Thursday, September 27, 2012

Memories


Accessing memories can be an excellent way to spice up your writing. The best ones to use are the ones that have strong emotion attached to them. For example, the passionate feeling of that first kiss, the intense fear during that car accident, or the anger at being laid off from that job into which you had put so much sweat. 

It’s not so much the joke you remember that’s important, but the memory of the laugher. Not so much the death of your pet, but the recollection of the sadness you felt.

One time I needed to create a scene that contained shock. I remembered the moment as a child when I first found out Kennedy was shot. Even though the incident I was writing about had nothing to do with that event, recalling my racing heartbeat and speechless chills helped me to put the emotion I needed into that scene.
 
Go ahead and try this technique if you want; experiment with it and see if it works for you. But the main thing is to keep writing.

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