Grounding the Reader
In Today's Journal
* Quote of the Day
* A New Short Story
* Storytelling at Depth
* Grounding the Reader
* True Pulp Kickstarter Coming on June 3!
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
"Within our dreams and aspirations we find our opportunities." Sugar Ray Leonard
A New Short Story
"No Call for Clocks" went live Friday at 10 a.m. on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. Go check it out. It's free.
If you enjoy the story, please click Like. Comments are welcome too. Both help with my Substack algorithms. Then tell Everyone else.
Storytelling at Depth
Since I just announced a new short story contest (open to everybody), I thought I'd publish a new short series of three posts on Storytelling at Depth.
Yesterday, I talked about the Cliffhanger/Hook combo.
It works like this:
The initial hook and opening get the readers into the story.
Grounding them in the setting engages them and keeps them deep.
The cliffhanger/hook combo and the pacing keep them turning pages.
Grounding the Reader
Ground the reader in the opening and at the beginning of every chapter and every major scene. The grounding should flow from the hook.
Accomplish this by using the POV character’s five senses (as appropriate) and by providing a vivid description of the setting via the POV character’s physical and emotional senses and opinions.
Note: Most writers, especially early-on but some even in Stage 3 or 4, use only the sense of sight when describing a setting.
But there are smells and sounds and other stimuli happening all around the character. Take Your Time to let him notice them, then put them in the story.
Later in the story or novel, if the character revisits a setting, don’t trust that the reader will remember it. Describe any aspects of the setting again to the degree that the POV character notices them.
Chances are, the setting has changed a bit anyway. Maybe the POV character has entered the setting through a different door.
Or it’s a different time of day. Or lights are turned on or off. Or windows are opened or closed. Or a breeze starts or stops. Or additional characters come in or leave, etc.
You can’t add “too much” detail to setting description as long as it’s coming through the POV character’s physical senses and opinions. So especially in cycling, take your time. Note: Anything that YOU, the writer, add to the description (or plot or plan) is ALWAYS too much.
Nothing that comes through the character will or can be an info dump. There is a stark and obvious difference between writing what comes directly through the character, and the author “narrating” a scene.
Enable the reader to see, hear, smell, taste and feel (physically and emotionally) everything the POV character sees, hears, smells, tastes and feels.
Note too that the senses of smell and taste are often linked. Occasionally focus the reader’s attention on minuscule details to draw him deeper into the story.
At this point, some writers will ask, “But what if the particular setting is not significant to what happens later in the story?”
If you’re running through the story with the character as it unfolds around you, you have no way of knowing what will happen next or in the future. So again, if the POV character notices something, put it in the story.
If you can “figure out” in advance what will happen in the story, so can the reader. No surprises for the writer, no surprises for the reader.
In the opening, provide the character’s name, facial features (usually quickly), clothing, colors and patterns, anything odd (bow tie, etc.) when the character first appears.
When you don’t, characters become faceless at best, and even naked. In dialogue, voices become detached. And if you don’t describe the setting around or beyond the characters, you’re presenting talking heads.
Again, Focus Down. Character description is another trick to pull the reader deeper into the setting.
Notice that in setting or character description, the POV character will reveal a bit of his own character and what he thinks subliminally about the setting or character he’s observing.
That happens because you’re allowing the character to provide his opinion of the setting or character. Any time any human provides his opinion (educated or otherwise) it tends to reveal his character. The same holds true for fictional characters.
For a few examples of cliffhanger/hook combos and stand-alone introductory hooks, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
Of course, if you haven't already, subscribe free to Your Morning Serial. There you can see more examples of cliffhangers and hooks and grounding and pacing in real time as a novel unfolds.
True Pulp Kickstarter Coming on June 3!
Pulp with a legacy!
Please stop by and check out the True Pulp Kickstarter. While you're there, click to show your interest.
As Troy Lambert said, "The more people who click 'interested' or 'follow this Kickstarter' before release, the happier the Kickstarter algorithm will be. Early interest helps a lot. And thanks.
Next up in TNDJ, Pacing.
Of Interest
Jay Logan's Substack Especially if you write fantasy I suspect this will be a very useful site.
Free Mailerlite Course for Authors
Preview of the Free Mailerlite Course
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 860
Writing of Blackwell Ops 44: Sam Granger | Following the Ghost Trail
Day 1…… 3613 words. To date…… 3613
Day 2…… 2893 words. To date…… 6506
Day 3…… 1824 words. To date…… 8330
Day 4…… 3025 words. To date…… 11355
Day 5…… 3697 words. To date…… 15052
Day 6…… 3428 words. To date…… 18480
Day 7…… 1013 words. To date…… 19493
Day 8…… 2993 words. To date…… 22486
Day 9…… 3310 words. To date…… 25796
Fiction for May………………………... 52800
Fiction for 2025………………………. 431213
Nonfiction for May………………........ 14730
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 115820
2025 consumable words…………….. 540523
Average Fiction WPD (May)……...... 3299
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 10
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 26
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 114
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 296
Short story collections……………………. 29
Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.
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Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.
Thank you very much for the mention - and the reminder of what I need to work on to improve my writing.
Good info on grounding the reader! Still need to look into the email/website stuff. Thank you for the tips there.