Adam Selzer: King of the Wild Frontier - Writing biz

One thing I find very useful, especially in revisions, is what I call Window Dressing. There's probably a real word for this, but I've no idea what it is.

You'll notice that practically every movie has a scene or two outdoors where it looks like it's just rained. The reason for this is that wet roads are infinitely more photographable than dry ones - it's instant atmosphere.

You can use this same trick in writing - people are going to picture the scenes in their brain, and damp streets look better in your brain the same way they look better on a screen. If you look at your draft and seems like it needs something hard to put your finger on, consider setting the action against something to sort of lend the scenes a certain atmosphere. For instance, in "Pirates of the Retail Wasteland," I set the action in late January, when Cornersville Trace (the town where all of my stuff is centered) is very cold and snowy. Being able to describe the cold and the ice made for a much more atmospheric "set," and set things up for a major snowstorm that serves the plot well late in the book. During revisions, in particular, adding more information about the snowy scenery - even just a line or two here and there - lent a lot to the text. It's largely for this reason that I like to set things around wintertime. I've never written anything of any great length that took place in summer. Bright sunny days are okay for scenes where people dance merrily around and have a picnic, but, unless you're going for that "hills are alive with the sound of music" vibe, grey skies almost almost always look better.

A similar trick is setting it around a holiday - a time when there are Christmas decorations or graduation signs all over the place. Or even putting in an event - an upcoming wedding that the character has to think about, even though it won't take place til after the action in the book is long over - lends an extra bit of urgency to the situation. George Lucas COULD have set American Graffiti some night other than the night before everyone leaves for college - it would have worked fine in mid-July. But it wouldn't have worked as well.

Try it out - write a simple scene about a conversation between two people about whether to buy something in the window of a shop on a sunny day. Then try the exact same scene in the same place, only just before, during or immdiately after a thunderstorm. Don't get too melodramatic about it; mention it as little as is absolutely necessary. But look at how much it improves the scene!