X-ray

My word for today is X-ray, as in a beam that can see through the skin to the bones underneath.

We, as writers are in effect x-ray machines. We must write the bones of a story before we can lay upon them the layers that will eventually produce something readable. Think of the outline perhaps, as the bones of your story. During this process we must be able to “see” through the skin of our wip to examine the bones and how they affect our story. Like in the show “Bones”  http://www.fox.com/bones/  Angela Montenegro, the forensic artist, is often required to make a precise rendition of a skull’s face. With her super artistic talent and way with technology, Angela turns a skull (or sometimes even partial skull) into a likeness of the person the skull once looked like. Angela must delve deep and follow the lines the skull gives her to make what will ultimately be the skull’s face, and of course, in this show her likenesses always portray the person precisely as they were.

We must do the same. We must be able to see through the skin and muscle of our wip and see the bones beneath to be able to follow the lines, delve deep, and make the reader forget all about the bones. We want them to see only the skin of our creation, but we want them to feel the depth of the bones so that when they are finished with our labor of love, sweat and heartache, they put it down and look at it and feel sorry that it’s over.

For another POV on an outline that I find fascinating and informative hop over to WriterRachael’s blog and see what she has to say about “Who, What, When, Where and Why,” from yesterday’s W post. http://writerachael.com/1/post/2013/04/w-is-for-who-what-where-when-and-why.html

If you have a strong and deep underlying structure under the overlay of words that make up your story, you stand a better chance of writing something worth reading.

How do you view the “bones” of your story? Do you feel they are strong enough to give your story worthwhile substance? 

Jack and Angela on "Bones"

Images from:

streetanatomy.com 

home2.fvcc.edu

background-pictures.feedio.net