If you ask a writer for ways to say the same word differently, I wonder how many words with similar meanings they could give you?
One of our jobs as writers is to find that absolutely perfect word and plunk it down, a glowing jewel, amidst all the clutter of sentences. Not an "almost" perfect word. Not a "sort of" perfect word. THE perfect word.
For instance, you can't have a group of sentences with one redundant word occurring throughout the whole paragraph. It would get-- well, redundant. I mean, look at this sentence:
"The darkness lay like a bandage across my eyes. My groping hands reached through the dark, and my eyes tried to pierce through darkness' shield, but to no avail. The pressing dark was too much for me to penetrate. I lifted my foot and took a brave step forward, a blind man in the dark."
This might be a good sentence, but sheesh! Look at all those "dark"s! TOO many! You start getting hung up on how many darks are in that sentence. So, you have to be creative. What other words OTHER than dark can you substitute instead? Gloom. Black. Dim. Shadow. Murk. There's a bunch, isn't there? Let's rewrite that sentence again.
"The darkness lay like a bandage across my eyes. My groping hands reached through the shadows, and my eyes tried to pierce through the gloomy shield, but to no avail. The pressing dimness was too much for me to penetrate. I lifted my foot and took a brave step forward, a blind man in the murk."
Which one read better, one or two? See what I mean?
Writing isn't just about putting words together and hoping it's good enough. Writing is putting good words together inventively, and knowing that it's as perfect as you can make it.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Steampunk Jewelry!!
There are days when writing just doesn't do it for me.
I went to Borders today (where else, right?) and found this absolutely fantabulous book called "Steampunkery". It's the COOLEST book! It's a jewelry book, actually, that involves using polymer clays and odds-and-ends to create Steampunk jewelry. Cool, huh?
I spent quite a lot of the day reading how to make Steampunk creations, and just dying to form some clay in my hands. I don't know how many people have actually ever worked with clay, but it's one of the most SOOTHING feelings in the world to fashion that soft, malleable stuff into something lovely. Anyway, this book shows how to create little different things, like metal-looking hearts and jointed, metallic bugs, and to insert cogs and gears into them so that they look to be clockwork jewelry. It's SO COOL! You can make necklaces, brooches, interesting knick-knacks, "pocket protectors", all out of clay and some oddments that you have lying about.
I think, if I ever have oodles of time, I'm going to take up clay. Seriously, you need to check out this book, and the authors website (which I have linked below) and tell me if you are not inspired to create Steampunk jewelry.
So, that's what I read tonight. I haven't been quite this inspired in a while. :-)
Monday, March 21, 2011
The Art of World Craft from Other Writers' Writings
How perfect does the world you craft for your story have to be? Do you read other writer's books in order to glean some little sparklet of genius from their words?
Some authors really do it for me. Patricia McKillip is one author who just delights in her words, and in her worlds. She weaves together the most remarkable terms in order to create a shockingly vivid picture. Her lands, her worlds, her sense of place is solid and firm and there. You can't visualize another land except the one she snares you in during the duration of her tale. You're there, in Hed, in Sealy Head, in Ombria, wherever she takes you.
Diana Wynne Jones, of course, is another writer that does it for me. She has a real talent for picking random words, combining them, and creating a word that is completely new, bizarre, and amazingly perfect. She also has a vivid sense of place. She writes, and her worlds come alive. In between the pages you can believe in magic, in a series of worlds numbered 1-12, in an askew sense of normality. She knows how to draw you in and keep you there, in Ingary, in Dalemark, wherever she takes you.
Tolkien is the one I go to for sheer inspiration. I read what he writes, and the poetry in his words refreshes me, makes me think, makes me wonder about my world, and my worldbuilding. His sense of place, his intricate attention to detail make him one of my fantasy heroes of all times. Plus, he has a great way with words.
Below is one of my favourite passages from his book, "The Silmarillion." The beauty of his language sings like poetry.
"Then the discord of Melkor spread ever wider, and the melodies which had been heard before foundered in a sea of turbulent sound. But Iluvatar sat and hearkened until it seemed that about his throne there was a raging storm, as of dark waters that made war one upon another in an endless wrath that would not be assuaged.
Then Iluvatar arose, and the Ainur perceived that he smiled; and he lifted up his left hand, and a new theme began amid the storm, like and yet unlike to the former theme, and it gathered power and had new beauty."
From: The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Taken from the first chapter of The Silmarillion, with the creation of the world and the re-harmonizing of Melkor's first discord.
Some authors really do it for me. Patricia McKillip is one author who just delights in her words, and in her worlds. She weaves together the most remarkable terms in order to create a shockingly vivid picture. Her lands, her worlds, her sense of place is solid and firm and there. You can't visualize another land except the one she snares you in during the duration of her tale. You're there, in Hed, in Sealy Head, in Ombria, wherever she takes you.
Diana Wynne Jones, of course, is another writer that does it for me. She has a real talent for picking random words, combining them, and creating a word that is completely new, bizarre, and amazingly perfect. She also has a vivid sense of place. She writes, and her worlds come alive. In between the pages you can believe in magic, in a series of worlds numbered 1-12, in an askew sense of normality. She knows how to draw you in and keep you there, in Ingary, in Dalemark, wherever she takes you.
Tolkien is the one I go to for sheer inspiration. I read what he writes, and the poetry in his words refreshes me, makes me think, makes me wonder about my world, and my worldbuilding. His sense of place, his intricate attention to detail make him one of my fantasy heroes of all times. Plus, he has a great way with words.
Below is one of my favourite passages from his book, "The Silmarillion." The beauty of his language sings like poetry.
"Then the discord of Melkor spread ever wider, and the melodies which had been heard before foundered in a sea of turbulent sound. But Iluvatar sat and hearkened until it seemed that about his throne there was a raging storm, as of dark waters that made war one upon another in an endless wrath that would not be assuaged.
Then Iluvatar arose, and the Ainur perceived that he smiled; and he lifted up his left hand, and a new theme began amid the storm, like and yet unlike to the former theme, and it gathered power and had new beauty."
From: The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Taken from the first chapter of The Silmarillion, with the creation of the world and the re-harmonizing of Melkor's first discord.
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