Into a Writer's Head

Wandering Parts...

As writers, we are often cautioned to be careful of our parts. Our body parts, that is. Just like where a character is in a scene, we are told to make sure all body parts don't start wandering off on their own. Things like "his eyes roamed the room", while it makes idiomatic sense, leaves the reader with the image of disembodied eyes rolling around the parlor, looking for their victim. It's like that one episode of Angel, where the bad guy could remove his body parts in order to spy on his victim.
And those roaming body parts become even more important when you are writing a love scene. Definitely cannot have parts wandering off at will during those. But the thing about that written love scene? Well first off, those wandering parts are even MORE disturbing to picture. Really...just think about it. And unless you're a cruel author, or you like going for comedic awkwardness, your characters don't worry about where they will place their arms, or hands, or legs. They don't worry about whether one arm is in the way, or if their leg isn't quite where they'd like. Nope. Your characters just go with the flow, everything lining up where it should.
So be careful of the wandering parts...or Thing will pay you a visit!

posted by Erin @ 7:48 AM