{"id":1668,"date":"2022-05-04T08:17:41","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T12:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=1668"},"modified":"2022-05-04T08:19:16","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T12:19:16","slug":"self-help-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/04\/self-help-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Self Help"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On April 23, 2021, Fantasywriter6 wrote, What are some ways that y\u2019all would suggest to improve writing technique? Aside from writing all the time, obviously. How can I learn to make my language, mood, and overall technique better? (If this is a dumb question, and the answer is just \u201cyou have it or you don\u2019t,\u201d then sorry!:) I just have recently read a work done by a peer, and, I mean, I generally think that my language is pretty good, but when I read her work- even just aside from the plot and characters, her language, pacing, and overall voice were phenomenal. I\u2019d like to get better at all of that!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A discussion followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Me: Not a dumb question! I\u2019m adding it to my list. In the meanwhile, if you\u2019re thinking about language, I\u2019d suggest you read Strunk & White\u2019s The Elements of Style, a very old book, which came out in a new edition last year. I used to lick the elegant sentences off the page!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FantasyFan101: I know how you feel. My friend\u2019s writing is, as you say, phenomenal. I\u2019d just say, think about yourself. What do you sound like in your head? Smart, curious, happy, sad etc.? If you\u2019re doing close focus 3rd POV, my favorite, make your voice sound like the character\u2019s personality. My friend from above has a character that is very resentful and has had a lot of loss, and the story definitely revolves a lot around that when she\u2019s writing. It makes her romance especially hard, because she doesn\u2019t want to possibly lose another loved one. She tries to keep herself cold and cut off from any possible friendships. The voice of the story always has to do with the characters involved. Technique, I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s your story, so write it as you want. The mood also depends on what your characters are feeling. If they\u2019re happy, describe everything brightly and joyfully. Sad, you know what to do.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katie W.: I’ve found that analyzing things you really like can be quite helpful. Not just “Oh, that’s really good,” but “What is it about this story that appeals to me? Which techniques does the author use to create this effect?” Once you have those answers, you can look for a way to incorporate that into your writing. You can also absorb those things by osmosis, but it takes longer and the process is harder to put into words. If you can manage it, I would suggest asking the peer you admire how she got to be so good and see if she might have any tips. But analyzing and osmosis work, too.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christie V Powell: It\u2019s definitely something you can learn, not something you have or don\u2019t. In addition to Strunk & White, may I recommend Writing Tools<\/u> by Roy Peter Clark? It\u2019s another excellent book that talks about the little ways you can play with language to make it work for your story.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, of course, read a lot! I usually get so involved in reading stories that I don\u2019t pick apart details as I go (except sometimes some big picture things like plot structure points), but even if it\u2019s by osmosis, you\u2019ll pick up a greater vocabulary and greater mastery of word usage.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just saying, comparisons with a peer may be unreliable. We are hard on ourselves! I started wondering (ignoring the timelines of their lives, which overlapped by only one year) if Charlotte Bront\u00eb may have thought Jane Austen above her in writing quality. Or vice versa. But if you read the two, the question dissolves because their work is so different in mood, tone, and style. They\u2019re both great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said that, it\u2019s always worthwhile to work at our writing. I\u2019m with Christie V Powell on reading a lot, which makes osmosis happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m also a fan of close analysis of what\u2019s going on in prose I admire. A minute ago I looked at the beginning of F. Scott Fitzgerald\u2019s The Great Gatsby<\/em> (high school and up). The first paragraph is one long sentence after another until the penultimate one, which is just eight words: Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope<\/em>. The shortness packs a punch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a technical level, I see how effective sentence variety can be. Fitzgerald also changes things up with a dash in an earlier sentence. We can include a question or two or an exclamation. Even a colon followed by a series can wake up a bit of prose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And isn\u2019t that sentence fascinating? The whole paragraph immerses us in the thoughts of Nick Carraway and sets him up to be a reliable narrator. (Please argue with me if you disagree. I\u2019d love to know your thoughts on this.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can find the paragraph online, and you don\u2019t have to be at least in high school to read the excerpt. We can learn from it about jumping into the strangeness of a character\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took a look at Christie V Powell\u2019s suggested Writing Tools<\/em> and read some of the sample Amazon offers. In the beginning, Roy Peter Clark advises writers to start sentences with subject and verb, and he provides examples of the effectiveness of that approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought, Whoa! What about Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cTo Be or Not To Be\u201d speech from Hamlet<\/em>? I googled it and read it, and the subject and verb are all over the place. To his credit, Clark goes on to include examples that don\u2019t follow his recommendation and that are still terrific. He draws our attention, as mine never had been drawn before, to subject-verb placement and the effects we can achieve. Cool!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m attentive to word repetition when I revise. Generally, I don\u2019t want words to repeat in the same sentence or paragraph, sometimes not even in neighboring paragraphs. These include handy little ones like even<\/em> or just<\/em>. Sometimes, I\u2019ll recast a sentence to get rid of them because they create a sameness in our prose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paragraph length can be varied too. An infrequent one sentence paragraph can heighten a dramatic moment. But this should be used rarely, or there\u2019s the danger of seeming gimmicky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can scrutinize our adjectives and adverbs (the weakest parts of speech in English prose) to see if we need them or if we can substitute stronger nouns and verbs for them, like rushed<\/em> instead of moved quickly<\/em>. We can bring in detail to show whatever we\u2019re describing, rather than beautiful building<\/em>, we can show the reader the marble columns, the balcony guard wall decorated with a frieze of dancers\u2014and so on. The reader will glean that this edifice is beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then we can zoom out to consider bigger issues. We can consider how an admired author revealed character through dialogue, action, appearance, and, in the case of an MC, thoughts and feelings. We look for consistency. If there\u2019s change, how was it set up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can look at plot twists and whether they were both surprising and believable at the same time. If yes, how did the author prepare the reader? What can we learn?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Same approach with setting and worldbuilding. Did they support the story, or were they just window dressing?  I think a little window dressing is okay, since the author is allowed to have fun, but the world and the setting need also to be woven into the story so that the plot doesn\u2019t work without them. We can think about how the author accomplished that. When did the worldbuilding and the setting enter the story? How was it done?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, we\u2019ll pay special attention to the issues that are hardest for us. How does this author accomplish whatever those are (plot for me)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can be critical too. Is there anything in the book we\u2019re studying that doesn\u2019t work? What could we do to fix whatever it is? I twitch when I spot a little mistake that could easily have been revised out of existence. Didn\u2019t somebody notice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biblical story of Joseph has myriad plot twists. Two of these three prompts pick a twist to fool with, but you can look the story up if you don\u2019t remember the details and choose different ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n