The last few weeks I've been traveling around Europe. I've been to Iceland, Athens, Lesvos, Amsterdam, Maastricht, and next week, I will be going to Paris. It's been magical, to say the least. Every day I've seen something I might never see again.

capture a moment

And each day there have been moments I've desperately wanted to capture. These are moments you know you'll never forget. It's walking into a refugee camp in Greece, knowing your life will never be the same. It's holding hands for the first time in a foreign city, wondering what it all means. It's hugging someone goodbye at the airport, not knowing the next time you will see them.

How to Capture a Moment in Writing

These moments are what make up your life. They are the moments that make up stories.

The ability to capture these moments will change your writing. So in today's post, I want to explore just how to do that. Here are five tips to consider while trying to capture a moment.

1. Use Your Senses

This is the obvious place to start. The five senses are sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. This is the way you process the majority of your surroundings. To begin capturing a moment, you need to go through each of these senses.

What do I see? What do I hear? Taste? Smell? Feel? (Here's another post about unlocking the five senses.)

These descriptions and details are the foundation for describing any moment.

Sometimes these descriptions might seem obvious or even boring, but write them down anyway. You can edit later, but you can't relive the moment.

 2. Breathe The Moment

Joe recently wrote a post about this. It is easy to get caught up in describing your surroundings and finding the perfect word for the rainy weather. But the secret to really capturing amazing moments is to breathe.

I've struggled with this during my travels. Europe is beautiful. Many of the world's best writers have written in the places I sit. So let me tell you a secret: while writing in the same cafés as Hemingway, the pressure to write incredible, life-changing, perfect stories is overwhelming. (And when you allow yourself to be swept up in the overwhelming pressure, you either write nothing at all or complete crap.)

But you have to stop focusing on every smell and sound and breathe the moment.

There's something in that breath that actually gives you a better sense of your surroundings. You write best about the places and moments you've really breathed and allowed yourself to experience.

Don't forget to breathe.

3. Pay Attention to the Small Details

Confession: I love small details. It's actually one of my favorite things about writing and reading.

But here's the catch. The details have to mean something. They have to point to a bigger picture of what you're trying to express.

One of my favorite songwriters, Ben Rector, does this. He gives small details like tennis shoes and faded jeans, the way someone is always early, or a flip phone with an obnoxious ringtone.

These details give you a better sense of who someone is or what they're going through. They help the reader (or listener) put themselves in the moment.

Include details that give depth to the moment. Include small details because they build a better story.

4. Build the Moment

Know what kind of moment you're trying to capture. From there, you know how to build it.

Some moments you build toward a peaceful quiet, but most moments build up toward an emotional event. These moments are like a first kiss. They never start with the kiss. They require build up, hints, and time.

  • First, write a place for the reader. Show the reader where they are physically and what is around them.
  • Second, begin to show the reader where they are emotionally. This is also a good time to hint towards what might happen at the end.
  • Thirdly, keep building. Depending on your ending, this is the moment you either fasten the pace of your writing, or slow it back down as you capture the final pieces of the moment.

Building the moment is just as important as capturing it. Smells, sounds, and feelings don't mean much if they're not crafted together in a way that also impacts the reader.

5. Find the Bigger Story

What makes a moment meaningful? The moment is just one part of a bigger story.

Whether you're capturing your morning drive to work or the view from the Eiffel Tower, you must hint to a bigger story, a bigger message.

This is done by hinting at something the reader can still connect with, something that they can relate to.

This step, while it might seem obvious, is essential to connecting the story to your reader. A successful captured moment gives the reader a part in the story too.

Have you ever desperately wanted to capture the moment before you? How have you done that? What moments have you captured? Let us know in the comments below!

PRACTICE

Take fifteen minutes and practice capturing a moment. Choose a profound moment, or a seemingly mundane one. Use the different techniques from the post.

Post your practice in the comments and let us know what worked for you! (Also be sure to leave some feedback for your fellow practicers.)

Happy moment-capturing!

Kellie McGann is the founder of Write a Better Book . She partners with leaders to help tell their stories in book form.

On the weekends, she writes poetry and prose.

She contributes to The Write Practice every other Wednesday.

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