Michael Swanwick's Blog, page 123
October 21, 2015
Fallen Leaves (October 21)
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"Whom Storms Could Not Fell, Age Did"
"Whom Storms Could Not Fell, Age Did"
October 20, 2015
Fallen Leaves (October 20)
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"I Fluttered To The Beat Of A Different Drummer"
"I Fluttered To The Beat Of A Different Drummer"
October 19, 2015
A Simple Exercise To Improve Your Prose Style
.Today's post is for gonnabe writers and, to a lesser degree, new writers. My apologies to everybody else.
Let's take a cold, hard look at your prose. It's not as good as you wish it were. Otherwise, you wouldn't be bothering to read this. There are a lot of complicated and/or difficult ways to improve it.
Here's a simple one.
Print out a full double-spaced page of something you're currently working on but unhappy with the sound of.
Done? Okay. Get out a highlighter, the kind that you use or used to mark up textbooks for purposes of study.
Got it? Great! Now mark every word in your text which refers to something tangible, something that can be touched or seen, or even smelled. "World" or "lemon" or "bathtub," but not "beauty" or "concept" or "feeling."
The brighter your page, the more vivid, the more tangible your prose. The dimmer, the duller.
Here's the thing: Primary words move us. Secondary and tertiary words do not; their purpose is basically structural. Words like "and," "or," "however," and "since" are like lumps of clay. They hold the bright words together but, like the grotting in a tile floor, do not excite our admiration.
Nor does a phrase like "excite our admiration" catch the eye like "pour honey on golden toast." It may be necessary for the sense of your passage, in which case it should not be discarded. Clay has its uses, as does grotting. But it's the primary words that will bring your prose to life.
And, yes...
You can do this exercise with verbs and adjectives. But that's only if the first exercise is of use to you. Not every exercise is of use to every writer. Seek out those which are of use to you and disregard the rest.
And...
My apologies for posting this so late in the day... as always, I was on the road.
*
Let's take a cold, hard look at your prose. It's not as good as you wish it were. Otherwise, you wouldn't be bothering to read this. There are a lot of complicated and/or difficult ways to improve it.
Here's a simple one.
Print out a full double-spaced page of something you're currently working on but unhappy with the sound of.
Done? Okay. Get out a highlighter, the kind that you use or used to mark up textbooks for purposes of study.
Got it? Great! Now mark every word in your text which refers to something tangible, something that can be touched or seen, or even smelled. "World" or "lemon" or "bathtub," but not "beauty" or "concept" or "feeling."
The brighter your page, the more vivid, the more tangible your prose. The dimmer, the duller.
Here's the thing: Primary words move us. Secondary and tertiary words do not; their purpose is basically structural. Words like "and," "or," "however," and "since" are like lumps of clay. They hold the bright words together but, like the grotting in a tile floor, do not excite our admiration.
Nor does a phrase like "excite our admiration" catch the eye like "pour honey on golden toast." It may be necessary for the sense of your passage, in which case it should not be discarded. Clay has its uses, as does grotting. But it's the primary words that will bring your prose to life.
And, yes...
You can do this exercise with verbs and adjectives. But that's only if the first exercise is of use to you. Not every exercise is of use to every writer. Seek out those which are of use to you and disregard the rest.
And...
My apologies for posting this so late in the day... as always, I was on the road.
*
Fallen Leaves (October 19)
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"I Was A Fool For Love"
"I Was A Fool For Love"
October 18, 2015
Fallen Leaves (October 18)
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"I Was The Greenest Leaf Of Spring"
"I Was The Greenest Leaf Of Spring"
October 17, 2015
dream diary [October 15, 2015]
.I dreamed of a college teacher, unhappy with his society, who discovered a way to phase from his world into a parallel society. As a necessary consequence, the process turned him into a woman. This angered her students and college administration, but she escaped before they could do anything about it.
The new society was better but far from perfect. For a time, the teacher was a local celebrity, a woman who was semi-tranparent and not entirely there. But as she solidified, they took her presence for granted.
In short order, the new woman learned the basics of dress and makeup. But she didn't know the nuances of being a woman in her new society, so she never fit in well.
Once, she had sex with another woman, but the experience made her feel uncomfortable with herself afterward. Another time, she got very drunk and had sex with a man. That too was unsatisfactory. She was, she realized, neither straight nor gay, but an ungendered woman.
Sometimes, she masturbated, weeping for loneliness.
Finally, she decided to move on to the next society. She confided to a male colleague that she had an intuition the next society would be far better than this one."
"Woman's intuition?" he asked, amused.
"No," she said. "Just intuition."
*
The new society was better but far from perfect. For a time, the teacher was a local celebrity, a woman who was semi-tranparent and not entirely there. But as she solidified, they took her presence for granted.
In short order, the new woman learned the basics of dress and makeup. But she didn't know the nuances of being a woman in her new society, so she never fit in well.
Once, she had sex with another woman, but the experience made her feel uncomfortable with herself afterward. Another time, she got very drunk and had sex with a man. That too was unsatisfactory. She was, she realized, neither straight nor gay, but an ungendered woman.
Sometimes, she masturbated, weeping for loneliness.
Finally, she decided to move on to the next society. She confided to a male colleague that she had an intuition the next society would be far better than this one."
"Woman's intuition?" he asked, amused.
"No," she said. "Just intuition."
*
Fallen Leaves (October 17)
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"Let The Young Follow My Example"
"Let The Young Follow My Example"
October 16, 2015
Ask Unca Mike
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Science fiction and fantasy writers are a group are extraordinarily generous with advice to new writers. A moment's thought, however, reveals that this is just encouraging talented young people to occupy the publishing niches and win the awards that would otherwise go to to us Old Hands. Ask Unca Mike is an attempt to rectify this deplorable situation.
Three Characters In Search of a PaycheckHey Unca Mike!
Working on a story where three characters are each doing their own thing, and it all comes together in the end. How do you balance their page counts? It always seems like one is always dominating the story, or falling into the background. Any tips?
Future Trilogist
You bet! Remember that you're being paid by the word and write your story three times, with a different protagonist for each version. Michael Moorcock did this once for a trilogy in which Elic of Melnibone, the Eternal Champion, and I think it may have been Hawkmoon go questing together in order to save the universe. The beauty part of this scheme (as Hemingway would have put it) was that only the opening and closing sections were original to each book. The body of the adventure was word for word unchanged.
Moorcock is a genius. Go thou and do likewise.
If you have a question for Unca Mike you can post it below. Or write to AskUncaMike ("at" sign) gmail.com. I'll respond to those I have the best answers for.
Ask Unca Mike appears here on Fridays.
*
Fallen Leaves (October 16)
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"In LifeIn DeathInseparable"
"In LifeIn DeathInseparable"
October 15, 2015
Fallen Leaves (October 15)
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"I Died A Virgin"
"I Died A Virgin"
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