Cheryl Wanner's Blog

Snapshot Writing

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Study any photograph or painting, and you'll see the totality of color, light, and emotion in a matter of moments—longer if you choose. But you might need those thousand words to visualize something with your mind.

As a photographer, I capture images in a shutter's click. But as a writer, I need more time to create visuals seen only through words. To that end, I use a technique I call Snapshot Writing (or Saying a Lot With a Little).

Snapshot Writing is tight, vivid, and emotional, getting mileage out of words while creating powerful images with all the feels.

One of the most commented upon aspects of my YA romance, SEE ME AS I AM is the depth of emotion evoked and the sense of being blind while seeing everything my MC Jenny Ryan cannot—all of it done in a relatively concise manner.

Take this example from Chapter 4 where Jenny is walking on her family property with her out-of-unharness guide dog, Alexis:

Alexis dashes off the deck and into the yard. We take the path covered in wood shavings down toward Cedar Creek, rattling over rocks and big enough for the fall salmon to come struggling up from the Sandy River. The wind, damp and crisp, smells of decaying leaves and cedar and Douglas fir trees, a trace of wood smoke on the air.

Three sentences.

Crafted details.

Visual images.

Or this from my work in progress, DEAD RECKONING:

Beyond the scattered trees and scrub vegetation, the dunes run in endless hillocks, and to the west, the sea roars and pounds on a shore out of sight. A gull wheels across the sky. The wind smells of wet grass and salt and overnight rain, and the mountains, when I look back, are smoked in cloud.

I crest the last rise where the ocean stretches to meet the sky.

Wind sweeps through the green-gold grass, rustling and scraping in the cold, and I huddle into my jacket beneath the clouds gathering overhead.

The secret to making sentences pop are the verbs used and the details chosen. I grab a handful of elements for my readers to experience and drive them with power verbs. The more specific the verbs—those that sound like their meaning are my favorites!—the more immersive the images. I flesh out the scene with a few well-placed adjectives, but turn most adverbs away at the door.

I was first introduced to this technique by Iain Lawrence, author of the YA historical shipwreck/adventure novel The Wreckers, whose writing captivated me with its strong verbs and vivid phrases. Over the years, I worked to develop my own style along similar lines which came into its strength while writing a blind main character and continues through everything I put into words.

The beauty of saying a lot with a little is its simplicity. Not only does it work for all elements of writing (from narrative to dialogue tags to character actions), but it can be expanded for genres that require more extensive world-building (such as fantasy or historical) or streamlined for younger audiences.

As you edit your work, analyze every word—especially your verb choices—for those that could be stronger, tighter, clearer. Be specific in detail while eliminating anything that clutters what you're trying to convey.

Snapshot writing takes time to master, but will eventually become so second nature you may find yourself thinking—or even speaking—in the phrases with which you write.

Capture the details. You don't need a lot of words. Just the right ones!

Through The Eyes of a Blind Girl

I didn't set out to write a disability representation novel.

I set out to write a love story through the eyes of a girl who happens to be blind. Even so, disability rep came to be a dynamic part of Jenny Ryan’s story, developing as the book unfolded, particularly through her blog entries and conversations with a young man she meets where she gets down to the nitty-gritty of living blind in a sighted world. How Jenny navigates her darkness with boldness, skill, and the aid of technology—along with her descriptions and perceptions given via senses other than sight—has captivated readers more than any other element of SEE ME AS I AM.

(Guide Dogs for the Blind campus in Boring, Oregon, where Jenny trained with Alexis.)

Among the questions I’m frequently asked: Was it hard to write from a blind perspective?

No, not really. SEE ME AS I AM was long enough in the making for me to get comfortable in Jenny’s skin. Writing the world she “sees” through non-visual descriptions became so second nature that when I rebooted my back-burner DEAD RECKONING project, I was slammed with all these oh, wow, I can SEE! moments. That said, I truly loved writing from a blind perspective.

(Sandy River Valley and Mt. Hood. Jenny lives somewhere to the right of the river.)

SEE ME AS I AM barely scratches the surface of Jenny’s life and what she’s capable of. The technology available to the blind community, developing by leaps and bounds, made it impossible for me to keep up with it. I’d love to have included the Be My Eyes app for assistance in finding things, the OKO app for identifying traffic signals, and the electronic liquid level indicator (great for filling mugs and glasses). Unfortunately, these didn’t fit into the existing narrative or came into being after the book was in production.

(Portland, Oregon, where Jenny grew up and her dad still lives.)

Aided by tech, training, and personal support, people with disabilities can and do lead normal and fulfilling lives, and "dis" does not necessarily impede ability. As a blindness representation novel, I hope SEE ME AS I AM both enlightens and gives voice to a community that wishes to be seen for who they are and not how they're labeled.

(St. John's Bridge over the Willamette River into Forest Park, where Jenny's dad lives.)

Regardless of what I initially set out to write, Jenny's visual impairment shapes and defines the love she falls into and ultimately leads to her choice between forgiveness or walking away. Love is a choice—one we make every day.

(The Wildwood Trail through Portland's gigantic and undeveloped Forest Park.)

There's so much of Jenny's life I'd love to explore beyond the pages of SEE ME AS I AM. But her story wraps up so completely I don't have sufficient material for a second book—at least, not one that could compete with the original.

(Cedar Creek Lane in Sandy, Oregon, the road Jenny lives on.)

Perhaps though, I'll leak something short and fun onto my website that will give you a peek into her future...

Tackling Misery Ridge

I didn’t set out to climb Smith Rock.

Oh, not the anchored-to-the-wall-like-a-spider-with-pitons-and-belays kind of climbing (for which Smith Rock is Oregon’s Mecca). I’m talking hiking an exposed trail to the 600-foot summit (3200 feet total elevation) of this volcanic buttress that towers above Central Oregon’s high desert.

The climbing hike was hubby's idea.

Mine was to keep to the canyon floor, following the Crooked River to an iconic spire known as Monkey Face before turning back the way we'd come.

Instead, we found ourselves taking the Mesa Verde Trail (just for a bit, I told myself) up to the junction for Misery Ridge.

No further, please...

Sure, I’d hiked above 12,000 feet in the Rockies, but none of those trails involved potential free falls into the abyss.

Misery Ridge was infamously steep, all loose dirt and rocky scree that my worn-down-to-zero-tread Nikes would have no traction on. And weren't there sheer drops up there? This WAS, after all, a ginormous rock we were headed up.

I can’t do this. I don’t want to do this!

Sure, you can, hubby encouraged me.

So up we went in our bad shoes with our insufficient water supply and lack of sunscreen, my brain cycling my favorite give-me-strength Bible verse on endless repeat. It was tough, it was hot, the footing scrabbly, and those drops (while not so threatening as I'd imagined) were closer than I liked, and—WOW, look at the sport climbers perched on the vertical wall of Monkey Face!

And that view through the crack to the plain below—incredible!

Topping out onto the summit—staring across the gorge to the pinnacles of the West Side Crags and the Cascade Mountains beyond—was my reward for every miserable step getting up there. And in that moment, when sweat and fear and screaming muscles ghosted into nothingness, I was blown away by the panorama I could never have seen from below.

Smith Rock conquered. A win in every way. Bragging rights, the whole nine yards.

Though the descent down the opposing face (much of it done scootching along on my backside) was more heart-ramping than the ascent.

Not for Ed, apparently.

Still… I could do this—I did do it—and got the pics to show for it!

Writing SEE ME AS I AM has been the most challenging undertaking of my life, strewn with misery all its own. Writing, rewriting, repeat. Diving into the query trenches—rejections, rejections, more rejections. Additional rewrites, edits, more querying, no thank yous.

Nobody wants this book!

And then… a contract from a publisher—that jaw-dropping view from the top!

Followed by a descent into deadlines, still more edits, last minute changes. And finally... the finish line! My book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble Online, in my local bookstore and my library system.

In my hands!

I’m so grateful to my point-man husband for getting me up the Misery Ridge Trail and onto the summit of Smith Rock! What I would have missed had I wussed out like I wanted to!

And what I would have lost had I called it quits along the brutal path to publication.

Keep to the road less traveled. The accomplishment will be worth the journey!

Waiting on Your Dream

Since my decades-ago high school days, I’ve dreamed of seeing the Colorado Rockies.

Not from a plane at thirty thousand feet or sitting on the tarmac at Denver International, but actually getting into them, hiking and photo-shooting, immersing myself in the greatest mountain range on the continental U.S.

As of spring 2022, I’d ticked all but seven states off my bucket list, but not officially made it—on the ground, outside an airport—to Colorado.

Then in mid-June, a business conference took my husband to Denver, and I tagged along for the Mile High ride. From the seats of Coors Field, where baseball’s Colorado Rockies took on the Cleveland Guardians, I could see the actual Rockies knife-edged across the horizon, the sun dropping behind them.

One week later, we stood above Rock Cut (elevation 12,200) in the heart of Rocky Mountain National Park. The view of peaks on snow-capped peaks was absolutely mind-blowing and (quite literally) breathtaking.

Worth the wait?

We crossed the park on Trail Ridge, North America's highest continuous paved road. Trekked over patches of crusted snow to reach Emerald Lake, sitting at 10,100 feet and partially filled with ice.

Hiked to waterfalls and other lakes and through meadows beneath the aspens and the jagged, stone peaks. Photographed moose, elk, marmots, and mule deer while exploring one of the most spectacular places I’ve ever seen.

I cried when I saw the mountains and cried when I had to leave, taking with me 1700-plus photos of this wonderland I’d dreamed of visiting for more than half a century.

Yeah, it was worth it.

On May 16, 2023, my debut novel—another dream that has spanned decades—will launch into the world. Inspired by a literal dream, shaped into a novella followed by three full novel versions—written, queried, and shelved (repeat!) across the years—See Me As I Am will be a published book I can hold in my hands.

I’m guessing I’ll cry.

You’re never too old to reach for a new dream. Or renew one you’ve chased across the years and let die. Resurrect it, like the Phoenix. Never give up. It may take 50 years, but the payoff—standing on the ridge above Rock Cut or holding your book in your hands—will be worth it.