Paint Your Readers a Picture

This week Deborah’s book Bargaining Power is available on Amazon!

I (Deborah) paint sometimes. I’m not very good, but I’m not particularly bad either. Like an absent-minded female Bob Ross who prefers finger painting her happy little clouds (yes, I use oils) and doesn’t stick ugly buildings in front of her beautiful landscapes.

When I’m walking, I sometimes think about how, in Jane Austen’s novels, people admire the scenery. Remembering this, I look at the mountains (I live beneath some particularly stunning mountains), and I observe the incredibly intricate fall of shadows in the numerous creases. I think about how the trees in those creases look deeper and bluer than the trees on the humps. I observe where there are more trees and where there are fewer. I contemplate how the snow falls and whether the clouds are low enough to obscure the mountaintops.

Every time I look at the mountains, they look slightly different, though the base is the same. I sometimes take mental notes about how I would paint mountains in the future to try to catch that variety, that beauty—and both the big picture and the intricacy of detail.

I could spell out for you how this is all an analogy for writing, but I believe in not spoon-feeding readers. You’re bright. You tell me.

Deborah J. Natelson

Deborah lives with a fluffy member of fauna named Flora. She is the author of Bargaining Power, The Land of the Purple Ring, and various other books. Her author website is www.deborahjnatelson.com.

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.