{"id":8038,"date":"2011-02-26T13:30:53","date_gmt":"2011-02-26T18:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=8038"},"modified":"2011-02-26T13:30:53","modified_gmt":"2011-02-26T18:30:53","slug":"paying-attention-to-the-click","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/paying-attention-to-the-click\/","title":{"rendered":"Paying Attention to the Click<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"N<\/span>early every writer, I imagine — maybe we can even dispense with the nearly<\/em>? — has favorite words. It’s certainly true of me. Some of them are words I just like the sound of. Some of them have meanings just too right<\/em>: I can’t help reaching for those words whenever I set to writing or talking about a favorite topic.When I’m editing something I’ve written, one of the toughest jobs is ridding the text of these pets, which after the second or third occurrence on a page start to jut out at me like snaggleteeth just begging to be attacked by a cosmetic dentist.<\/p>\n

But I’ve also got favorite words which I’ve never<\/em> used. Words which I’ve been hoarding, waiting to be spent at just the right moment, in just the right piece…<\/p>\n

This is about one of those words.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I<\/span> can’t talk about mechanical operations in any way other than the vaguely* allusive. I can change a tire, and I like tinkering with the innards of computers if I don’t have to do it for more than a few minutes — and it’s something I know cold<\/em> — and I can always manage to feel manly just by doing things like climbing a ladder to replace an outdoor floodlight bulb.<\/p>\n

But one thing I can do with the pros: I can turn a knob.<\/p>\n

No, no. Not a doorknob. I mean like a dial. Like a radio tuner, say. But not exactly<\/em> like a radio tuner — that’s not my favorite sort of knob or dial.<\/p>\n

To my mind, the problem with knobs like radio tuners is that they turn freely. Between any given setting and the next is an infinite range of other<\/em> settings. Conceptually, philosophically, I like this freedom. Practically, well, it’s a nuisance. Especially if the readout isn’t digital but just a needle or arrowhead which sorta kinda points to<\/em> whatever the current setting might be.<\/p>\n

No, what I really like is something like the channel selector on an old TV set. If you try to spin a knob like that, you get disaster:<\/p>\n

clickclickclickclick<\/em><\/strong>toomanyclickstokeeptrackof<\/span>click<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Where did you end up? Who knows?<\/p>\n

The only way to successfully use such a dial is to apply just the right amount of fingertip pressure, and no more. The objective is to move the dial to each of the discrete settings provided by the manufacturer: Click. Click. Click.<\/em> Three clicks. Simple, straightforward. And each successful little nudge provides its own small tactile satisfaction. Nuuuuuuudge<\/em>… click. Like that.<\/p>\n

It turns out that there’s a term for each of these individual settings, for each successive tiny trough into which your sensitive fingertip muscles can nudge a tiny boulder. The term is “detent.”<\/p>\n

Right. No final “e,” no fancy diacriticals involved. This isn’t (although it’s related to) the diplomatic state which Gorbachev pushed for back in the ’80s — rapprochement between superpowers. This is a detent<\/em>. (It’s pronounced like something Herve Villechaize, as Tattoo on the Fantasy Island<\/em><\/a> TV series, might say to Fernando Lamas when they found an encampment on the beach: Look, boss: d’<\/em>tent! d’<\/em>tent!<\/em>)<\/p>\n

About its etymology, dictionary.com says<\/a>:<\/p>\n

1680\u201390;\u00a0 [from] French d\u00e9tente<\/em>, Old French destente<\/em>,\u00a0 derivative of destendre<\/em> to relax, equivalent to des<\/em>–\u00a0 + tendre<\/em> to stretch<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Got that? The tendre<\/em> on its own means “to stretch.” The des<\/em> prefix cancels that meaning, making the whole thing “to relax.” Stretch; relax. That’s what you do when you move a knob from one stop to the next. Stretch the finger just a little bit, push<\/em>… and then stop.<\/p>\n

I love that — knowing that human fingertips can somehow sense just the right amount of pressure. I love knowing about detents.<\/p>\n

S<\/span>o what’s all this got to do with this Paying Attention to…<\/em> series of posts, about the process of writing fiction — or at least, about my<\/em> process? Just this:<\/p>\n

Every now and then, in response to some ongoing puzzlement, I come up with some very, very simple gimmick. Maybe I insert a page between two big blocks of chapters, and label it Part 1:<\/em>, followed by a single word. Maybe I move a paragraph or section from one chapter to a later, and in the process both add suspense to all the intervening chapters, and resolve that suspense at a point which has been crying out for some sort of resolution, any resolution at all…<\/p>\n

Whatever the gimmick, whatever the small change in text or structure might be, I can almost hear it audibly: click<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And then I know that setting is complete. Time to move onto the next knob — the first of two remaining — and push at it, too. Just enough, not too much… Every single click, the passing of every single detent, another small but felt<\/em> cycle of stretch-relax satisfaction.<\/p>\n

Writing this draft of this book hasn’t provided just one big surge of relief, or one continuous stream. It’s provided a dozen separate little ones, all along the way — which I would have missed, if I hadn’t been paying attention.<\/p>\n

_______________________<\/p>\n

* Case in point — “vague” and its derivatives: I had to strike three of them from drafts of this post, leaving (I hope) just this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly every writer, I imagine — maybe we can even dispense with the nearly? — has favorite words. It’s certainly true of me. Some of them are words I just like the sound of. Some of them have meanings just too right: I can’t help reaching for those words whenever I set to writing or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1028,5,372,515],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-paying-attention","8":"category-06_writing","9":"category-style-and-craft","10":"category-grail","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-25E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8038\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}