TECH: 101 Tips (33)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 7 July 2009

Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go:

"Explore your subject with language that's simple rather than ornate, graceful rather than labored. Read your pages aloud -- to the cat, if no other audience is available. You'll hear if the words are right, if the phrasing and sentences catch the right rhythms. Avoid cliches: no shattered dreams, minutes that seemed like an eternity or worlds turned upside down." Meg Files

Keep it simple. Certainly, just between friends, hauling out the thesaurus and the dictionary for the fun of it, we can dig through the richness and glory of English -- but readers like their meals simple, mostly. No rich fancy cooking, just a plot, some characters, a bit of setting, with words that vanish. When the language grows ornate, it's like there's a flaw in the window between the reader and the story -- and suddenly the reader is paying attention to the window, and loses track of the story.

So read it aloud. If you stumble, your reader is sure to have trouble. Keep it simple, keep it plain, and make it your words.

Watch out for those wonderful cliches. When you find one, just try putting it in your own terms. Like looking for a needle in a haystack -- when was the last time you saw a haystack? How about looking for a friend in the Memorial Day sales crowds? Or maybe a T-shirt in your size at Wal-Marts? Or... you know what that phrase means. Just put it in your own words, your own experience.

This is really what all the talk about grammar and spelling and word selection is all about. Making it easy for the reader to see your story. You don't want them to say, "I couldn't read the story for the words."

Comments

Re: [Writers] TECH: 101 Tips (33)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting 7 July 2009

[one of the readers questioned simplicity. I responded.]

Good point. It's one of those blasted balance things again, I suppose. Too much fancy -- too many ten-dollar words? -- and the reader decides you're overbearing. Too simple and you get Dick and Jane crashing.

One of the exercises back in college in a genuine creative writing course -- I think we were supposed to be writing short stories, but I'm not sure we ever got there -- was fun. The teacher handed out 3x5 cards to us. Each one had a word -- darn, what was mine? Not codex, not palimpset -- it was a word for an old manuscript or book, pre-printing press? Ha -- incunabulum. That was it. Anyway, we all got an unusual word. The assignment? Look up the word and find out what it meant, then write a story using the word. Introducing the reader to the meaning through context and usage, no simple blurting out of the definition. He made the point that you probably shouldn't overdo this in a story, but that it did add spice to the tale.

Definitely a balance. Hemingway went one direction, other folks may find a bit richer mix to their taste.