Ask the Author: Chris Lude
Answered Questions (3)
Chris Lude
I’ve been working on my Riding the Alaska Highway on a Harley-Davidson logs for my 2017, 2019, and 2022 motorcycle trips to Alaska and Whitehorse. The logs are a work-in-progress, but you can read them here:
https://aperfectfinish.info/riding-th...
https://aperfectfinish.info/riding-th...
Chris Lude
Keep a journal and write in it throughout each day. One of my favorite authors, David Sedaris, has kept journals for several decades. He mines his journals for intriguing anecdotes, clever turns of phrase, and insightful observations, which he then refines and transforms into his polished essays and stories.
Reading through my own work, A Perfect Finish, I can attest that the most authentic scenes were those forged from notes I penned in real time, capturing moments as they unfolded before me. For instance, in describing the Kissing Tree in Chapter 40 - Sun Tzu Wants You:
"The tree was a lone white pine, mature and stately, scarred along the back side. It stood alone with the most remarkable view of just a piece of the city below, like one was peering through a small window framed by black spruce and aspen, a window with a view created just for this white pine."
Author Peter Heller offers another example in his latest book, The Last Ranger. His description of a line of wolves gliding along the edge of the Yellowstone woods rings true. This visceral depiction stems from his ability to capture the moment in real time on paper and masterfully transmute it into published prose. Such passages are compelling reasons to read his book.
Reading through my own work, A Perfect Finish, I can attest that the most authentic scenes were those forged from notes I penned in real time, capturing moments as they unfolded before me. For instance, in describing the Kissing Tree in Chapter 40 - Sun Tzu Wants You:
"The tree was a lone white pine, mature and stately, scarred along the back side. It stood alone with the most remarkable view of just a piece of the city below, like one was peering through a small window framed by black spruce and aspen, a window with a view created just for this white pine."
Author Peter Heller offers another example in his latest book, The Last Ranger. His description of a line of wolves gliding along the edge of the Yellowstone woods rings true. This visceral depiction stems from his ability to capture the moment in real time on paper and masterfully transmute it into published prose. Such passages are compelling reasons to read his book.
Chris Lude
The first inspiration for the novel occurred while riding to Alaska on the ALCAN (Alaska Highway) with my thirteen-year-old son. We had a tense encounter with a hungry Grizzly bear and her two curious cubs, while being parked along the wilderness highway. On the same trip, I visited Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory for the first time, and decided it would be an excellent setting for an adventure story. You can read about it at:
https://aperfectfinish.info/apf-inspi...
https://aperfectfinish.info/apf-inspi...
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