The Art of Layering Your Fiction

Over the years I have read many great authors and studied their works in order to improve mine. I wrote a book about writing -The Writing Soldier (available from www.altair-australia.com)- which does look at some of what I have learned but one of the most interesting aspects of writing is learning how to layer and layer well.

This is a typical short scene:

Jeff walked into the room, the oak door opening to reveal an ornately decorated study with Turkish rugs on the floor, antique European furniture that could have been from the 1700s and a fire buring warmly in the hearth.

"Good morning, Jeffrey." Mrs Witherly said. She sat in a large armchair that almost swallowed her diminutive size.

"Mr's Witherly. Why have you called me here?"

On the most part you could say this is quite a reasonable scene, and on first look it is like any scene as described in any popular book today, but, and this is an interesting but, the scene could be better if it was layered rather than compartmentalised as most modern writing is. This also brings us to the concept of Show V Tell and layering is part of the show doctrine only it isn't as rigid as some may believe. If I were to take this same scene and add some extra skil,l it might read like this:

Jeff's hand touched the warm surety of the oak door, the smooth finish helped him consider the slipperyness of the situation. Easing the door inwards, the hinges groaning under the weight of solid timber he caught the acridness of wood smoke and the too sweet odour of perfume; even with the Turkish rugs and antique European furniture the room was oppressive; he could feel the presence before she actually spoke.

"Good morning, Jeffrey." Mrs Witherly looked up from her book, a shrunken woman in an oversized leather chair. The flaming hearth as a backdrop gave her a demonic appearance.

He took a deep breath, a steadying of his mind and words; the heavy air made him choke and the sound of crackling of burning wood was a indicator as to how dangerous this meeting was. "Why have you called me here?"

The differences are quite slight but enough of a difference to add life, or extra life to a scene and allow it to breath within the reader's chest as they read. Why you do this is so the reader can feel and experience every word, rather than have to simply piece the words together to make an image.

Layering allows you to build the image of the world, the characters and their interactions together in a smoothly flowing stream of prose, where the compartmentalised approach has a tendency to keep these three elements uniquely seperate.

Okay, this is my first observation, I will look more on this later, but consider your words now and how you use them and create scenes that breath rather than just create a static picture of slightly connected elements.