Q: What kind of scene do you think is the most difficult for authors to write and why?
A: Elements of spirituality and spiritual longing creep into a lot of my fiction these days. Conveying these moments in a character’s life, without lapsing into either cliches or sentimentalism, can be challenging. I find that using external stimuli and imagery helps ground the moment and make the experience more visceral for the reader.
In my new novel, Arborview, nature imagery helped me project my character’s internal longing. Dark forests, bare branches reaching into the sky, undetectable breezes dancing through treetops, all play a part.
Another type of scene that I—and I suspect a lot of us—obsess over is the all-important climactic moment. All of the narrative energy leads to this moment, and the whole story hinges on it, leading to the resolution (or not) and the ending. With so much riding on the climax, it’s critical to make it moving, impactful, and believable. And when it’s a moment of high drama, and emotional or psychological breakthrough, for a character, there’s a lot going on. Even when I know the climax well in advance, and know where it needs to lead narratively, I still struggle to make it “pop” as much as possible. And that pop, in the end, has to have emotional resonance. Hopefully, by the time the narrative reaches the climax, the reader is so invested in the character, the climax is a cathartic moment.
Again, I kind of jump between the character’s the internal state and the external surrounding to bring it to life. Having a character project fleeting thoughts or feelings onto the surroundings can be very useful. There are several dramatic moments in Arborview, when my characters do this, and I think it works really nicely.
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