If you’ve been reading Uphill Writing for any length of time, you know that my posts are all over the map, seeming to be inspired by any number of things.
This morning as I was grazing the net I saw an ad for Netflix using a scene from a movie to draw the eye. It wasn’t much of a scene, showing a woman standing by a bed looking at a sleeping man. Further, the colors of the scene were shades of blue and black. Hmm. Shades of blue and black.
What was being represented was night-time.
Now, you, being observant and clever writers will have discovered that night isn’t blue. It’s gray, full of shadows, and in some cases totally dark. So why, you ask, is it always blue in movies? Because we can’t see in the dark. Movie makers use the Art of Suggestion to give you the impression of being in the dark while still allowing you to see.
How does this touch on the craft of writing? In many ways.
For example, in dialogue. As we have discussed elsewhere, we cannot really write dialogue the way people talk. It is, for the most part, too boring.
What about when your character has to do a dull and repetitive job. Do we describe every excruciating detail? I hope not. We describe the character’s feeling of boredom rather than the task.
Then, there is the jet pilot, the computer programmer, or the brain surgeon. Writers, generally, don’t have the time to learn all there is to know about such professions, but that cannot stop one from writing about them, now can it? So, we suggest. We talk about the sweat on the brow of the surgeon as he completes the delicate procedure. We talk about the g-force on the jet pilot’s body, but we don’t describe all of the dials, switches, buttons and levers needed in a dog-fight.
In some cases, what we leave out is more powerful than what we might try, perhaps unsuccessfully to describe. We suggest.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio... and isn't it time you experienced some of them?
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Except that some writers really do research all those dials . . .
Think “The Hunt for Red October” (and others of its ilk) which relied on years and years of research into nuclear submarines, and the cold war, and defections, and . . .
I’m with you . . . I’ll stick with suggestions and leave the details to those writing DVD owner’s manuals. LOL
I agree, Nancy, and some of those books are real page-turners. I think many of the writers of highly technical novels are people with a strong background in the particular technology, or at least have a real interest. Some writers, like James A. Michner, have huge staffs what do all the dirty work for them. Ah, to be rich and famous–and alive.
To paraphrase Barbra:
People . . . people who HAVE people . . . are the luckiest people in the world.
I want minions to do my dirty work!
Now! : )
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