So, I would look at writers and ask "hey, what do I think he's doing that's effective?" Also ask "what feelings do I have when I read their work?" And try to examine why you think the writer's able to evoke that reaction in you. That's the best you can get out of another writer in terms of writing technique and style.
Thanks Storkhwaiting. I actually had a similar idea to this. I would read a novel and mark down all the phrases, sentences and paragraphs that clearly conveyed a particular emotion or experience of my own. I would find all these little parcels that corresponded to specific thoughts and feelings and I would try to emulate them and play around with them. This was way too much work for me though so I gave up doing that pretty quickly lol. I think I'll give it a go again.
The thing is, I'm not trying to become a novelist. Just a clear thinker. I want to say exactly what I mean, and whenever I speak or write about a memory or experience I want whoevers listening or reading to feel exactly what I did.
OK, descriptions can be a tricky thing. The first thing you gotta remember is that writing is VERY different from the visual mediums. A lot of people have trouble converting words into images. Specificity is not important, what's important is communicating the general idea to your readers.
For instance:
This would be a bad description of the ship in my opinion: It was a massive starship with six wings that fanned out from the middle in a geometrical pattern and angular designs were carved into the surface of them. There was also a cockpit encased in sharp hard edges and a main thruster in the back.
A good description IMO: It was a terrifying starship, sleek and predatory with a cockpit that thrust forward like a falcon's beak and sharp-edged wings that splayed out from its body like a flower of death.
This advice while not directed to me is also really useful. The only problem is knowing what essence it is you're trying to convey. I don't have the vocabulary or even the precise thought to know what the essence is.... But I guess I just have to write (Not even short stories, but min-memoirs I guess), and experiment as you suggested.
Yeah experimentation is key. I definitely would not be so precise as to copy down what other writers do and then try to do a replica of it. That's a bit much imo. Although my faggy professor in college said she did stuff like that. Personally, I think it's too much of a rip off. That makes your writing style into a jigsaw of other people's work AKA gay.
I'd just read good writers and get a general feel for their writer's voice, how their flair is, etc. Writing voices are personalities. No need to copy the nuts and bolts of what they do.
On vocab and precise emotion, yeah... that can't be taught. In fact, that's the essence of what writing is. You gotta have good taste, unique taste, your own brand of what you think works perfect. And you're def going to have to be able to on the fly consistently make choices in how and why you want to say something a certain way.
P.S. NP on the advice. It's fun to talk about writing .
On January 02 2010 01:30 StorkHwaiting wrote: Hmm, I think you've got a very good idea of how to go about description then. If the problem is that you just lack a large vocabulary, my only recommendation is to read a lot of books and learn a lot of new words. That's really the only way to learn words properly.
I'm not a big fan of dictionary/thesaurus because people who use those to try to up their diction end up with horrible syntax. They use the words incorrectly or in a way that the connotation is just plain wrong. It takes reading books and seeing a word used 10-15x to really understand the context/connotation it's suitable for.
Best of luck in your endeavor and 14 years is a very impressive investment of time. I hope everything turns out well
Thanks :D
I do use dictionary/thesaurus now whereas before I never did. But I mostly use it to research unfamiliar terms. I try to avoid throwing in "big words" in sections where I normally do not, because they sound forced and ultimately detract from the writing.
I really do need to just read some more. That's what everyone says. It's hard for me to sit down and read, though. I need something interesting to read on the computer. I should read those wh40k novels I have in pdf format.
Haha WH40K is probably not the best place to improve your diction. (I know the writers who write half of them LOL. Well, rather I know the guys who's name is on the book >.> I won't say any more than that about the WH40K stuff hahaha).
Some great authors with strong diction in my opinion are:
Guy Gavriel Kay China Mieville Melanie Rawn Peter F Hamilton Steven Brust Storm Constantine Jacqueline Carey
In my opinion, most women authors are better in terms of diction when it comes to fantasy. Literary fiction is a whole other ballpark so I won't try to talk about that because I don't know enough.
I'll have a look into those. It's hard enough for me to start reading things. I haven't read a novel start to finish in about eight years, now. But I'll have to try.
yeah definitely try to read some. It's the bread and butter that will feed your own writing.
On January 05 2010 12:44 StorkHwaiting wrote: Yeah experimentation is key. I definitely would not be so precise as to copy down what other writers do and then try to do a replica of it. That's a bit much imo. Although my faggy professor in college said she did stuff like that. Personally, I think it's too much of a rip off. That makes your writing style into a jigsaw of other people's work AKA gay.
I'd just read good writers and get a general feel for their writer's voice, how their flair is, etc. Writing voices are personalities. No need to copy the nuts and bolts of what they do.
On vocab and precise emotion, yeah... that can't be taught. In fact, that's the essence of what writing is. You gotta have good taste, unique taste, your own brand of what you think works perfect. And you're def going to have to be able to on the fly consistently make choices in how and why you want to say something a certain way.
P.S. NP on the advice. It's fun to talk about writing .
I guess it's not plagiarism if your professor passes it off as a writing technique :D.
On January 09 2010 07:13 Fzero wrote: I just read your story man, pretty good. I really liked your characterization of the little girl Tian Zi was with.
EPT
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