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The Rules of Story-Telling

 
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TwylaFox
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 7:26 pm    Post subject: The Rules of Story-Telling Reply with quote

No, I'm not trying to be authoritative here... Simply passing along a few simple rules I've picked up along that desolate, winding road that is the life of a writer. And I would not be the least bit objectionable to have others contribute in a similar fashion.


Rule # 1 ~ Tell Your Lies Early
This is rule #1 for several reasons, most important of which is the fact that so many otherwise wonderful writers overlook it (regardless of genre or medium). Some stories will even go for more than a chapter before even cluing a reader in on the genre - frustrating to be pages into a story, thinking it's in a contemporary setting, then finding out it's happening on a spaceship or in the Antebellum south. Unless you're Rod Serling, this is to be avoided at all costs.

Storytelling is very much a game the writer plays with their audience and, as with any game, everyone needs to know the rules. Magic and dragons, super-sentient computers, superheroes and their arch-nemesis, the midst of the Civil War or the far future... Anything goes! The first chapter of your story is an implicit promise to your audience - "These are the rules we're playing by." Once you set those rules, they're going to expect you to follow them, too. Deus ex Machina fell out of favor millennia ago, and it'll be that much longer before it ever makes a comeback.

Using movies as examples: Lost Boys opens with a vampire attack, Independence Day begins with the mother ship passing an Apollo landing site, Taken opens with the main character's obsession to details and with his daughter (which are crucial story elements), and Men in Black starts with an whole different kind of "illegal alien". In Moon Called by Patricia Briggs, the very first line of the book is "I didn't realize he was a werewolf, at first." BOOM! Nine words in and she's already established that werewolves are real and that the viewpoint character has some not-so-obvious means to detect one.

The further your story deviates from "the norm", the sooner you need to make sure your audience is aware of those differences.


Rule # 2 ~ Get Your Facts Straight
The more familiar your story world is, the more important it is to get the details right. YOU may not be that knowledgeable about firearms, but it's a given that a fair portion of your audience will be - and writing that a 9mm pistol round knocks a 200-pound assailant twenty feet through the air will have them walking away and never looking back. Likewise when people refer to an ammo magazine as a clip, or a car's engine as a motor. Common mistakes, but enough to rattle the "suspension of disbelief" which keeps the reader anxious to keep reading.

In a gritty crime-noir story I was writing, I had a scene towards the end where it was important that the MC's pistol DIDN'T lock the slide back after firing the last round. I searched the web for some time and got nowhere. Finally, out of raw desperation, I called the tech line for Glock, Inc. and was connected to one of their senior techs. Little ol' nobody me talking to a SENIOR tech at Glock! I was scared out of my wits!!

Trying not to sound like a complete idiot, I explained that I was a writer and what I was trying to accomplish... and I got the surprise of my life! The guy was an avid reader, loved crime novels, and it ticked him off to no end when a glaring ballistic faux-paus ruined a story for him. He quickly called together a pow-wow with the other techs and, within minutes, provided me with a list of over a dozen handguns that fit the bill. He even gave me his personal email addy in case I ever had any more questions concerning firearms!

I'm not saying that you'll always get someone this enthusiastic about providing technical information, but they're a lot easier to find than most people think. And you never know where it might lead... some of his emails have been the seeds to quite a few stories I've written since.


Rule # 3 ~ Hiding In Plain Sight
The details of your story are like a jigsaw puzzle - everything is there and nothing is hidden, but it isn't obvious how it all fits together. Once it's assembled, the picture is complete and there really isn't any other way for it to go together. If you've done jigsaw puzzles, you know the feeling of "knowing" where a certain piece fits and later discovering you were wrong. Did you feel cheated?

No. You likely laughed at yourself, then became more determined to figure out exactly where it went. And that's precisely the game a writer plays with their audience. Twist endings are awesome - twist endings that come out of the blue are cheating, and the hallmark of a lousy writer.

An age-old adage concerning this is "If a gun goes off in the Third Act, it must be over the mantle in the First Act." If the outcome of your story hangs on the cowboy's revolver having seven shots (instead of the normal six), you need to present that information early on (someplace where it doesn't seem important). This is almost another aspect of Rule #1.

Never conceal vital information - only present it in a way where it doesn't seem vital. As with the crime-noir story I mentioned... To cover all the bases (particularly for people who assumed that ALL SA pistols locked their slides after firing the last shot), I have another character find the gun and ask about it. The main character explained the non-locking slide as part of her sentimentality about the gun (it was the last memento she had of her former mate) - presenting an important piece of information in a way that didn't seem important.


Rule # 4 ~ Test Your Viewpoint
There's two parts to this rule:

~ 4a ~ Sometimes, you just pick the wrong character to be telling your story. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle came to find out that the stories were best told, not by the title character of Sherlock Holmes, but by Mr Watson. Melville wrote a large portion of Moby Dick believing that his main character was going to be Bulkington... and then Ahab made his presence known (Melville was a messy writer and all the original build-up about Bulkington remains to this day).

If you feel there's something lacking in a scene, or possibly the whole story, try rewriting part of it with a different viewpoint character - a seemingly-insignificant change, but it can transform the exact same story almost beyond recognition. Famous examples of this are Wicked and Grendel which are, respectively, retellings of The Wizard of Oz and Beowulf from the "villain's" point-of-view.

A very simple way to help decide who the Viewpoint Character should be is to ask two questions: "Who has the most at stake in this particular scene?" and "Which character's decisions are most crucial at this point?" If you're lucky enough to have the same answer to both questions, your decision just got super-easy. If they're different characters, try writing the scene from each one - the one that holds your interest more is liable to hold your audience's interest as well.

~ 4b ~ Third-Person Limited is undeniably the style of choice for most storytelling, though First-Person has a very strong following as well. The "intimacy" of First-Person has made an indelible mark on the craft and many readers have come to expect this from all perspectives. And there's a very simple way to do this.

For your first draft, write the whole story out in First-Person - it makes it so much more natural to stay in-character, and can often lead to subplots and in other directions you wouldn't even think of otherwise. Even if you switch viewpoint characters, stay in First-Person. Since discovering this, I've rewritten a number of my stories using this method and have been amazed by how much it enriched stories that felt flat.

Then, when you get to your first revision (which you really should do anyways), translate it into Third-Person Limited. Now, you've gained the familiarity of the perspective (which is most natural to readers) and retained the intimacy of First-Person. A simple trick, this method is used by countless well-known (and widely published) authors.


Rule #5 ~ The Two Doorways
Turning Point, Plot Point, etc... Millions of names for various significant story events, but they all basically boil down to the two main points of decision which drives the story from start to finish. I don't recall exactly where I first heard the "doorway" analogy, but it has stuck with me due to its potency.

The First Doorway is where your story truly starts. In Campbell's The Hero's Journey, he calls this the "call to action". Everything beforehand is static; the status quo; business as usual. Then something happens to disrupt that equilibrium. Precisely what event does this is entirely dependent upon your story, but its role in the structure of your story is always the same. Once your character makes the decision and walks through this Doorway, it closes behind them and they can never return to the world they knew before.

It is usually "want" (as opposed to need) which prompts the character to pass through the First Doorway. In As Good As It Gets, Melvin just wants to regain his reclusive obsessive-compulsive life - changes to his patterns disturb him greatly. All of his efforts go towards his goal to put things back the way they were, and nothing more.

Behind the Second Doorway is the all-or-nothing challenge the Main Character faces - the Climax. Prior to this point, they still have the option of cutting their losses and walking away. Now, it is no longer an option - whether it is caused by a change in circumstance or a change in the character, it is no longer a question of "want" - the character NEEDS to face the Climax. With As Good As It Gets, Melvin comes to realize that he NEEDS Carol... That his efforts to return his world to its prior state changed HIM and, until that very moment, he hadn't realized it.

Though I used a dramedy to illustrate this point, the same applies to any genre or medium. Even in Edgar Allen Poe's Tell-Tale Heart - the guy WANTS (the First Doorway) to just get the inspector to leave but, because of his guilt, he later NEEDS (the Second Doorway) to be free of that "beating heart".

Many people ask where to begin a story, and the First Doorway makes it simple to answer: As close to the First Doorway as your story will allow. Rule #1 may demand one or more scenes before it, but your Main Character should reach the First Doorway as soon as possible.


Rule # 6 ~ No, and Furthermore...
Simply put, Conflict drives every story. Character wants A and B is an obstacle. Every obstacle presents a challenge, and every challenge has four possible outcomes. Let's say that your character's budget is very tight and they decide to ask for a raise:

~ 1 ~ The "Yes" Answer ~ "Sure, here's your raise." Okay, they got the raise. No more money problems, less conflict. On occasion, this is desirable - things constantly blowing up gets boring after a while - but it should be used sparingly.

~ 2 ~ The "No" Answer ~ "Sorry, but there's just no way to budget a raise right now." The character hasn't gained anything, but they haven't lost anything either. Conflict remains at its previous level, though it will become tedious if it stays this way for long.

~ 3 ~ The "Yes, But" Answer ~ "I think a raise is in order, but you'll need to put in extra hours to justify it." Money problem is solved, but at a price - now they have less time to themselves, which may eliminate what they needed the money for in the first place. Problem 1 solved, and Problem 2 is now the concern.

~ 4 ~ The "No, and Furthermore" Answer ~ "We're having to make serious cut-backs, and you just made my decision a lot easier - you're fired!" WHOOPS! Not only did they NOT get the raise, but now they've lost their income altogether! Tried for a bit of luxury and ended up with major hardship. Worst-case scenario = maximum conflict. Though, this too, you want to use sparingly. It makes tremendous impact when used at the right points, but can quickly turn your story into pure victimization.

In trying to overcome B, obstacle C comes into play. Always raise the stakes. As some people put it, "Once the dogs have chased your Hero up a tree, set the tree on fire." Once your Main Character (who is not always the Viewpoint Character) goes through the First Doorway, never give them the option to walk away clean.




That's all I have for now. I'm sure there are more rules that need to be added, and some of them may be more important than the ones I've covered, but these six rules address the most common pitfalls to writers - professionals as well as novices.

Now quit reading this and start writing! Razz

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 10, 2010 4:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rule # 7 ~ Hide Your Babies, then Go Back and Kill Them
Simply put, we learn by doing. An artist improves by drawing - again and again and again ad nauseum. Likewise, a writer improves by writing - again and again and again ad nauseum. When creating art, you must simultaneously be both your greatest fan and your worst critic - maintaining the passion to get the job done and the resolve to be honest about its shortcomings.

Never try to market ANYTHING you've written when you've finished it. Hide it in your sock drawer and work on something else - write another story or three, make a new WoW character and max levels on it, whatever it takes to keep your mind off that story.

Later, when you get back to it, one of two things will have happened - either it will have aged like wine or soured like milk. Actually, it's best if it soured. Wanna know why?

The words on paper are merely the tip of an iceberg. When you're in the heat of writing, you know this iceberg inside and out and these details often don't make it onto the page - some rightly so, and others necessary but overlooked. By taking a break from a story, you distance yourself enough to recognize what's missing from the page and needs to be added.

Furthermore, you'll have more experience - having honed your craft since entombing your story in the dresser. If you're like most writers, you'll be making lots of weird faces wondering how you could have thought it was so great.

Now is the time to start killing your babies. Those wonderful scenes that just don't work... Beautiful moments that come at the wrong time or make the story drag... Details which once seemed so important, but now they just clutter the page... Precious things, so dear to your heart, pieces of your soul come to life... You MUST kill them! KILL 'EM ALL!!! It's savage. It's brutal. It's cruel and merciless. And it must be done if your story is to survive.

Take a break and let yourself recover from your butchery, then go back and lave the wounds. Replace what needs to be replaced, strengthen places that are weak, and weave the frayed edges back together. Now go back and rewrite the entire story start to finish - no cut and paste, type it all out from beginning to end - you'll have an easier time spotting things you missed before. Do it all again if needed.

Japanese Katanas are rightly regarded as the strongest blades in the world - because they have been reworked time and again, folded and reforged over and over and over. The sword-maker's reputation hangs upon the strength of their blades, and so a writer's reputation hangs upon the strength of their stories. The higher your aspirations as a writer, the more you must put your stories to the flames - forging and reforging them into the best you are capable of.

The trick now is to learn when to cut the umbilical. Some people dotter with stories for years (I have a habit of doing this myself), like an over-protective parent wanting to keep their child in the nest forever. But eventually the time comes to let go - to let your creation soar or plummet on its own. It doesn't have to be perfect; simply do the best you can and leave it at that.

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PostPosted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 7:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very Well Said...

I must say, I am either going to steal all this and post it elsewhere or have you join there and post it for us!
Twisted Evil Twisted Evil Twisted Evil Twisted Evil Twisted Evil Twisted Evil Twisted Evil Twisted Evil Twisted Evil Twisted Evil Twisted Evil

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 12:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't mind this being reposted (though I'd like to get credit for it Razz )
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 5:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rule # 8 ~ Laying Out the Rails of a Crazy Train
Sorry, Ozzy, but that line is too golden to NOT use. A story is very much like a train trip - one that writers bring their audiences along on. It begins when the train leaves the station and ends when it reaches its destination.

Remember roller-coasters? Sure, that long, slow, clack-clack-clack climb to the top of the first crest was boring, but we endured it because of the promise of a wild ride full of loops, twists, and turns waiting on the other side. Stories have the same kind of inertia as the cars of a roller-coaster. The faster they're going and the heavier they are, the more disruptive it is to alter their course. Some places, such as loops and barrels, rely on this inertia to keep the cars on the track. Other places, like tight turns, that same inertia can derail the cars. It's a balancing act all the way through.

Though, if you ever pay attention, you'll notice that the speed of a roller-coaster rarely remains constant. Sometimes it makes slow, gradual turns on level track, and other times it makes tight, plunging corkscrews that has us fighting to keep down food we've eaten in past lives. What makes the twists and turns exciting is that they variegate - they're always changing. Problem is that's ALL a roller-coaster really offers. This flux cannot be maintained indefinitely and all roller-coasters have the inherent liability of looping back to the starting point and essentially accomplishing nothing. We can't have this, not if we want our stories to actually go anywhere.

We've pretty much been on long trips at some point or other - family road trips, trans-Pacific flights, etc - and know how BORING the long, wide-open straightaways are. The longer the trip (or story), the more these stretches dominate. We don't want this, either, so how do we avoid it? We can't, really. Not without sacrificing the story's integrity. We CAN, however, do the next best thing - make like a magician and draw their attention in a different direction.

We can use sub-plots - like a conversation or other interaction with another passenger. These events keep the audience's attention and interest without disrupting the momentum of our story. Like our train trip, these other passengers get off at various stops. Ever get into an engaging conversation with someone, only to have it cut short by "Oops, this is my stop"? Even though the conversation has ended, you're still thinking about it a while after they're gone.

We can route the train trough the scenic beauty of a majestic canyon, though the landscape needs to connect to the story somehow - otherwise, you're just writing a travelogue. This connection doesn't need to be apparent, however. It could be used for mood, setting up a "mirror" to other events, to lower a character's guard against an upcoming threat, or countless other reasons.

Or we could use the eerie seduction of a dismal swamp. Who knows what sinister threat might be lurking in the shadows of that swamp? Remember The Hound of the Baskervilles and that otherworldly howling? Horrors are much more threatening when they're elusive. Freddy and Jason only get a few minutes of screen time in a two-hour movie - they're much more frightening when you know they're there, but can't see them.

Or we can intersperse the long straightaways with unexpected twists and turns - what are commonly referred to as "set pieces". As with the majestic canyon, we can lull our characters (and audience) into believing everything is fine. Take our trans-Pacific flight, for example: the MC has his drink, the kid behind him has quit kicking the back of the seat, and there's a monster on the wing tearing up one of the engines. Of course, now the question is whether the audience finds this out first (leaving our smug businessman blissfully unaware) or do they discover it when he does?

Contrarily-wise, we sometimes NEED the boring straightaways to catch our breaths - to sort out and/or reflect upon something that just happened. Of course, who says that the train (our story) can't be traveling upside-down along the straightaway? The addition of one tiny (though, in retrospect, obvious - to the audience, at least) detail can have EVERYONE completely re-thinking everything gone before. "I *am* your father, Luke."


This, of course, gets us into the whole "Outline vs Free-Form" argument - some who meticulously outline every last nook and cranny before actually writing anything vs those who start out with no more than a situation before blazing their trail. Both of these schools of thought have their strengths and weaknesses.

Myself, I prefer more of a hybrid approach. Like the Crazy Train, I know where its departure and arrival stations are - as well as a few particular stops along the way - then I get out of the story's way and let it happen. Sometimes, I need to back the train up to a previous stop and, other times, I need to divert it to a different station - once in a while, the train actually runs completely on-schedule (though this is exceedingly rare).

Like good old Doctor Frankenstein, we are creating a living, breathing entity. But, as immortalized ages ago, "The best-laid plans of mice and men oft gang aglay (go astray)." Nothing EVER goes entirely as planned - which is both the strength of Free-Form and the weakness of Outline.

On the opposite side of the coin, our stories are journeys - and journeys are pretty darned difficult to accomplish when you don't have a destination in mind - which is both the strength of the Outline and the weakness of Free-Form. It may not be the destination you originally intended, but you can't go anywhere without having somewhere to go to.

Remember poor Bulkington from Moby Dick (mentioned in 4a)? Not to say that Melville couldn't have made a great story about him, but he found a much better story with Ahab. When Tolkien introduced Strider at the Prancing Pony (in Fellowship of the Ring), he had no idea that he would turn out to be none other than the unrecognized king of all good forces in Middle-Earth!

Entirely opposite approaches (Outline vs Free-Form), and no one would dare question their skill in writing, but they both fell prey to the pitfalls of their respective styles. So don't feel bad when you need to back up and try the opposite approach - you're in pretty distinguished company.

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 5:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rule # 9 ~ The Long and the Short of It
What I am about to say is sure to raise some eyebrows (and maybe a few hackles), yank the rug out from others, and have writing teachers the world over wailing in despair. What I am about to discuss is a matter of extreme controversy in many writing circles and, despite a plethora of arbitrary 'ratings systems', is not by any stretch of the imagination a valid benchmark whereby one can comprehensively quantify a writer's talent and/or level of skill or any other merit of the stories they write.

Long sentences.

Be honest. Did you really notice that those first two sentences were, respectively, 33 and 56 words long? Not likely; not so long as the sentence itself gives you reason to keep looking to the next word.

Years ago, one of my college friends read a short story I was working on. The guidelines from the publication I wanted to submit to specified 7,000-10,000 words and my story weighed in at a measly 4,800 words. Imagine my surprise when my friend came back a week later and said it was too long!

Know what I did? I threw the story into my sock drawer and started over. Damn the 'proper guidelines' and to hell with run-on sentences and dangling participles and all the other nuances that had been pounded into my skull in virtually every writing class I'd taken up to that point. Long story?!? I'd show her what a long story was!!

I blew the frikkin' dam to smithereens and let everything flow where it would! Like a mad scientist on a bender, I forged ahead without any regard for the possible consequences. By the end, that same story was a portly 17,000 words - four times its original length!

Having read the first version, it took some persuading to get her to agree to read the second one - blackmail and extortion are wonderful things! Two days later, she brought it back to me. "The story still sucks, but at least it's shorter now."

Funny thing is, she was absolutely right.

Writing the first version, I was so obsessed with conserving words and keeping my sentences short that the story ran as smoothly as a backfiring jalopy - in other words, about as far from 'smoothly' as it was possible to get. I 'did everything right', but it was all wrong.

The dam analogy is an apt one. If any 'rule of writing' remained intact in the second version, it was purely an oversight. If 'writing violations' were traffic tickets, my license would have been revoked by page three - but it FLOWED! It had momentum! When the story hit an obstruction, it had enough raw power via inertia to shatter boulders, uproot trees, smash houses to smithereens... to blast any obstacle unfortunate enough to lay in the story's path.

Seriously... When a story flows, when we're drawn into its world, it breaks our connection with the concept of time. At some point, we've all watched a three-hour movie and been surprised that it ended; or opened a new novel only to read through to the very last page before realizing what we'd done. The suspension of time goes hand-in-hand with the suspension of disbelief - length is completely irrelevant so long as the story maintains inertia and keeps moving forward.


That being said...


Short sentences have their place as well. That little period at the end, by its very nature, is disruptive. Sentences ebb and flow like water, and sometimes we want to turn them into white-water rapids.

Short sentences dance! They sing! They'll play in Peoria!!

They're quick. Choppy. Sudden. They burst. They're tight. Simple thoughts. Savage. Primal.

The catch-22 of short sentences is context. Take a look at the italicized line above - what do any of these sentences mean in and of themselves? Nada. Zip. Zilch. Not a damned thing!

They're rocks in the stream, doing absolutely nothing. What makes them significant is when the flow of the story is sufficient to create an effect - IMPACT. Juxtaposition. Conflict on a micro scale.

We're winding our merry way along the flow of a story on a raft. The speed increases, zooming us along on a whimsical ride, going faster and faster and faster. Beaver dam! Airborne. Tumbling. Splash!

A rather goofy example, but it illustrates the point. Just as we use story events, concepts like Scene and Sequel, and various other tricks of the trade to regulate the tempo, we can do the same thing with the lengths of the sentences we use.


Water is a good analogy to keep in mind when writing a story. Most stories follow a 'descent' pattern; the MC's float along on a peaceful tributary which joins with another - could be similar in size or one significantly larger that the other, but they are forever intertwined. The river becomes larger and swifter as more tributaries - complications - build the flow into a torrent. The riverbed is smooth, but the fast-moving waters grow turbulent anyways. The characters must duck bridges and face white-water rapids, fighting to stay aboard their raft. A waterfall lies ahead, but it's too far to shore and the river too swift. They launch over the falls and into the climax.

Let the water flow and the story will take care of itself. Screw 'writing etiquette'. e e cummings (yes, that's how he prefers it) wrote incredible stories, even going so far as to throw all capitalization and punctuation out the window. He breaks the most fundamental rules of writing, and gets away with it because he could regulate the ebb and flow of the story by his choice of words alone.

If something gets in the way of your story, get rid of it - unless it's something you want to be in the way, of course.


Longer is shorter. And vice-versa. Use it to your advantage.

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 5:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I once tried to write a short for the Anthrofiction writing contest.

Damned if I could even reach the 1000 word minimum requirement...

http://planetfurry.com/~anthony/misc/green.html

It probably breaks even more rules, but I'm happy with it.
And for a story where the theme was 'green', there's not a speck of it seen by the characters.

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 2:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

*noddles* That's one of the worst paradoxes when it comes to writing. Everyday speech is the closest tangible expression we have to thought itself - we've spent millennia 'perfecting' the most direct means of conveying our thoughts to others via the spoken word.

Yet, when it comes to actually putting those thoughts into writing, we twist and mangle everything into grammatical straight-jackets just because people we believe to be authoritative say that we must. In this post, most of my sentences are more than double the 'recommended' length of ten to twelve words, but are they unclear? Are these sentences truly that difficult to read, their length being an obstruction to understanding them?

Hardly.

Our only objection or aversion to long sentences stems from one of two sources; either because we encounter long sentences where the writer doesn't follow a logical progression of thoughts, or because that's what writing teachers tell us. Even a seemingly disjointed sentence, so long as it follows a valid chain of thought, is easily understood by anyone reading it, no matter how many complex clauses or grammatical errors it might have.

Apart from my specifically drawing attention to it, has anyone particularly noticed just how long most every one of these sentences has been?

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 10:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You're using commas. That's not fair since commas are, strickly speaking, barriers in sentences with a function akin to periods.
They're not of course; but hey I'm not exactly an Enlgish teacher, am I?

Another thing: how about adjectives? The right use (amount and position) makes for a feeling and draws one in. Too much or even strained ones don't! Unless you try to jinx something with it, of course.
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 8:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm a writer too.

Short declarative sentences work well in written material. This is a commonly-acknowledged fact. It's because they're the clearest and easiest to understand, which gives them impact. They also tend to be unambiguous and unreserved, which makes for even more impact and clarity. You don't want them _all_ that way, but shorter is better as a rule. Indeed, in fiction as in so many other art forms, less is quite often more.

I'll also add that short words are usually better choices than long ones, in much the same way.
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tijn
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 273
Location: San Diego, CA

PostPosted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 9:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Short sentences? Short words?
I wish someone had explained this to Tolkien.
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Rabbit
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Joined: 07 Sep 2005
Posts: 345
Location: Middle Tennessee

PostPosted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 9:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

tijn wrote:
Short sentences? Short words?
I wish someone had explained this to Tolkien.



Frankly... Me too!
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