Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Story World

When reading the next little section of Techniques of a Selling Writer, I learned how some things stick in your mind. My copy iof Swight V. Swain's book had been loaned out and never returned. I was doing a talk at NJRW about World Building For All Genres. I really remembered all the points in this book when it had been five or six years since I'd had a copy of the book in hand. So look at what these are.

Unfamiliar world. Whether you write contemporary, historical, paranormal, fantasy or science fiction, the reader doesn't know your world. As the writer, you need to draw them into the world. That was his first point. So you really need to know your world to draw the reader inside.

How does one do this? Through the senses is the second point Mr. Swain made. This is something I need to go back and remind myself of so many times. When I write about a hospital, how do I bring the chaos this world seems to the reader into focus. Sight, sound, smell, taste and touch are essential to making the world become one the reader can enter.

For a time, while re-reading this section, the third point puzzled me.  The world you're creating is subjective. Finally I realized what this meant. The focus character must interact with the setting and his or her actions and reactions to the world are what makes a reader believe in the story world you've created.

What I'm saying is often just a few pages you've read stick with you and soom become an automatic writing response.