Once upon a time, in one of my writing workshops, the professor asked me, "Who's your favorite journalist?" I said "Joseph Mitchell," a safe choice. Then she asked me again, "Who's really your favorite journalist?" Considering my style was a far cry from Mitchell's measured and methodical approach, she didn't believe me. I shrugged my shoulders as the class echoed her sentiment. It seemed I had established myself as a "stylistic writer."
I've always tried for an absolute objective voice. When you hear "journalism," that's what you think: a sort of dry, well-researched and authoritative tone on the subject matter. But it was only when I let myself loose did I finally earn recognition. It's been a running theme throughout my life. The moment I "be myself" is when things turn out great. Not only was this true in the classroom, but this was true online as well.
I point to Exhibit A: Love Sick. I've had modest successes before, but Love Sick was when I truly took off and entered the upper strata where kings feasted. I credit my success to the unique and refreshing first-person narrative. Here's the secret: the main character is modeled after me.
That's not to say that girls make me throw up or anything. Those unique character quirks are a result of my research and journalistic ability. It's my job to capture the lives of others. I draw on my own experiences and imagination to imbue the narrative with a sense of realism.
The point I'm trying to get at here is that your writing should be comprised entirely of YOU, of your experiences, of the people you know, of your beliefs, of what you find funny, of what you find offensive, of what scares you, and of all the unique characteristics that constitute YOU.
Of course, this is contingent on your mastery of the basics. Once you've gone as far as you can in the standard first-person past-tense template, that's when you should let it all out. Go wild. Set free all your bad habits, peculiar idiosyncrasies, and questionable preferences. If you like sentence fragments. Put them in. If you like to digress, then digress from the rooftops to the moon and to the stars! If you favor colorful metaphors and similes, then choke your readers with them, shove it down their throats every chance you get. Fancy big words? Type first and look them up later. Repetition? Repeat, repeat, and repeat as many times as necessary. It's only through excess can you find moderation.
Soon, you'll begin to see when too much is too much. You'll realize that your metaphors and similes make no sense, that the objects for comparison bear little relation to each other, that your repetition is really repetitive, that you've been using that word the wrong way this entire time, that your dialogue is super unnatural and stilted, that every character you create talks the same way, that you use the same words over and over, that your description is lacking, that your characterization leaves a lot to be desired, and that you pretty much suck at writing in general.
It's only after you've built up and broken down, can you truly begin to define your own style.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
JomattoStyle: Perspective
Perspective isn't a consideration, it's a foundation you must abide by. It determines how the events are organized and how the action flows. Now before you start getting crazy ideas, I have but one rule for you to follow: stay consistent.
You're only gonna be worrying about two perspectives: first-person and third-person. It's the difference between "I hate you" and "he hates you." Which perspective you adopt hinges on your story idea. Is it going to be an epic with scenes happening in different places at the same time? Go third. Is it going to be about one person and how they grow as an individual? Go first. Once you've selected a perspective, stick to it like Wolverine on a bullet train.
Packaged with perspective is also the issue of verb tenses. Far too often do I read stories where the narrator slips into the future, past, and present all at the same time. It's not just wrong, it's stupid, and ignorant, and an insult to the English language. Okay, it's not that offensive, but it's so pervasive, there should be a Surgeon General's Warning slapped onto every word processor to keep this epidemic from spreading.
I go to school and entered class.
The untrained eye cannot catch this. If you can't see it, then please slap yourself with a dictionary a hundred times until the past and present tense forms of all verbs are seared into your brain. All verbs in a sentence must conform to one tense. There are exceptions (English has many), but this holds fast for 90% of your cases.
For beginners, my advice is to start in first-person, because that's our most familiar reference point. We are always thinking in terms of "I." If you're going to be writing as a character, I strongly urge you to stick with your own gender, not only because of the familiarity, but because you can easily expose yourself if you don't. There's a reason why Victor Frankenstein is an overdramatic, wailing, male lead--he was written by a woman.
For tenses, use the past form. It's the traditional mode of narrative and imposes a level of control necessary for grasping the basics. You don't wanna go fast when you start out, you wanna be slow and methodical. Slow and steady may not win the race, but at least you're not going to screw it up.
You're only gonna be worrying about two perspectives: first-person and third-person. It's the difference between "I hate you" and "he hates you." Which perspective you adopt hinges on your story idea. Is it going to be an epic with scenes happening in different places at the same time? Go third. Is it going to be about one person and how they grow as an individual? Go first. Once you've selected a perspective, stick to it like Wolverine on a bullet train.
Packaged with perspective is also the issue of verb tenses. Far too often do I read stories where the narrator slips into the future, past, and present all at the same time. It's not just wrong, it's stupid, and ignorant, and an insult to the English language. Okay, it's not that offensive, but it's so pervasive, there should be a Surgeon General's Warning slapped onto every word processor to keep this epidemic from spreading.
I go to school and entered class.
The untrained eye cannot catch this. If you can't see it, then please slap yourself with a dictionary a hundred times until the past and present tense forms of all verbs are seared into your brain. All verbs in a sentence must conform to one tense. There are exceptions (English has many), but this holds fast for 90% of your cases.
For beginners, my advice is to start in first-person, because that's our most familiar reference point. We are always thinking in terms of "I." If you're going to be writing as a character, I strongly urge you to stick with your own gender, not only because of the familiarity, but because you can easily expose yourself if you don't. There's a reason why Victor Frankenstein is an overdramatic, wailing, male lead--he was written by a woman.
For tenses, use the past form. It's the traditional mode of narrative and imposes a level of control necessary for grasping the basics. You don't wanna go fast when you start out, you wanna be slow and methodical. Slow and steady may not win the race, but at least you're not going to screw it up.
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