Tuesday, April 26, 2011

♥.•*¨V is for . . .

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Visceral!

What is visceral? It is the bodily happenings when someone is experiencing an emotion. When you include that in your writing, it gives the reader a sense of reality and connection with your characters.

Let's see how John, my temp MC, reacts to this sentence:

The creature, eyeless in the deep night, slithered closer; death in its breath.

Before:

 John fell and screamed, unable to move.


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After:

John fumbled, his hands like blocks of trembling ice, his feet leaden things that weighed his heart to a standstill.


Do you illicit visceral reactions in your characters?

19 comments:

Trisha said...

Love your excerpts, and this is a fun experiment!

mooderino said...

John's first reaction is how I imagine I would react when faced by a monster. And then I'd get eaten.

River said...

your blog is beautiful. :)

the writing pad said...

What a great V word! Love the examples, fear the Creature, sympathise with John :-)

Leigh Caron said...

Vuh, vuh, vuh very good illustration.

S.A. Larsenッ said...

Absolutely! Love your example.

Debora Dennis said...

Great blog - and a great "V" word. Definitely grabbed me.

Gujjari said...

Wow! Wonderful V-Word post in A2Z blogging challenge.

I love your post and blog.

Please stop by my blog and if you feels its worthy to follow, please follow it.

With warm welcome,

http://mydaughtersdreams.blogspot.com

Old Kitty said...

Your after remake of your sentence gets it in one!! Yay for you!!! The pics are fab too btw!!

Take care
x

Anonymous said...

Great V word and great example pf showing rather than telling.

Tomz said...

Hi Elizabeth..

Great writing style..indeed terrific..

Thanks for following me..I found u as an awesome writer and a marvelous illustrator..

Anonymous said...

Elizabeth...you have a wonderful writing style, or shall I say vonderful..loved the excerpts.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Elizabeth Mueller said...

Trisha, thank you!

Mood, lol! Yes, I would too! :D

River, thank you!

Karla, thank you!

Em, lol, thank you :)

Salarsen, thanks!

Gujjari, thank you!

Talli, thank you!

Jennifer, I'm glad you like. :)

Catherine, thank you!

Tomz, you're welcome! Thank you for the luv!

Rachna, *wink* Thank you! :D

Donna K. Weaver said...

Love your after version. This is something I so need to learn how to do better.

Melissa Ann Goodwin said...

oooh! death in his breath! love it!

Shari said...

I hope so! Great word, btw.

Unknown said...

Love the description of the creature. Very visual. I love giving my characters visceral reactions to situations. It makes it all more immediate and exciting.

Elizabeth Mueller said...

Donna, thank you! It's something that I'm still working with.

Melissa, thank you!

Shari, thank you! :)

Melissa, isn't it great? I would love to read something of yours! <3