Tag: fear - Mala Naidoo's Book World

We have read it and heard it repeated everywhere we look and listen.

Change is — has been — will impact all facets of life. The current global change that has claimed 2020 has challenged the ‘do I dare?’ mindset of the creative. The muse is a sensitive soul. She feels the angst as deeply as the joy — inspiration is derived and mined from this seat — gold mined.

Health crisis, economic crisis, the uncertainty of life, the fear of not so much the outdoors but whether we can trust that everybody is doing the right thing.

For how long must we entertain fear as it enslaves us by forfeiting joy?

The creative forges on to leave the carbon footprint of these challenging times.

Dare and dare again and the muse shall heed the call.

The creative day, if allowed to slide, is a difficult one to recover but is possible with the determination of, ‘I will dare.’

TS Eliot’s poem, The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock. conveys the uncertainty of modern times where ‘normal’ becomes unusual. Images of desolation pervade his poem:

Like a patient etherized upon a table/Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,/The muttering retreats

This echoes the current emotional and scientific uncertainty we face.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,

The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes

Eliot’s raw emotions capture the universal angst of his time where rapid economic and technological advancement changed his perceptions of life. And the yellow fog of uncertainty seeps into 2020 rising, falling …

The natural outcome is to be perplexed but navigation to the new normal through introspection is vital.

The pen is the mighty memory of our time, of all times, and writing must go on as must art and music and all creative pursuits.

In the making as creatives, writers, artists, we share a universal experience in that it is normal to be afraid, and it is brave to dare by creating new worlds that either mirror the present or transport us to worlds we dream of. In dreaming we bring those hopeful worlds into the conscious mind of the reader/audience who in turn subconsciously works towards making that dreamed, hopeful world, a new reality.

The writer’s pen will never dry or fade — words speak into the future from the past bringing meaning and understanding that this too shall pass.

The human condition is live with the possibility for new stories to be told, poems to be written, songs to be sung and paintings to be created to articulate and quell all fear.

Do I dare, and do I dare, — oh yes, we must, to make this life the best life we have had the courage to dream into our reality!

Today step forward — leave the fences and backyards of your mind and speak of your fears, insecurity, and uncertainty through artistic expression.

Take a chance. Live your passion.

This is a time for you to be YOU in all that you do without the fear of judgement.

Happy writing. Happy creating. Happy daring to channel your way forward for a life free of angst with the promise of joy.

What’s your creative plan?

Most fiction and particularly thriller fiction feeds off suspense created by secrets, fear, challenges, and the element of surprise. Lies, deception and the battle for truth keep readers on the edge of their reading seats. Compelling characters extract emotional responses. Do we love or hate a character?

Beginnings

Beginning a chapter with suspense is good when it cranks up what happened in the preceding chapter. Here’s an opening from Across Time and Space:

Meryl awoke for the second time that night aware that she was alone in this vast villa beside the olive grove. She saw a faint strip of light under her door. With a tight knot in her stomach, she tip-toed to the window and peered out — all she saw was the same inky blackness.

Endings

Ending a chapter on a cliff hanger creates the suspense desired to make the reader turn the page. This can lead from dialogue or stylistic narration. Here’s a closing line from Across Time and Space:

Sirens blared, shattering the earlier deafening quiet that had unnerved Meryl – police vehicles approached from the main road which led to the house.

Red and blue flashing lights appeared in the haze of diminishing light.

Across time and Space, three significant men in her life converged… two looking on… the third, a mystery.

Secrets

In Souls of Her Daughters, Dr Grace Sharvin harbours what she considers a shameful secret. Who is Boetie Arendse and how does he know Grace?

At midnight while Felicity and Patience slept, she slipped
out into the storm. Dressed in a pair of black pants and a white
t-shirt, she held her face up to the lashing wind and rain. She
yelled with as much force as she could muster, ‘out, out you
demons! I want to feel whole again!’

Surprise

In Chosen Lives, the reality of characters past traumas is revealed in the Mission’s personal testimony sessions as the reason for their chosen career paths. Audra’s arrogant disposition takes a turn when she reveals her identity after a terrifying ordeal with her boyfriend.

My name was Sophia, I am Audra because that is what Ramón called me during our year together, he said I reminded him of Audrey Hepburn, in the movies Romina watched, but he liked to call me Audra. I run the Audra House Foundation in Florida for abused teenage girls.

Suspense

The shooting of Andre Malakov unfolds through a series of court hearings in Vindication Across Time and unexpected relationships appear, to confound the reader, the witnesses and the legal team. Here is a line pre-empting Ana’s testimony in Vindication Across Time

What Ana was about to reveal left all, including Gildo Mondo, in a state of confused disbelief.

Minutes, hours or days…

Timing must be strategic to drip feed the reader before the heavens come crashing down on unexpected realisations. The pressure of time for the desired outcome cranks up the adrenalin on hope or despair depending on the situations that arise. Better yet is toying with the reader leaving them believing they think they saw a situation coming but could not be sure. Add in the puzzles, give some carefully chosen clues, but not enough to take away from the story being a page-turner.

First-Person

First-person narration creates riveting suspense and equally, authorial narration creates suspense by, for instance, keeping the villain elusive. This draws the reader towards the villain/protagonist in search of who he or she might be and what they might be pursuing. These lines are from the story, Wandering the Earth, in the short story collection, Life’s Seasons.

I feel impending dread in knowing I will be forty in six months.

My life has been strange and wonderful. I cannot say for how much longer, I will withstand being witness to the atrocities of the world. It leaves my days in anxious anticipation of what next and how much more…

I have not been at rest for a long time.

Dramatic irony

Make the reader feel empowered, the dramatic irony borrowed from Shakespeare is a great technique to keep the protagonist ignorant, but the reader informed. How can we forget that ‘honest Iago’ was not that at all, or ‘the glib and oily art,’ of Goneril and Reagan, King Lear’s conniving daughters were signs of their clawing, callous natures? Show the reader a truth or two while the protagonist is blissfully ignorant. Cruel but necessary to crank up the heat.

Challenges

Add in a few challenges, give the protagonist a few dilemmas that will invite consideration, or a veering away from held values and morals, to do the right thing for the greater good. Throw in a new character, one who might have information on the villain or perhaps have witnessed a crime.

Fear

Fear heats up things, something unnatural, bizarre, or psychic confirms that reason alone cannot halt nor control the situation — that creeping to the edge of the reading seat with that pounding heart feeling. Grab it at the right point in the story for maximum effect. Exploit the senses, sight, smell, hearing and touch. The sudden arrival of a heavy gust of wind that pushes a door open — that cold air swishing over you as if somebody was hurrying past you — you look up and there’s no one but you in the room!

When readers are vested in the life/lives of the characters they are more likely to spread the word that a book ‘must be read’ because…

A reader wants to be moved, not by tears alone. They want to be afraid, they want to hope, they want to understand pain, and all the while supporting favourite characters from the side, or throwing mental daggers at those they loathe.

What fictional book have you read lately that has ‘moved’ you and left you with an unforgettable memory?

Happy Reading, Happy Writing!

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