Dig Deep Inside

You're writing a scene about killing people. A group of your spy-commandos are having a grand time mowing down hostiles left and right. You've never run a covert team before, so you start researching about team strategy. You've never shot an AK-47 before, so you start reading up on weaponry. You've never shot at anything before, so...what do you do? You've never seen a dead person before, especially from a gunshot wound, so...how do you write this?

Obviously, being a sane person, you aren't going to go out and kill someone and use this book research as your excuse. That's what's so wonderful about being a writer--your imagination can take you everywhere.

I'm very fortunate to have Ranger Buddy to answer many of my questions. He's been to war as a grunt. He knows what it's like to hoist an AK-47 for days, marching in hot jungles. He understands what it takes to pull the trigger. And he still remembers his first kill.

I'm also very "fortunate" that I've experienced certain events that gave me insight about death and destruction in a running crowd. As a kid, I was lost in the marketplace during the very scary time of civil unrest in Malaysia. I still remember the blood and the screams, the feeling that I should make myself really, really small.

During my travels, I've seen different things in other countries. Remember Poland, Walesa, and Solidarinosc? Crowd euphoria. Tension. I remember the teeshirts with Solidarinosc, proudly worn by youths everywhere. I still have that shirt somewhere in my closet! I was in a rally, wearing it, when the authorities came with the hoses. Not a good feeling....

All writers use their experiences to nurture and layer their scenes. You have to dig deep inside to find that nugget that would color your story. The death of your first pet with all its emotional pain can be that nugget; it doesn't have to be anything violent. It's the emotion that I, as a reader, harvest from the stories I read.

That's why I totally dislike any books that fudge around these kind of details. It's lazy writing, in my humble opinion. Most readers, especially romance readers, don't care if the writer isn't a CSI expert, but please do include the emotional value of that scene. It enriches their experience and makes the book great. And that's why I love Linda Howard ;-). Take for example, the little scene in Cry No More, in which she had the hero break the thumb of a woman. A violent, violent act. But later in his POV, La Linda gives his explanation why he chose to do that. And I went WOW. And genuflected ;-).

Can you think of a scene you've read that gave you that kind of emotional ooomph? I love collecting them.

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