Mimicry Exercise Experiment #1

Today is day 1 of giving the mimicry exercises a go.

I chose Marian Keyes’ Anybody Out There? which is written in first person, past tense. (It’s a great book. I’ll do a book review on it next week.)

Basically, I typed out a page and a half in Word (single spaced) straight from the book. I got a feel for how she interspersed action with telling. The telling was great, by the way. Just a few sentences here or there, nothing drawn out. Enough to let the reader know what was going on and getting us from point A to point B in fast form. BUT there were also these wonderful tiny details. Such as:

At lunchtime I tried to get my nails done, but when I took off the bandages and revealed them to the manicurist she went green and said they were far too short for acrylic ones to be fitted. When I returned with the bad news Lauryn behaved as if I was lying.

The fact that the manicurist turned green and Lauryn behaved as though the character was lying, is great. Those are small details, yet they take those two ‘telling’ recap sentences memorable. They show us about her nails–they really are nasty and not all the way grown out yet (she lost them). It also shows us a bit of Lauryn’s character and what she values. (Lauryn is her boss.)

In past tense telling, I had been fearing the use of ‘was’. Even though the class I just finished on showing and telling with Shannon Donnelly where she demonstrated there is a time and place for telling, I still fear ‘was’ and ‘had’ appearing in my work–in case I overuse them. Strangely, I have also felt as though I am unable to use first person with past tense. (It could just be my story where first person and past tense don’t work together.) However, Keyes does it well and provides an excellent example of it working well. In fact, I can’t imagine this story being in anything but as the reader needs that closeness to the heroine.

So, that is what I learned from Keyes’ pages. The next step was to continue on, imitating her style and voice. It was really cool because it just flowed. Her style. It felt easy. Except for the whole ‘where the heck should the plot go?’. That was hard. What to write? The style was there, ready for me to play with–I was grooving in first person, past tense–but where should I go with it? Ack!

Having a pro ‘guide me’ through the switch ups between action, telling and dialogue was wonderful. Playing with those switch ups is something I am going to practice. (It doesn’t have to be big and scary!)

The other thing that felt good while mimicking Keyes, was allowing that closeness of the heroine’s thoughts and feelings into the story. Bam. Right there on the page. No held punches. And in past tense. I liked it.

Tomorrow, another mimicry. Stay tuned.

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