Readers often say my writing is “Visual.” Some say, “It’s like watching a movie.” I love hearing that, because that is exactly how I see it. A scene opens, the camera captures time, place, setting, surroundings, all the information we need for the action to begin. Getting that right starts with something I call ‘landscaping.’ One of my favorite parts of researching a book is visiting the locale to get a feel for topography, vegetation, wildlife and seasons. It’s exploring the Paha Sapa (Black Hills) on horseback. It’s riding rugged New Mexico hills, picking up colors in rock formations, cloudscapes and mountain sunsets. Recently a reader commented that she’d lived in an area featured in one of my stories. She said she felt like she was home. That got it right. Visual is good, but like all good things it can go too far. Michner might get away with twenty pages on the flora and fauna of Chesapeake Bay; but for the rest of us it shouldn’t take more than a few lines. That said, in the right story, land can rise to the stature of a character. There is a place in the J.R. Chance series I call Willow Creek. The protagonists go there when they need to work out a problem. Eventually they make it their home. Right now I’m heads-down in a story where the land is taking on that character quality. It might even be the title character when all is said and done. We’ll see. When we do, I’m pretty sure it will be visual.

https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt

Ride easy,
Paul