Hi Reader,
I can't paint.
I tried though. Gave it a good shot.
Still life. Portraits. Plein air.
I produced nothing that warranted a frame.
But it wasn't a waste of time. I was in the company of real artists.
And while I was beating my head against a wet canvas, I noticed how few tubes of paint the good ones needed to create real art.
Writing isn't so different. Much of a novel comes down to four colors:
- Description (rooting us in place or time)
- Action (walking, nodding, fighting)
- Dialogue
- Interiority (what the character is thinking and feeling)
Four tubes and millions of ways to mix them.
Ken Follett has always been one of my favorite authors.
When I decided to write my first thriller, I pulled Eye of the Needle off my shelf and reread it. Twice.
Brilliant, cinematic storytelling. By the way, put that one on your list if you haven’t read it.
Every page was a movie playing behind my eyes.
How did he do that?
Could I do that?
Well, this will probably not surprise you, but I'm a bit of a nerd. So I created a self-study course: Follett 101.
The Dollar General had highlighters. I bought four.
I can see the heads shaking. I know. The thought of marking up a novel is driving a few of you insane. I understand. I'm sorry.
But this was science.
Kind of.
Action was orange. Description green. Dialogue yellow. Interiority blue.
And then I got to highlighting.
Color popped off the pages. Every paragraph was a rainbow. Some sentences had three colors.
What am I talking about?
Let's say a story requires a character to think about something in his past. That's blue.
The author could write three pages with one huge block of blue and call it a day.
Or the author could color the scene a little differently:
The character’s reminiscing while clomping in muddy boots across a white marble floor, ignoring the protests of the hotel clerk trying to keep pace.
That one?
Blue. Orange. Green. Yellow.
More cinematic? Probably.
When I was reading for pleasure, I knew what I liked but I couldn't tell you why.
When I got out the highlighters, I could see the brushstrokes.
But recognizing a masterpiece and painting one are very different things.
In fact, it took me about two years to figure out how to get the caps off half the tubes. When I first started writing, I pretty much only used two colors. Action and description.
I was nervous about making characters talk. I certainly didn't think to share what they were feeling and thinking.
Painting by numbers helped me understand how visual storytelling works.
Of course, I’m still figuring it out. We all are.
But you'll understand how gratifying it feels when I hear someone say that reading my books is like watching a movie.
Thanks for the lesson, Ken.
Happy Friday!
Andy
November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month
An update on Kath
Kath's November brain MRI and CT scans were as good as we could hope for. All that remains of her primary tumor is a nodule the size of a tic tac in her left lung.
Unfortunately, we can't confuse this with being cured. Stage IV lung cancer doesn't let us say that.
But we're getting more time. And with time comes more hope!
Thanks to you, this community raised over $10,000 for ALK Positive lung cancer research this year.
That is phenomenal!
Kath asked me to express her thanks to every one of you. Not just for the money, but for the love you've sent her way.
Our story was recently featured on the ALK Positive website. You can read about how we met and how we're dealing with this life-changing diagnosis.
Kath and I would be most grateful if you'd consider throwing a few dollars toward cancer research.
Help find a cure for ALK Positive Lung Cancer
Thank you!
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