading, with huge enjoyment and in quick succession the wonderfully poetic Andrew Greig's 'The return of John McNab and 'Romanno Bridge' which deals with some lovely-but-alien-to-me fit, mountain-climbing and adventure-minded folk (plus some nasties) I have picked up P.D.James 'The murder room'   I think I was not especially enthralled by this when I first read it, but after just half an hour of her slow-paced descriptions I find that I have begun using a similar approach with my characters.   Not, most definitely not, plagiarism, just a tuning into a more naturally sympathetic way of writing.
It embarrasses me at times to realise that even at my age there are times when I 'need permission' or (as someone said a couple of days ago in a comment on MudSpots) 'validation' to do something similar (and the commentor is the same age as me, so that's all right then!)

HoW now over

We met on line at Six Sentences, got to know each other through writing and comments and wanted to extend the many friendships.   Last weekend we met in North Carolina.    Imagine fifteen of us, in one house, sat in a circle, taking it in turns to read out our stories on a theme of 'freedom' written especially for the occasion, imagine the pleasure in hearing the voice of the person whose words had previously only sounded inside our own heads.   Later that afternoon, as had happened the previous day, we used the Thinking Ten format to write, using randomly-generated prompts to kick start a ten minute tale.   No-one could be in any doubt whatsoever that they were in the company of most excellent writers as each in turn demonstrated originality and a truly impressive turn of phrase.

Now the question is "When shall we all meet again?"