Allow me to explain. (HA! Caught me, didn't you?) But this is a brief expository essay, not a story.)
Last week my class played the What's in the bag? game. Briefly, the goal is to write an original scene and in it conceal an object, allowing the secret to generate excitement and momentum. (See 9/2/07 for a fuller description.) I had everyone break up into writing teams of three. What I observed was all but one team revealed what was in the bag by the end of the scene. Which meant end of interest, end of story. So we ended up with a lot of blackout scenes that led no where, because most fell into the sand trap of the desire to explain.
Notice that explaining is qualitatively different than describing. The latter is an integral part of our craft. I've noticed in my own work my tendency to under-describe the details of the action and the physical world. I may have a vivid picture in my mind's eye, but neglect getting that picture on the page so that readers can share it with me.
Which leads me to the confession that in the last two weeks all the rewriting I've done on Green Tara has been focused on expanding descriptions. I'm talking an added twelve pages out of what is now 150 and I'm only 20% into the story. At this rate I'll add another fifty pages to my young adult novel! Though I'm not sure it will follow, because it's in the beginning of a story that the reader needs enough detail to fully picture the story world.
I'll report soon, and forgive me for taking so long between posts. My attention has been very much on my novel rewrite and how to fully describe without falling into the sand trap of explaining.
