Outtakes 268

What Is Next?

By Cait Collins

Having come from a journalistic background, I sometimes find it difficult to choose the right descriptive word. Or phrase. Or the right response, When writing a commercial or a news story, I’m limited by time. The type of writing I do in my current position is a formal business approach. These writing styles leave little room for the creativity I use when writing a novel or short story. Sometimes the description escapes me.

For example, the hero in my current work is suffering from amnesia following a brutal beating. When he reaches for Liz’s hand, his fingers brush the ring she is wearing. The brief contact pushes the hero into a fugue state where memories bombard his mind. As he’s coming out of the fog, he sees Liz. “Kiss me, Lizzie Lou,” he demands. So is her kiss sweet and tentative or is it wild and passionate?

I say it’s brief. More than a peck, but definitely not h passionate. What if the relationship was new? Maybe there had not been time to develop the I-need-to-be-with-you-every-minute phase of a relationship. Maybe he was still trying to figure out why she was with him. So the next question is how does he respond? And that’s where I’m stuck.