Marilyn Kemp is extremely good at supporting her characters with an abundance of detail. When she first introduces a new character, she immediately gives a quick and detailed description of him/her. Throughout the exerpt she adds more detail but in a very suttle manner. One example is when she writes, "Van Wiesal excused himself to look for a coal with which to light his pipe." This shows the fact that Van Wiesal is a smoker but in a way that doesn't jut out from the story. It's not obvious that she's trying to add character to her character. An example of how Marilyn adds detail to her character upon introduction is a line saying, "The stranger was dressed in a stained but sturdy white shirt and tea colored waistcoat." She puts a visual image of the "stranger" in your head. Even the way Marilyn refers to this character as a stranger at first is one way she adds a sense of mysteriousness to her stories. The ending of the exerpt also adds to Marilyn's mystery factor in the story. At the end, a man participating in a play collapsed due to drunkness at the first assumption. Creasy announced the man dead after more closely inspecting him. The cause of this man's death is unknown, adding even more to the mystery of the story.
1.) What are some easy ways to add a sense of mysteriousness to your writing?
2.) When reading, what are some specific examples of things that appeal to you? or catch your interest?
Speaker 1/6=****
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