Guiding to Creative Writing: Techniques for Effective Use of Words, Study Guides, Projects, Research of English

Download Guiding to Creative Writing: Techniques for Effective Use of Words and more Study Guides, Projects, Research English in PDF only on Docsity! Guiding to Creative Writing [AUTHOR NAME] 1 Building simple sentences with individual words - Jessica fell. - Jessica fell in love. - Jessica fell in love with Henry. - Jessica almost immediately fell in love with Henry. - Jessica and her sister almost immediately fell in love with Henry. - Jessica and her younger sister Victoria almost immediately fell in love with the dashing Henry Goodyear. - Jessica and her lively younger sister Victoria almost immediately fell hopelessly in love with the very dashing and mysterious Henry Goodyear. Guiding to Creative Writing [AUTHOR NAME] 2 Selecting concrete or abstract words Abstract: - The ocean was beautiful. - The mountain was awesome. - The man looked happy. Concrete: - The wind blew across the ocean and whipped it into white, frothy peaks. - The mountain seemed to dominate the landscape, with the ragged outcroppings in stark contrast to the green valley below. - The corners of his mouth turned up into a wide grin. Abstract words – beauty, truth, justice, and so on – refer to ideas, qualities, or conditions that cannot be perceived by the senses. Concrete words, on the other hand, convey a vivid picture by naming things that readers can see, hear, taste, smell, or touch. Abstract words are often too general to communicate much about real things. Concrete words are specific: they get your point across. Guiding to Creative Writing [AUTHOR NAME] 5 Selecting specific or general words Specific words signify particular examples of persons, things, or events, while general words signify an entire class or group. Queen Elizabeth II, for example, is more specific than monarch; topcoat is mor specific than clothes; and Corvette is more specific than automobile. General words are, of course, useful. Statements than use general words to describe entire classes of things or events are often necessary to convey a point. But such statements must also include specific words for support and clarity. Using general words when specific words are needed results in vagueness. If you want your readers to visualize a certain building – say, the new wing of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. – it is not enough to say that it has “an unusual shape”. If you want your audience to “see” Picasso’s Guernica, you must do more than note its “interesting imagery” and “vivid colors”. Why imagery? What colors? What else can you say about it? You must use specific words to convey information to your readers whenever you can. Whether a word is general or specific is relative, determined by its relationship to other words. The following word chains illustrate increasing specificity, with the word farthest to the left denoting a general category or class and the one farthest to the right, a specific, tangible member of that class. Guiding to Creative Writing [AUTHOR NAME] 6 History – American history – Civil War history – History 263 Apparel – accessory – tie – bow tie Human being – official – president – Thomas Jefferson Reading matter – book – nonfiction book – The Fate of the Earth Machine – vehicle – train – bullet train The more specific your choice of words, the more vivid your writing will be. The essayist E. B. White uses specific diction in this paragraph: • Most of the time she simply rode in a standing position, well aft of the beast, her hands hanging easily at her sides, her head erect, her straw-colored ponytail lightly brushing her shoulders, the blood of exertion showing faintly through the tan of her skin. Twice she managed a one-foot stance – a sort of ballet pose, with arms outstretched. At one point the neck strap of her bathing suit broke and she went twice around the ring in the classic attitude of a woman making minor repairs to a garment. The fact that she was standing on the back of a moving horse while doing this invested the matter with a clownish significance that perfectly fitted the spirit of the circus – jocund, yet charming. She just rolled the strap into a neat ball and stowed it inside her bodice while the horse rocked and rolled beneath her in dutiful innocence. The bathing suit proved as self-reliant as its owner and stood up well enough without benefit of strap. (E. B. White, “Points of My Compass”) White selects specific words and phrases calculated to bring into focus his experience of the young woman and her actions. Here is how the paragraph would read if White had used general words to tell his story: • Most of the time she rode in a standing position with her hands down at her sides. Twice she managed an off stance. At one point an article of her clothing broke, but she managed to solve the problem and continued to ride. Guiding to Creative Writing [AUTHOR NAME] 7 Using Figurative Language Language that adheres to fact is called literal language. But when writers want to express their personal reactions, they often must go beyond literal meanings. They do so by using figurative languages – language that uses imaginative comparisons called figures. A writer who wanted to express his or her feelings upon seeing the moon could say, “The moon came up fast and was beautiful, large, and white.” Figurative language is more expressive: “The moon rose quickly and hung in the sky like a papier-mâché ball.” Here the comparison conveys the writer’s feelings vividly. Figurative language is not just for literary writing; it has its place in journalism, in academic writing, and even in scientific and technical writing. Although you should not overuse figurative language, do not be afraid to use it when you think it will help you communicate with a reader. The five most commonly used figures of speech are simile, metaphor, analogy, personification, and allusion. Guiding to Creative Writing [AUTHOR NAME] 10 2. Constructing metaphors A metaphor also compares two essentially dissimilar things, but instead of saying that one thing is like another, it equates them. Here is a metaphor from student essay: - My mother was a beacon illuminating my childhood. In this metaphor the subject mother is equated with, and enhanced by, the image a beacon illuminating my childhood. With one effective image, the student sums up his feelings about his mother. Metaphors are more compressed than similes, and when used successfully, they have great impact. They clarify thought and convey ideas with startling efficiency. Notice the use of metaphors in the following sentences. - The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and all the rest of the world. - In its first days of operation, a new telescope orbiting the earth has returned infrared images showing previously unobserved features of distant galaxies and revealing cosmic “maternity wards” where clouds of interstellar gas appear at various stages of giving birth to stars. - Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait”. - Science and technology like all creations of the human spirit are unpredictable. If we had a reliable way to label our toys good and bad, it would be easy to regulate technology wisely. Guiding to Creative Writing [AUTHOR NAME] 11 NOTE: For a metaphor to work, it has to employ images with which readers are familiar. If the comparison is too remote, readers will miss the point entirely. If it is too common, it will become a cliche. Guiding to Creative Writing [AUTHOR NAME] 12 3. Constructing analogies In an analogy you explain an unfamiliar object of idea by comparing it to a more familiar one. - An atom is like a miniature solar system. - Robert Frost said that writing free verse is like playing tennis without a net. - The circulatory system runs through the body like a network of rivers and streams. Analogies can extend over several sentences or even several paragraphs. Extended analogies resemble comparison-and-contrast paragraphs with one important difference: whereas comparisons give equal weight to both things being compared, extended analogies use one part of the comparison for the sole purpose of shedding light on the other. Here is how one author uses the behavior of people to explain the behavior of ants. Guiding to Creative Writing [AUTHOR NAME] 15 - Wit is lean creature with a sharp inquiring nose. - Truth strikes us from behind, and in the dark, as well as from before in broad daylight. - One night I was allowed to stay up until the stars were in full command of the sky. - Institutions, no longer able to grasp firmly what is expected of them and what they are, grow slovenly and misshapen and wander away from their appointed tasks in the Constitutional scheme. Guiding to Creative Writing [AUTHOR NAME] 16 5. Using allusion An allusion is a reference to a well-known historical or literary person or event. Allusion enriches a reader’s understanding of your writing by comparing one subject to another that in some resembles it. Suppose that you title an essay you have written about your personal goals “Miles to Go Before I Sleep”. By reminding your readers of the concluding lines of Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, you suggest your determination and self-discipline. Literary allusions enrich your expression of feelings. Biblical allusions allow you to express a moral attitude (“Eyes have thay, but they see not”). Historical allusions, such as “When Robert Vesco decided to battle the government, he set the scene for his Dunkirk”, elucidate current events by drawing parallels between a current event (Vesco’s battle) and an event of historical importance (the retreat of the Allies during WW II) Once again, for an allusion to work, readers must know what you are alluding to. Family jokes, expressions that your friends use, and esoteric references mean nothing to a general audience. Guiding to Creative Writing [AUTHOR NAME] 17 Avoiding ineffective Figures of Speech Effective figures of speech enrich your diction. Ineffective figures of speech – dead metaphors or similes, mixed metaphors, strained metaphors, overblown imagery – seriously damage it. 1. Avoiding dead metaphors and similes Metaphors and similes stimulate thought by calling up vivid images in a reader’s mind. A dead metaphor or simile has been so overused that it calls up no image. It has become a pat, meaningless cliché. Here are some examples: - Beyond a shadow of a doubt - Crying shame - Sit on the fence - The bottom line - Green with envy - Pull up stakes - Off the track - The last straw - Off the beaten path - A shot in the arm - Smooth sailing - Blind as a bat - Dead as a doornail - Up in arms - Sink or swim Avoid dead metaphors and similes by taking the time to think of images that make your writing fresher and more vivid. Guiding to Creative Writing [AUTHOR NAME] 20 3. Revising strained metaphors A strained metaphor compares two things that do not have enough in common to justify the comparison or whose connotations do not match. Strained: The wind rose in the morning like a giant getting out of bed. Strained: The plane was a fragment of candy falling through the sky. How is the wind like a giant? And in what sense is a plane comparable to a piece of candy? By comparing things that have a strong basis of comparison, the following revisions create effective metaphors. Revised: The wind rose in the morning like a great wave. Revised: The plane was wounded bird falling through the sky. Guiding to Creative Writing [AUTHOR NAME] 21 4. Revising overblown imagery Overblown, pretentious diction is always out of place. By calling attention to itself, it draws readers away from the point you are making. The Tammany Society [a political association] was an all-engulfing weed that rapidly overran and choked New York City’s political gardens. Times were filled with danger for those who dared protest this corruption. Even the champion of the people – The Sun - refused to encourage the few flowers that dared to rear their heads in that field of briars. Although the situation improved somewhat in the hands of skillful gardeners, much corruption existed for years to come. This overblown imagery obscures the writer’s meaning. Comparing Tammany to a weed is certainly valid, but here it is the imagery that has grown like one. Compare this paragraph, revised for clarity and consistency. The Tammany Society was a weed that quickly overran New York City. Times were hard for those who dared to speak against its spread; even The Sun did not encourage reformers. Although the situation improved somewhat in the hands of reform-minded politicians, much corruption existed for years to come. Guiding to Creative Writing [AUTHOR NAME] 22 Exercise 1: Read the following paragraph from Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi and identify as many figures of speech as you can. Now when I had mastered the language of this water, and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition. But I had lost something, too. I had lost something which could never be restored to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry, had gone out of the majestic river! I still keep in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steam boating was new to me. A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood; in the middle distance the red hue brightened into gold, through which a solitary log came floating black and conspicuous; in one place a long, slanting mark lay sparkling upon the water; in another the surface was broken by boiling, tumbling rings, that were as many-tinted as an opal; where the ruddy flush was faintest, was a smooth spot that was covered with graceful circles and radiating lines, ever so delicately traced; the shore on our left was densely wooded, and the somber shadow that fell from this forest was broken in one place by a long ruffled trail that shone like silver; and high above the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor that was flowing from the sun. There were graceful curves, reflected images, woody heights, soft distances; and over the whole scene, far and near, the dissolving lights drifted steadily, enriching it every passing moment with new marvels of coloring.