In a substantial way, the very clarity of my vision for the story undermined my ability to write that story so someone else could understand it.
Writing in the “Real” World
Writing a story associated with the real world is complicated, and it becomes more complicated the more closely associated with the present real world it is.
An Oblique Approach to Reality
Thinking of poetry as an oblique approach to reality reframes my understanding of poems and helps explain why I’ve always struggled with writing original poems, but it doesn’t mean I can suddenly write poetry.
Specificity
Being specific with what you say might seem important in legal writing, essays, philosophy, and other, less fictional formats, but storytelling is less obvious. If you’ve been paying attention to our posts about word choice, though, you can probably see its relevance.
Judging Your Own Work
I write stories so other people can read them, but I’m the one who must be comfortable having written them.
Intentionality in Storytelling
With only a handful of lines, and a few words in each line, each one of them must bear a larger load for the poem. Everything must be intentional.
Using Stock Phrases
The language we use has meaning and depths we don’t always consciously recognize, and stock phrases often convey meanings and suggestions which we don’t fully recognize and which we probably don’t intend when we deploy them in our writing.
Creativity is Overrated
Lewis asserts that medieval artists would see the drive for creativity and originality in art as, not the pinnacle of artistic achievement, but the scraping of the bottom of the artistic barrel.
Ways of Saying
If the first step of the technical writing process is word choice, then this post is about the second step, putting those words together into phrases.
Author’s Voice and Oral Literature
I propose that author’s voice arises from the particular authorial idiosyncrasies that make the story distinct to how a given author would tell it, as compared to how any other author might attempt to convey the same story elements.
IGC Publishing 