FREE KINDLE FOR PC

FREE KINDLE FOR PC
So you can read my books

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

WRITE THE SIZZLE NOT THE STEAK

Eric, a friend and co-worker,

dropped by my apartment today to lend me his DVD of SHERLOCK HOLMES: GAME OF SHADOWS.

He spotted my collection of movie memorabilia on the walls.

He hushed in a breath. With trembling fingers, he touched a small card by the door.

It was a card containing an authentic piece of fabric from the black body suit worn by Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow in IRON MAN 2.

He looked at me as if I had the Shroud of Turin on my wall.

"She wore this, man. Her bare flesh touched this. Her DNA is on this cloth. Her DNA."

"Ah, Eric it could have been worn by her stunt double, or it could have been cut from the trimmed pieces of fabric on the floor when they made the outfit."

"No, man. This card certifies with a hologram and shit that this piece of cloth is from Scarlett's suit. Oh, man, it touched her body."

"You need to get out more, Eric."

"Hey, I go out plenty. Just not with Scarlett."

"Well, neither do I."

"Yeah, but you got her DNA."

And as he hung the card back up sadly on my wall, I realized what I would get him for Christmas :

an autographed photo of Scarlett.

After all, in touching the picture to sign, she would have left some of her DNA on it, too. It would repay him for giving me the autographed photo of Angelina Jolie.

Guys. We are a strange breed.

And what does this have to with the art of writing?

Well, it gives you a little insight into the bizarre psyches of two friends. And it also teaches us an important lesson in how to write.

Eric read into the card more than the words on it.

It said the cloth was from the body suit worn in the movie. But in his mind, Eric could see Scarlett putting on the skin-tight suit.

The words said little, Eric's imagination suggested much more. The readers who turn the pages of our books are like Eric in that our words will suggest to them a whole canvas of images if we choose the words with craft and lyrical style.

Write the sizzle not the steak.

Listen to the words of Stephen King:

"Good books don't give up all their secrets at once. Fiction is the truth inside the lie."

Just another way of saying, "Sell the sizzle not the steak.

Let the reader smell the aroma of the cooking plot, hear the sizzling of approaching danger, and taste the ashy flavor of death in the air like smoke from a gutted home.

You see, the most important things, the crucial things are hard to wrap words around. Haven't you felt it?

You ached to say the right thing to a grieving neighbor, a dying friend -- and the words that came to you were so meager --

like having a foot long square of wrapping paper to somehow put around a two foot wide gift.

Stephen King put it this way :

"The most important things are the hardest to say.

They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them --

words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out.

But it's more than that, isn't it?

The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away.

And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all,

or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it.

That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear."

And because Stephen King writes in wisdom like that, we buy his books.

And that's what's so important about our blog friends.

You understand what it means to want to express the haunting images inside your head by crude things like the written word.

I understand. I'm one of you. And I am reaching out to you as you are reaching back to me --

from the confines of the solitary confinement of our minds, held prisoner by the limitations of the written word.

Neither one of us totally understands. But that's all right. Sometimes it's good just to be silent with a friend in the night.
****
The darkness is gathering, growing stronger in this world, and only the light of brave, caring hearts stands in its way.





12 comments:

  1. It is indeed all about the sizzle, that anticipation and build-up. Excellent point!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Heather:
    Still looking for that better version of THE LEGEND OF VICTOR STANDISH. It is eluding me!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You have a vivid way with words Roland.

    ........dhole

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gentle Evening, Donna:
    Now if I can just string them into a selling short story, I will be happy! Thanks for visiting me so late at night, Roland

    ReplyDelete
  5. 'The most important things are the hardest to say'. So true Mr King. Thank you for sharing Roland.

    denise

    ReplyDelete
  6. And so each reader will have a different experience with the same book.
    Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Write the lines that people can read between.
    Think your friend has a Johansson obsession.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It reminds of sitting at a restaurant and hearing the sizzle of a fajita plate still hot and fired up. Before it reaches our table, my ears perk at the sound, tastebuds react and that hunger desire kicks in even if I just had a snack. When it passes by and is set down at some other table of smiling patrons, I can't help thinking, "That is what I want."

    The sizzle is tantalizing, it is not giving it all up in one fell swoop.

    And you and your friend are an interesting pair. Though the interaction mentioned hear sounds too adorable :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Denise:
    Yes, the most important words are often the hardest to share and usually the ones most needed to be heard. Glad you enjoyed the post.

    Marta:
    Exactly. Haven't you heard someone rave about a movie you've seen and shaken your head, feeling they must have seen a different movie?

    Alex:
    Eric has just met a girl that has stolen his Johansson complex! Love your comment's first line.

    Angela:
    You summed up the concept of "sizzle" expertly. Eric and I sounded adorable only because I wisely edited the conversation! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think it takes a writer a few book to draft and about a billion to read to understand the sizzle. I love this post, Roland. Tweeting/Plus 1 it now :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. great post! I love those words by Stephen King, and I love the idea of selling the sizzle!


    Nutschell
    www.thewritingnut.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great post Roland. It really got me thinking as I read it. Interesting stuff.

    ReplyDelete