Grief

Hi everyone,

I’ve had another busy life day where I wasn’t able to carve out much writing time. I did delete 47 words. I didn’t get to any pages that were missing micro-tension so I’ve now hit twenty pages with no micro-tension gaps. I think that’s because all the pages were high plot pages that I’ve worked on a lot. Either that or I’m losing some perspective.

Just in case, I spent some time looking at the same random pages in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. And I, coincidentally, hit high plot pages—three were from the crisis.

What I found amazing was the way that Suzanne Collins got across Katniss’s sadness and grief without hitting the reader over the head with things like tears, statements saying how terrible this is and so on, even though on an earlier page there were tears.

SPOILER ALERT FOR THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins:

The crisis pages were clearly a turning point for her POV character, Katniss, which as a writer, you want your crisis to be. This is Katniss’s first step on the path to becoming a rebel, to standing up to the capitol, however small the act.

The reader cannot help but grieve along with Katniss. Pathetic and emotion filled sentences like the following do an amazing job of getting across grief and deep sorrow:

“Good and safe,” I say as I pass under its branch. “We don’t have to worry about her now.” Good and safe.” (Page 238)

Wonderful grief filled words. And nowhere in them does Katniss say, I’m sad, or in pain or grieving or life is unfair (admittingly she does say life is unjust a few pages earlier-also a great moment).

What these sentences are is micro-tension at its best.

First, it is surprising that she would say this about a person who’s just been murdered. The reader would expect tears, or anger or for her to be railing at the world. But she isn’t. She is talking about her murdered friend being safe.

Safe in death.

We talk about safety as a precaution to prevent something bad from happening and from the ultimate tragedy, death. So the fallen friend is only safe because the worst thing that can happen has happened. And there is a little bit of delusion in the words on Katniss’s part, too. A coping mechanism for Katniss to continue living in the face of such an unfair tragedy and her resulting grief.

Not low hanging fruit, that’s for sure. Probably not the first words Suzanne Collins came up with, either. It feels like something she had to dig deep to find.

I only wish I can find such surprising and emotional laden micro-tension sentences to fill my novel.

I’m currently searching her novel to see how she describes Katniss’s fear. A good book to choose because most of the events in the book cause fear. I’ll let you know my epiphany if I get one. Hopefully, I will.

That’s all for now.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Happy writing,

Joanne.

 P.S.

Of course, those who’ve read the book know how Katniss channeled her grief, powerlessness and rebellion, but that’s a huge spoiler so I decided not to cover it here. But for those who haven’t read the book yet: It Is Amazing.

Happy writing and reading.

J.