Okay, let’s write a real post tonight. The cat’s still in heat, but we’re soldiering on. Melissa read somewhere that this can last up to 21 days. Worst case scenario, we’ll have a chance to get good sleep in Boston this weekend.

Personal News

I’m heading into the office tomorrow, assuming my car starts. I realized around lunch time that I hadn’t driven in a while, so we were going to take it through Wendy’s. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t start. The battery got too low. I have jumper cables, and I have an EverStart jump start device, which is plugged in and charging as I write this. The EverStart has never worked for me before, but we’ll give it another try and hope for the best. If my car starts, Melissa and I will go for a long ride.

Upcoming Events and Such

Not much new to report, with Arisia still right in front of us. Boskone is the next month after that. My birthday is in March, and I’m not entirely sure which events we’ll do later in the year. There are some I want to do, but it’s hard to commit at this point.

The Topic: Writing is a Magic Trick

I wanted to get back on topic and say more about One for the Road. It’s about a couple of well-meaning witches in a modern world. The main character, Tina, is recruited by her best friend Alexa to help with a dire situation, because there is certain magic Tina knows that Alexa needs.

Magic.

Recently, I was talking with someone about writing, and they were talking about how they needed to go into great detail about some part of the story that didn’t really have anything to do with the plot or the characters. They just felt compelled to fill in the blanks, because stories are supposed to have depth, right?

Well… not really.

Good writing is a magic trick. The writer creates the illusion of depth where none exists. Given a few key words with the right connotations, the reader fills in the blanks themselves. The writer doesn’t have to go into painstaking detail about everything. In fact, if the writer attempts it, they’re going to create a slow, lumbering slog that readers won’t enjoy. Chances are, the writer won’t enjoy writing it, either.

Short form writers have to learn this more than novelists, though all writers can benefit from this idea. Just provide the details necessary for the story to remain structurally sound, plus a little bit more. This keeps things tight and the opportunity to speed up and slow things down according to the demands of the story. It also allows the reader to be a more active participant in the story.

Readers will imagine details the writer leaves out. They will imagine details that are difficult to put into words. And they’ll do it without thinking about it. If the writer crowds them out with the minutia, the reader will get bored, and the story will be less vibrant.

Good writing is an illusion made up of a bit of misdirection and a smattering of obfuscation.

It’s magic, which is what One for the Road is all about.