I’m trying to get my head around this process, but a high powered action thriller is not what I’m writing. My own ‘heart breaking work of staggering genius’ is set in 1850. I’m wondering if this could be classed as an MRU:

“Maggie Ahern, step forward.”

Maggie started at the sound of her name and promptly obeyed the command. Heart pounding, she wondered what she could possibly have to do with this interruption to the sameness of their days. Maggie was conscious of towering over the women lined up behind her. The stranger tilted his top hat backwards as he walked towards her, his eyes darting from her straggly red hair to the toe poking through her shoes.

I’m thinking the dialogue is the Motivation, and her reactions follow, I hope, in order. The last line, is pretty much the beginning of the next MRU, as she then goes on to react to his scrutiny (which I’m calling the motivation).

Am I getting this, or am I really lost?

By the way, it’s also my first paragraph, and given that you’ve all been looking at those for a while, if any of you have comments along that line too, I’d be grateful for your feedback…

You helped me see through the fog by explaining that an MRU is the SMALLEST unit of conflict. So when a series of these small units of conflict build on its predecessors to prompt a greater motivation, this exceeds the perimeters of an MRU?

So “as” and “while” may be used? He placidly read the paper while the children destroyed the house.

To summarize all the ideas:

1) Once the blindness is established, ignore it as much as possible and write naturally. (Sharon & Randy)
2) Use emotional reactions to the sounds (keeping the MRU in the correct order) (Parker & Randy)
3) Keep the experience purely sensory and leave out how he received the sensory input. (Camille)
4) Use words that evoke sounds. (Sylvia)

All great, and the solution will probably be in mixing these up to keep it fresh. This definitely gets me out of that wagon-wheel rut!

Karen- a few comments on your piece (I’m using this as MRU practice for myself, so bear with me ).

“Maggie Ahern, step forward.”
[Motivation; this is perfect]

Maggie started at the sound of her name and promptly obeyed the command. Heart pounding, she wondered what she could possibly have to do with this interruption to the sameness of their days.
[Reaction, but slightly out of order. Starting at a sound and heart pounding are both fast Reactions, not under conscious control. Those should both come before obeying the command, which is a conscious decision. Wondering about things is a Reaction, and is in the correct place.]

Maggie was conscious of towering over the women lined up behind her. The stranger tilted his top hat backwards as he walked towards her, his eyes darting from her straggly red hair to the toe poking through her shoes.
[I believe both of these sentences are part of a new Motivation, thus needing a new paragraph. Towering over everyone is not a Reaction, but is something outside herself that Maggie notices, and thus is a Motivation which she will React to. I’m not sure if these are better off as a single Motivation, or should be split up with a Reaction in between.]

I hope this helps!

A visual learner will say things like, “I see what you mean… .” An auditory learner will say, “It sounds like you’re saying… .” A kinetic learner will say, “This just doesn’t feel right to me… .”

As an author, you can do the same thing. When you are writing motivations for your blind POV, write them with hearing adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. When you are writing motivation for all your other POVs, write them with seeing adjectives, adverbs, and verbs.

Also, make sure that your blind POV uses hearing terms when speaking. It is rare to the extreme for a blind person to speak with sighted idioms. They would never say to a frazzled co-worker, “Looks like you’ve had a tough day!”

Hope this helps.

“Is it reasonable to have multiple minor MRU’s within a larger one?”

It seems to me that Parker is describing a Scene/Sequel pair, or something very like that. I guess the point about minor MRUs within a larger MRU is a pretty good way of thinking about writing the perfect scene(s), as it indicates the duality of “something happens” and “character X responds”. On the small scale, this is an MRU; on the moderate scale, this is a Scene/Sequel; on the largest scale, this is a novel.

Although I have heard of blind people who used trite expressions, like “I see,” to let others know they understand. They don’t make a big deal about it and we shouldn’t try to call excess attention to such either.

Thanks for your thoughtful comments on Dead Man’s Rule. I’m just getting started on another legal thriller, and I’m sure I’ll refer back to these posts more than once as I write. You had good insights on what worked, what didn’t, and why.

BTW, I confess that before I read about MRUs here, I had no idea what they were, let alone that I was creating them. I just thought I was shooting Russian mobsters.

Best,

Rick Acker

Thanks to all for these discussions so far!

Karen

I try to avoid unadorned dialog tags, so I do have physical and mental reactions as well as active motivations interspersed with the dialog so the reader can tell who’s speaking, but I’m not sure if I’m actually building MRUs when I have dialog-driven scenes. I think I get it when it comes to action, but not every seen can be action–at least I can’t seem to write that way.

Here’s an example excerpted from one of my scenes (If I’m right, this is a series of short dialog MRUs followed by a non-dialog MRUs.):

“Don’t take it to heart, girl.” The old midwife followed Gwyn out into the warm night air. “You did nothing wrong to cause the babe to die. He was already dead ere you arrived, it was just a matter of the getting him out.”
“I know that in my head, Mistress Bethan.” Gwyn swallowed a sob, “but it will take some convincing to make my heart understand.”
The old midwife laid a grizzled hand on her shoulder. “It often happens so, child. You must harden your heart to it or you can ne’er do this job.”
Tears welled in Gwyn’s eyes, but she hastily wiped them away with the back of her hand. “I don’t know if I can.”
They walked in silence on a road made visible by a half moon overhead, its silvery light illuminating the village’s empty sheep folds. It was eerily still with all the sheep up on the high meadows where the grass was lusher and the air cooler. Behind them, the first heavy strokes of a hammer broke the stillness of the night. Deryn’s husband would work off his grief on the coffin for his wee son.
Gwyn’s eyes teared again despite her attempts to keep them dry.

The different learning styles is an interesting way to view this area. Definitely worth keeping in mind as I edit to make sure his speech fits.

I think I need to make a list of all the “hearing” verbs/adverbs/adjectives I can think of.

Thanks,

-Robert