example:
He pulled his tie away from his adams apple and twisted his head back and forth loosening his collar so he could breathe.
or
After pulling his tie away from his adams apple, he twisted his head side to side to loosen his collar so he could breathe.
or ??
I'd like the reader to see the picture of this happening without stumbling over the words.
Is there a rule for mixing gerunds with other verbs?
Thanks
[This message has been edited by Calligrapher (edited November 22, 2005).]
That seems to work, to me.
Let the reader's experience personalize this imagery. For instance, if I were to think of a man loosening his tie so he could breathe, I'd see him as taking a deep breath, perhaps being a little pale (not sure what's happened, I assume he's nervous), maybe breaking a sweat. Those are MY mental images. If you force me into seeing him shake his head back and forth, that pulls me out of MY natural imagery just a little. If shaking his head back and forth is important to the plot, ie: the action caused someone to misinterpret that he is saying 'no' to something, then leave it in. Otherwise, trust your reader's ability to fill in the blanks.
I've mentioned this before, but I'll mention it again. I attended a speech given by Randy Harvey, Toastmasters International 2004 World Champion of Public Speaking. Randy broke down the components of his award winning speech for us, and the advice he gave fits writers as well as speakers. He talked about painting the picture in broad strokes for his audience. His award winning speech was about growing up with his father. When he talked about his father holding him in his arms, he mentioned the feel of his dad's flannel shirt but let the audience fill in the color, or whether it was plaid or not. He talked about his beloved VW bug car he used to own, but didn't fill in the color. Why? Everyone in the audience had some notion of what color a "favorite old car" might be, and for everyone it's different. When trying to connect emotionally to the audience, it doesn't MATTER if they see YOUR color or not. What matters is that they emotionally engage in the story, and in order for that to happen, you have to let them invest a little bit of theirselves into painting the imagery.
It's a delicate balance, to be sure. You want to present enough imagery that they can visualize the scene. Just don't force them to see it through your eyes.
[This message has been edited by Elan (edited November 23, 2005).]
The thing is, he does give precise physical descriptions of Zaphod that hurt to read, but that's because Zaphod hurts to look at.
It occurs to me that I will re-read some other favorite novels when I'm done with this batch.
Like everything else about writing, it seems to be an art with no hard and fast rules. On the one hand it gives you all the freedom in the world; on the other hand, its difficult for beginners to learn well.