Have you ever gone to see movie that has been based off one of your favorite books, and then be disappointed afterwards while leaving the theater?
Most often, when we read, we form strong attachments to both the characters and the details of the story. Our minds paint highly detailed images of what we believe the characters look like, and the locations where the story takes place. Those visual translations between our minds and the mind of the movie director, rarely come close.
I remember when I was about eleven or twelve years old, I read the book, ‘The Amityville Horror’. The images my mind conjured up while reading that book literally terrified me! So much in fact, I actually had to go back to using a nightlight at bedtime because I was so afraid of the dark! Then, many years later, I saw the movie and thought, “Meh – it wasn’t THAT scary.”
Not that I really want to instill that kind of terror into my readers, however part of what I enjoy most while writing a story, is creating those vivid visuals and sensory stimuli that pull the reader directly into the room and make them feel as if they are part of the actual story-line.
In chapter one of ‘The Enlightenment,’ we join Agent Hunter at the scene of a crime, where a young woman named Marsha Foster was murdered. Mrs. Foster was a very pretty, twenty-eight year old woman with blonde hair, an athletic build, was married but had not yet had any children and lived in a small, elite, peaceful community, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean’s Crystal Coast.
Have you already begun creating an image of Mrs. Foster in your head?
As you and Agent Hunter walk into Mrs. Foster’s bedroom, imagine seeing her lifeless body on top of her blood soaked bed, posed in a sleeping position on her back.
Now place a single, long-stemmed red rose in her right hand.
Welcome to book two.
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