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What do I mean about underlining in fiction?
Simply it’s how to emphasize a point to a reader without repeating yourself. It will be as the reader looks back at the story they will realise certain points were emphasized without them being aware of it. Otherwise known as planting information!
Repetition without seeming to do so
The Rule of Three, which I discussed last week, comes into play here too as it is accepted that saying something once and repeating it twice helps a reader retain information. More than that and it becomes annoying. Less than that, there’s not quite enough emphasis for whatever it is you want the reader to recall for them to realise they were meant to be recalling that bit! And bear in mind Ebenezer Scrooge needed the visit of three ghosts, not one, to bring home to him just how much he needed to change.
Crime writers do this all the time. They plant clues throughout and will subtly draw a reader’s attention to them. Of course, crime writers plant red herrings too but this is all part of the format and readers expect that. Indeed a regular reader of crime fiction will, from the start of the story, be looking out for potential clues like that. I know I do! I enjoy it when I guess correctly but love it when a writer is able to wrong-foot me.
Below is an example of underlining I’ve written and taken from material I use for a workshop. See if you can spot what the theme is and the different ways I emphasise it.
An example of underlining
The house looks as if was last done up in the year the Titanic sank. And she wears a moth-eaten red coat.
The theme here is poverty and I’ve underlined that by using the word last, and then giving a rough time scale of when the house was done up, and then by using the one hyphenated word moth-eaten.
The word last matters here as that implies immediately something is not new. Why is something often not new? Because someone can’t afford new. That is backed up by what follows. What I don’t want to do here is tell you that the theme is poverty. I want you to pick up on that for yourself.
My original version of that quote reads as:-
The house has seen better days. Lichen is all around the window sills. The paintwork was last done in the year the Titanic sank by the looks of things. And she wears a red coat which is far from new.
As well as the increased word count here (that matters in flash fiction!), I am telling you things here. With my reduced version, you will bring your own ideas as to what a poor house looks like. You can imagine the lichen, damp etc so I don’t need to spell those out. Moth-eaten is a far stronger image than far from new.
Characters Doing the Underlining
When you’ve established something in a story, say your lead character is a horrendous show-off, other characters can confirm this by what they say and how they react to that lead character. The lead character will already have shown something of this by what they say. So there is underlining going on right there.
Characters can’t live in a vacuum any more than we can so they have to react to those around them so a writer can use that to their advantage here. The writer can also ensure there are other clues here such as the character living in a posh area and looking down on those who do not and using different ways to do the “looking down”.
Sometimes a character can unconsciously underline something for a reader because the latter knows what is going on at this stage of the story and the character does not. The rest of the story will inevitably feature the character finding out what is going on and then reacting to it. The reaction does not have to be good!
Picking the Right Thing to Underline
For me, I am looking to emphasize the theme of my story. I can use objects in a tale sometimes to bring that home. My posh character, for example, is going to keep the good old Tupperware out of sight and, for guests, only the best crockery will be out. A character can also choose to share those aspects which make them look at their best (or so they think).
I didn’t watch a lot of Keeping Up Appearances but the insistence of the lead character her name was pronounced Bouquet when it is spelled Bucket shows the snobbery in a wonderful short cut. This snobbery is confirmed in her actions and things like referring to herself as the Lady of the House whenever she is on the phone. So a writer then has to know what they’re going to underline and then plant things throughout the story to back that up. It is for the reader/viewer to pick up on those clues and “run with them”.
No Heavy Handedness
The best underlining is subtle. Flash fiction with its restricted word count means I have to infer a lot. That is good practice, funnily enough, for other forms of writing because it means I will show you only what you need to be shown. I will leave things for you to work out.
But the right underlining, the right clues, will ensure the reader does that successfully (and it should add to the enjoyment of the story too. I love it when an author does not spell out everything, I pick things up from what they’ve written).
I like to know my characters’ main traits before I write them up as I often trigger ideas knowing those things. But knowing the traits also indicates what I am likely to need to underline. A poor character who makes good – well there I’d want to emphasize their work ethic (and it will be there. Even the criminally minded here have to work out what they’re going to do. They dare not just wing it!).
Conclusion
Underlining goes on all the time then in fiction. It has a place in non-fiction too. After all articles usually start with their topic and then go on to illustrate it (either proving or disproving something), underlining all the way until they reach their conclusion! Look out for it with your next book to be read. See if you can guess early on what the author is emphasising and wonder why. It will add depth to your enjoyment of the story. I know it does for mine.
Related Posts:-
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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