Skip to content

Nirav Christophe on the moment

David Gane
David Gane
— 1 min read
I will be working on the basis of the small units, the event, the moment, the conversation, the monologue.

— Nirav Christophe, Writing in the Raw

This week, the writing of my fellow students clarifies Christophe’s notion of “the moment.”

Honest writing explores the space and time of the moment before if moves on. There is a poetry in the words only because the writer has considered each event in detail with a steady and patient hand.

For Christophe, “you don’t describe experiences, but sensory impressions…. With an apple, we experience the colour, the smell and the taste individually.”

The forward progression of the story is forsaken because the characters act and respond. The character experiences the moment.

It is when the writer rushes to the next beat of action and foregoes the experience by telling, that the moments of true insight are lost.

Blog
David Gane

David Gane Twitter

Co-writer of the Shepherd and Wolfe young adult mysteries, the internationally award-winning series, and teacher of storytelling and screenwriting.

Comments

Related Posts

Happiness and pain

When asked what they want, people often say they want happiness or pleasure. However, in Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman argues that people are loss-averse, meaning they are more likely to act to avert a loss than to achieve a gain. This finding means we are more likely to

Fast Fiction

Before writing the daily blog, I had been experimenting with fast fiction—fiction that was written and shared quickly. The first time was during the summer of 2021 when I wrote a new story every day for 31 days. I then tried to do it once a week for a

Mistakes happen

Yesterday's newsletter didn't go to the right group, so I had to resend it tonight. It may even come out after I'm finished with this blog post. I finished it early yesterday, did several edits, then had my wife read it before I sent it. Yet, it still failed—but