Back in September, I published Emotional Beats: How to Easily Convert your Writing into Palpable Feelings. As promised, I will be posting the book on my blog. So, here is the next installment, continuing Part 3 of the book: Other Beats. This one deals with:
Driving
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I’m sure you can drive just fine. But how easy do you find it to describe your character’s driving? These might help.
- He cut across three lanes of traffic, careening over the median to speed back in the other direction.
- She coasted the SUV out onto the road.
- He backed out, hand on the gear shifter.
- We swerved to the right as the back end of the SUV fishtailed until it came to a halt.
- He jammed the car into gear and gunned the engine.
- A red traffic light stopped us.
- A cab screeched to the curb.
- He turned into [name of] Street, tires screeching in protest.
- She pulled onto a sandy road going off into the desert.
- The truck bounced over the rutted road.
- The tires screeched as the truck careened to a stop.
- The truck peeled out of the driveway. She opened it up on the main road.
- She hauled the steering wheel to the left as her right tires careened down the incline.
- Flying through the maze of trees, we hung a sharp right.
- She parked the truck in the gravel patch.
- Traction caught and the car lurched forward.
- He mashed the brake to the floor.
- He stifled the engine’s growl and flung his door open.
- The smell of burped gasoline stung her nose.
- First gear submitted with a painful grind.
- The driver’s door gave up a squeaky yawn and spit him onto his feet.
- A black Model T Ford skulked in the tall grass beside the lane.
- A dark Victorian villa cast invisible hands toward our car, luring us nice and snug against the curb out front.
Next week: Fights. View all posts on the subject, or buy the book on Amazon – free on KU!
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Nicholas, I am no longer getting any notifications from wordpress, and your posts are not appearing in my reader. I have had weeks of ‘glitches’ that have driven me half-mad! Apologies for not being able to keep up. I have tried to resolve it, but they are blaming my email provider for blocking emails, which is not the case, apparently.
I will be visiting from time to time, to attempt to keep on top of my followed blogs.
Best wishes, Pete.
Huh, something similar has happened to me: I no longer get an email notification whenever someone contacts me through the blog’s contact form. Thankfully, I still receive the “Feedback” notification on my dashboard, but it’s already resulted in some uncomfortably slow responses.
Perhaps you could subscribe to the nicholasrossis.wordpress.com one? That way, posts will still appear in your Reader.
Thanks for letting me know 🙂
Just subscibed, don’t worry about the free book though.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thank you, Pete 🙂
I actually wrote a shot story dealing with, not so much driving, but sitting in a traffic jam. I hope I’m not out of line, but the link is https://wp.me/p5HYzX-af
Great story! And I loved the ending 🙂
Thanks so much! Also for the Tweet, which got spread by 3 others, too. WHEE! lol
And thank *you* for the Facebook support 🙂
These are so useful! I hate prepositions and I hate them especially when I’m writing a driving scene. These help immensely!!
Yay! Thank you 😀
Thanks, Nicholas! I’m working on a car story at the moment. These will be helpful! I also like ‘he stamped on the brake pedal’ ‘the car mounted the kerb’ and ‘the steering wheel was snatched out of her hands’
Good ones! I’ll add them to the list 🙂