The Serial, or Oxford, Comma

In the last week, I've run into no less than three separate conversations regarding the Oxford comma, which is almost as heated a debate as the use of "said" versus "murmured," or "whispered," or any other verb that gets a character talking for attribution.

I suppose I should start off with what an Oxford comma is. The Oxford comma, also known as the serial comma, is the final comma in a list. It separates the penultimate from the ultimate word. Example time:

• Last night, I had chicken, chocolate cake, and noodles for dinner.

The comma between "chocolate cake," and "and" is an Oxford comma.

What does this little mark do? This is where the debate comes in. Those who don't like this form of punctuation claim that it's unnecessary; that the "and" signifies the last word in the list. Those who prefer it say the comma removes ambiguity, and keeps true to the actual function of a comma: to hold the place of a breath in speech.

Personally, I love the Oxford comma. I'm a huge fan. I notice it every time it's missing. I know there's other people out there who couldn't disagree with me more.

How do you feel about this fussy piece of punctuation?

Exposition: Experts do it without getting caught

When it is done wrong exposition is called ‘info dump,’ boring, slow. Yet exposition is a must have for writers. So what is it and how can we do it without getting caught? Exposition is how information is given to the reader. That information can include description, back story and clues. Since movies and television start out as writing, you can easily switch reader for audience. Exposition is a movie/show giving the audience needed information. Many of the following examples are video clips because they are immediate but I have a few book references as well. In Carolyn Wheat’s How To Write Killer Fiction, she describes poorly written exposition this way,

“It’s the scene where our detective sits over coffee with her best friend and bounces ideas about the murder around, only they both agree on absolutely everything and are really just committing exposition on one another. It’s the scene where the spy gets his orders from MI5 and just stands there as we readers try to absorb a huge chunk of geopolitical backstory that is essential for our understanding of later events but bores us silly.”

If your characters are sitting and talking then you are info dumping. But here is an example that works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCDm14AHe6g
In the clip from The Sentinel a police detective and his partner are discussing a case (exposition) but there is movement, Jim is cleaning his gun, and they keep it brief. It also works because Blair (the partner) is the NEWBIE (more on that in a minute) and it is natural that they would share this information.
At the end of all Harry Potter novels, Dumbledore acts as a fountain of information and tells us all the answers (exposition). Why do we still read it even though it is several pages of talking and not action? It explains what happens, proving us right or wrong and it has little bits of quirky humor or emotional impact.
So all exposition (to be successful) should do three things: Tell us important stuff, reveal character, and entertain.

How?
Couple of useful techniques.
Use an exposition character.
The most popular exposition character is the GEEK. Examples include Hermione Granger from Harry Potter, Erckel from Family Matters, Cliff Claven from Cheers, Spock from Star Trek. These characters are over the top and the information they give, though purposely not always essential, reveal how other characters respond to the subject or to other characters. Of course Spock will give statistical data on the likelihood of success. It’s Spock.
Another exposition character is the NEWBIE. Examples include Daryl Hannah’s character in Steel Magnolias, Harry in the Harry Potter books (new to Hogwarts), Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character in 10 Things I Hate About You. Lots of stories start with a change. New kid in school or town. A new job. This gives the opportunity to reveal information in a ‘tour guide mode’.
In the following Die Hard 2 clip, Bruce Willis is giving the cop who is about to tow his car information, aka exposition for the audience. It very quickly tells us where he is and why.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjRsuSss5_k

Eavesdropping.
Either a character, and thus the reader, is witness to other people talking or reads information that is given to the reader. The trap here is that it shouldn’t be coincidental. Make the eavesdropper struggle, plot, and swindle to get the eavesdropping chance. Then make the information misleading or hurtful to the character. Let there be a consequence. My favorite example is Pride and Prejudice when Elizabeth overhears Mr. Darcy cut her at the dance.

Introducing Characters and All Their Luggage

When working with character description it is tempting to give the reader too much information. Less is more. Allow the reader to see what they want, to use their imagination. Use pre built stereotypes to build characters. If you know a character is a FBI agent you immediately think that he wears a non-descript suit, has short hair and is fairly smart. The reader doesn’t need to be told these things.
Examples: Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich
Character description for Ranger – “Sometimes I moonlight for a guy named Ranger who’s extremely bad in an incredibly good way. He’s a security expert, and a bounty hunter, and he moves like smoke. Ranger is milk chocolate on the outside…a delicious, tempting, forbidden pleasure. And no one knows what’s on the inside. Ranger keeps his own counsel…Ranger doesn’t often smile. Mostly he thinks about smiling, and this was one of those thinking-smile times.” Without them being described we know that Ranger is muscular, has had a tough life and has a secret.
FBI Agent Jules Cassidy in Suzanne Brockmann’s Troubleshooter’s Series. “On a scale of one to ten in cuteness, Jules was a four million. He could have gone on an audition for a boy band and been signed without even singing a note.”
We also learn about the person who is providing the description. In Jules’ case it is his partner Alyssa Locke who loves him like a brother. The description should and does sound totally different in other books when Jules’ boss Max is describing him. Ranger’s description tells us about Stephanie Plum. It tells us that she is intrigued and attracted to Ranger. That she has a thing for chocolate and maybe even envies his grace.
Writers should use visual clues to inner assumptions. As the writer we chose what the reader sees. Jeans and a leather bomber jacket and the reader thinks bad ass. Glasses and enduring dimple and the reader thinks cute geek, extra smart. Blonde and trashy and the reader thinks dumb as dirt.
The following is a clip from Joss Whedon’s Firefly. It introduces all characters by name, their position on the ship and their relationships with each other. It is also very cool because it is a single camera shot.


Exercise:
Step 1. Describe a person while people-watching. Take five minutes and don't worry about grammar, only you will see your work. Work on using both physical attributes as well as things you ‘assume’ based on what they are doing or wearing.
Step 2. Now write a scene where you introduce a character that was abused as a child and is now a spy for the government or has a grave secret. Stick to one page. Use the description you wrote earlier as the model. Try it in first person as well as in omnipotent narrator. How does the point of view change the description?

From the Beginning

I had the unfortunate experience of witnessing an accident today. Fortunately, no one was hurt, though I did have to wait around for the better part of an hour to give a statement to the police, and then write it.

I was excited. I did my civil duty, and I got to write. Life doesn't get much better than that. Or so I thought, until I started writing the statement, and I hit a point of doom: beginning from the beginning.

So often I find myself beginning a story somewhere other than the beginning, and filling in the beginning as I go. But, that doesn't always work. Or, information is just left out, leaving the story not only unfinished but also incomprehensible. Sometimes the beginning really is the beginning, and every single step has to be explained, one at a time.

Do you ever leave out vital information to a story?

A case for adverbs

A couple of weeks ago, on Wed May 12 (okay, not quite a couple of weeks ago, but close enough) we talked about adverbs, those obnoxious words that tie-up language.

Generally (hey look, there's one!) adverbs clog up speech and don't allow for high-quality communication. But adverbs exist in the language, so surely there must be a case for them, right?

Just like any other writing axiom, the "rule" to never use adverbs is more of a suggestion. Sure, adverbs clog up language. And, yes, the English language demands the use of strong nouns and verbs. What if I had used "strongly requests" or "expertly asks for" instead of "demands" in that last sentence? There's something missing in the meaning of what's said.

But, what about verbs that don't have a replacement? "Swim," for example, doesn't have any replacements. When there's someone walking, I can decide to have the skulk, or wander, or stroll, or even run or job instead of walk. All of these verbs illicit a different sort of "walk," a different action unique and separate from walking.

I can't use the same bit of dictionary magic on the verb "swim." I have to use a modifier instead. I could have someone swim quick, or slow, or stealthily, or any number of ways.

What other words out there might not have a replacement with a better inherent definition; one that doesn't need a modifier?

Adverbs

Adverbs. What are they?

Strictly speaking, adverbs are words that modify verbs and adjectives. Verbs are action words – words like run, walk, pounce, shift, and hyperventilate. Adjectives are words that modify nouns. Nouns are things – you, me, Heather, the hole in the ground downtown. Adjectives describe these words – short, tall, angry, green, ugly. Adverbs modify everything that an adjective can't (verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs). They answer the question how. How big? How ugly?

Generally speaking, adverbs will clog up speech. “He ran quickly” can be shortened to “he skittered.” Incidentally, skittered almost certainly creates a better picture in your mind of what's actually happening. Think about the difference between “ran” and “skittered”. Define the two verbs in your mind. Let a picture form. Which one is stronger?

This is exactly why adverbs are almost always unnecessary and even confusing.

Look at the above paragraphs. I've used some adverbs up there that are completely unnecessary. Find them, and let's talk about why they make the writing weaker.

Cleaning up the mess

Adverbs are used for many reasons. Sometimes it's a form of laziness: the writer can't come up with a stronger verb or noun, or doesn't want to pull out a thesaurus or dictionary. Sometimes the writer thinks the word is strong; almost, very, and other such words seem like they ought to be strong, and that they make the sentence more specific. They don't. Here's a comparison, using the first sentence of this paragraph (what I tried to write when I started writing this paragraph):

Often, adverbs are used for many reasons; the word almost fits, so the writer chooses to use it. (compare this to the beginning of the above paragraph. Which is stronger?)

How about this: What I almost wrote when I first started writing this paragraph. (Again, compare. Which is stronger and why).

Why Blog?

The first blog from May's guest blogger, Chad Smith. Chad won the Bridges contest. His poem, "No Rocks on This End," can be found in Bites from the Orchard: Bridges. Happy reading!
Megan

First off let me say thanks to Megan and everyone in the writer's group for letting me hang out in the Novel Orchard. I am truly honored to have my poem in your book. Sorry I couldn't make it to the book's opening night, but alas I am in Portland and my private jet has been in the shop all week.

When Megan asked me to be a guest blogger here on Writing Through the Year I was frightened at first. Sure I would do it I guessed, but what in the world did I know about writing? Then I thought about some subjects to write about and calmed down a bit:

I was asked to write a blog post. I can totally do that.

I will have been writing blog posts for 9 years this August. My first post is dated August 18th 2001. Before that I had been keeping a creative journal in a spiral notebook for several years. I don't think everyone was calling it blogging yet back in 2001 (I'm definitely not the first person to have started a blog). I think of myself as a journal keeper. No, not a diary. A journal.

I started keeping a creative journal right after I graduated from high school when an instructor at Portland Community College suggested that everyone should keep one. A place to store all of your creative thoughts. Story ideas, plot lines, dialog. Ideas for drawings and graphics. Notes for your Great American Novel. As I started to get into it and get some words down on paper I found that my creative journal, along with the notes and ideas was turning into a diary. Keeping track of my daily activities was keeping more entertained than scribbling notes for graphic designs or movie scripts.

Around 1996 I came up with the name Jack Noodle. I was subscribed to AOL back then and I wanted a name for my AOL email that didn't have to have a number in it. Chad Smith was already taken (believe it or not). Jack Noodle was born. I was going to use the name Jack Noodle everywhere I went in cyberspace and all of my artworks and writings would be signed by Jack Noodle. Now days I don't try to push the pseudonym as much. Everyone knows that Jack Noodle is really Chad Smith. No mystery.

That takes us to right around 1999 - 2000. I had been reading and enjoying the musician Moby's daily journal that he had up on his website and was also reading a journal by a multimedia artist named Mumbleboy. I was constructing my jacknoodle.com website and graphic design portfolio around that time and thought it would be cool to have my creative journal, a daily posting area on the site as well. I didn't have Wordpress back then so my posts were entered using raw html. I switched over to Wordpress around 2003 - 2004 and slowly reloaded all of my old posts into the Wordpress database then.

So where is this rambling history taking us you ask?

Well for my guest blog post I am going to agree with your previous guest blogger, Margaret Ellsworth's post last month on Practice and maybe expand a bit on the idea that blogging and keeping a journal is a very important activity for writers to take part in these days.

I think that anyone who is an aspiring writer should get a blog going. It's a great tool in helping build your writing muscles. I liked what Margaret said about getting the sensations of writing imprinted into your muscle memory. Maintaining a blog helps you practice the writing you will do on other projects.

Writing the Jack Noodle Journal is something I do for myself. There are other bloggers out there in the blogosphere that really worry about their numbers and try to get as many page hits as possible using all kinds of tricks. It's really easy to get caught up in the schemes and wizardry of page hits and reader numbers. For me it's about the act of writing and I'm not so concerned about who is reading it. Sure it would be fun to be popular and have a million readers but I like to think that have an audience of twelve.

Well if I'm not concerned with generating an audience with my blog then why put it up on the internet at all? Why not just keep my writing in my spiral notebook?

Despite saying I'm not concerned with how many people read my posts there is a certain level of attention set to the writing style knowing even subconsciously that someone might read what one is writing. That is good to cultivate and is really is a better writing than something one would hide away in a closet and never show anyone. If you are going to be a professional writer you are going to have to show your wares to the public eventually right? Why not start now with your blog?

Another benefit of having a blog is that I have a nice history and artifact of the history of the last 9 years of my life. Oh yeah, and with a search function even! It has been fun going back and refreshing my memory concerning the big events that have taken place. Along with family stuff I have interesting (to me) posts on how I felt on 9-11, a couple of presidential elections and other World events. Oh yes and I do still have some notes on creative thoughts and the start of some ideas I wanted to do for a television show until I saw that LOST was covering all of the topics I had thought of.

I have been surprised a time or two by who has been reading my blog when I get comments or emails. The most resent surprise was when a reporter from the Oregonian contacted me and said she had been reading about the details of my wife's pregnancy and the birth of our son on my blog and wanted to interview me for a story on paternity leave. That was pretty fun. You never know who's tuning in and what kind of opportunities could arise from someone enjoying your writing.

So that's my advice to you fellow writers. If you don't have a blog now then add more time to your already hard to find time for writing schedule and write a blog!

Also Facebook and Twitter are pretty cool too. Probably stay away from Facebook though, as it is a massive, distracting time suck. My Twitter feed is filled with people who continually give excellent links to interesting items. I've found a lot of writers and poets on Twitter as well....

But Facebook and Twitter belong in a different post.

Wood for the Table

Sorry for the delay, here is the second blog from this month's guest blogger, Margaret Ellsworth. - S.




“Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry… Both are very hard work. Writing is almost as hard as making a table. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood.”

Gabriel Garcia Marquez



As writers, we work with the material we have at hand—which is reality, and the words we use to describe that reality. Now, I’m a nonfiction writer, so reality is a bit more of an issue for me, since the reader expects my pieces to be fact-checkably “real.” But fiction and poetry have an equal responsibility to reality. Because unless the writer can create a world in her story that’s as detailed and rich as the world we inhabit, the reader’s not going to stick with it. We’re using reality, but we’re also competing with reality, which is already a sensory overload experience.



Which is why good writing draws from reality. The best dialogue has the same rhythms as conversations we’ve heard before. The best characters, while unique in their own ways, often share characteristics with people we recognize from our own lives. Even sci-fi and fantasy worlds may not correspond to “reality” as we know it, but a good writer can fill these worlds with so much realistic detail that we hardly notice.



It’s these details that can make or break a story. So where do we get these details from? The details that allow people to enter the worlds we create, and be able to see and smell and touch the world around them, clearly? How do we gather the wood for our table? Here are a few suggestions:



Get out in the world, and take notes. This is crucial for nonfiction writers—to get out there and experience the reality we’re trying to convey. We can actually go to the settings of our stories, and get details there. But this can be a useful tool for fiction writers too. If your characters happen to be musicians or doctors, see if you can find some musicians or doctors in the real world to shadow. If you’re writing a bustling town scene for your historical/fantasy book, head down to the farmer’s market and watch how people interact with each other there.



Take a notebook and a camera (or a cell phone camera if you’d rather be more inconspicuous) and watch what’s going on. Write down the little things: colors, sounds, smells. Notice the way people move and talk to each other. You could even try to scribble down snippets of conversation, to get a feel for the rhythms of dialogue. Try not to particularly think about your story at this point: if you focus on what you’re writing, you might miss something that’s happening around you. Afterwards, when you read your notes over, you can work the details into your story.



Follow your obsessions. Tamora Pierce (author of the popular Tortall teen fantasy series) said that she watched “The Three Musketeers” movie 17 times during her years at college. Did it have anything to do with her work at that point? Probably not. But it gave her material later on. This is one of the most fun parts about being a writer—the license to be obsessed with anything and everything. Read books, blogs, websites. Watch and re-watch movies. As Pierce says, “All creative people--not just writers!--expose themselves to as much information, in as many forms, as possible, in the hopes that it will be useful down the road, or even right now. You never know what will spark something new!”



Write what you know. I know, it’s an old cliché, something writing professors like to say… and then they end up with a stack of dorm-drama stories on their desk. You may think that “what you know” is too boring to ever interest anyone else. But I’m willing to bet you know some pretty odd things. Just through 20-odd years of life experience, I’ve become (perhaps too) familiar with church politics, long-distance relationships, and wasp-proofing my house. Just to name a few! Go ahead. Take ten minutes, and write down everything in the world you know about, everything you’re an expert on. Maybe one of your characters will love the same band you do. Maybe your summer job waiting tables at a resort will give you the idea for a story.



How about you? How do you come up with the details that bring your stories to life?

Transcendence

Peanut Satay sauce and coconut milk make some sense together. I say only some because Satay Sauce already has a fair bit of coconut milk. But what about adding some egg to the mix, a little bit more ginger, some chili paste, and cubes of bread?

Sounds crazy right? Not really. This is merely a modification of a basic bread pudding recipe. It'll be savory, and a bit spicy, and definitely not reminiscent of the European origins of a bread pudding. And I skipped the raisins. I hate raisins.

Did it come out any good? It's in the oven right now. I don't know if it's any good yet. I'll share if it's tasty though.

Now, why am I writing about my crazy adventures in food land? It's not because I have a masochistic tendency to invite criticism of what I think might taste good (usually though, it does). I'm writing about savory Thai bread pudding because it's relevant to writing.

To make this, I took just a few simple ingredients and combined them in a new and interesting way. I added a few other seasonings to taste, and stuck it in the oven. I don't know if it will be any good. I'm somewhat afraid of the outcome to be honest. But I tried it anyway. And I told someone else (you, you're reading this) about the experiment. And I'll make my husband eat it.

Why not do the same with your writing? Step out of the normal boundaries of what makes you comfortable. Push the envelope. Combine elements that aren't traditionally seen together, and force them to play nice. Hunter S. Thompson did it with creative non-fiction. Patrick Rothfuss did it with The Name of the Wind, combining fantasy with literary fiction (at least, from what I understand. I haven't read it yet.

This trend of combining, transcending, and flat-out ignoring rules of genre isn't one that's going to stop. Why not give it a try today. Something small. Something simple. 500 words?

Perspective, Worldview and Voice

I was driving home on Friday and I saw a billboard. A big obnoxious number, one that's impossible to miss even if you wanted to (which is more with good placement than with content, but that's beside the point). So, I'm going to describe it to you in as much detail as I can muster, while still being brief; I want to talk about things other than the billboard. Now, imagine with me...

It sits on a corner, lurking just the other side of a stop light, in perfect view while you're staring at the red light, waiting for it to turn green. You've just passed the grocery store, or are returning from it, and you see this billboard, splashed across the top with bright, autumn leaf orange text: “20 VITIMANS AND MINERALS!” Below the text, to the right side of the ad, on a field of perfectly green grass is a smiling boy, kicking a soccer ball, his uniform immaculately clean. Opposite him, like the heart of the sun from which the orange text radiates are two halves of an avocado. In the same orange text, beneath the boy: “Chilean Avocados.”

So, what does this have to do with perspective, worldview or voice? Let us consider each of these things separately.

When we write, we write through a huge number of filters—this is only natural, we perceive the world through those same sorts of filters. Your mood, where you work, what your hobbies are, where you live. What philosophy do you live by? Are you Catholic or maybe Buddhist? All of these effect how you see the world. These, and more, form our personal world view. It's how we see and interpret literally everything around us.

Your characters, too, have their own worldview, and their own perspective on things. If we write with our default worldview, our characters will come off as incomplete, choppy copies of ourselves, and if we try to force other traits on them, those traits will come off as shallow, or just wrong. You, and your character, probably wont agree on some things. Some of them may be little (maybe your character loves spicy food, but you despise it), and some of them will be rather large things (your character is a lawyer that argues for the death sentence, and you've given up chocolate until capital punishment has been outlawed).

The thing with perspective to consider is how close your narrator is to your viewpoint character. In some stories, the viewpoint is very loosely coupled, or entirely separated from the viewpoint character (The Hobbit, by Tolkien). In others, the viewpoint character is your narrator (any Sherlock Holmes story by Doyle—in which your point of view character and your protagonist are different, but that's a different blog). The perspective, naturally, is going to differ based on how tightly coupled your narrator is to the POV character.

Okay, let's tie this together then, shall we? Voice. When you write, you write with a voice. Your voice depends on what worldview you (and hopefully your characters) have. The closer perspective you have to your characters, the more of that characters voice the writing should have.

So, let's go back to that billboard shall we? The night before I drove by that billboard, I had watched an episode of Good Eats (if you like food and like to cook, you should watch it, just saying) about avocados. Fun avocado fact: they never ripen on the tree, and can be stored, unripe, on the tree, for seven months! Which makes them a truly year round food.

So, I had my filters loaded, and when I drove by, multiple things ran through my head in parallel. The important ones that are important, though are as follows: “Why do I want avocados from chili, I can get them grown much closer, they're not seasonal.” “People should eat more local food. Not import it from other hemispheres.” And finally, “Why not? Avocados are avocados.”

That's when my writer brain kicked in, and I saw the filters, the preconceived ideas that I held in my mind. What if I was writing a character, and I loaded onto that character my own world view? Well, maybe that character agrees with me, but what if that agreement doesn't agree with the character? Well, this is how you get discordant characters (I'm sure that you have all read characters that just seemed wrong, or forced).

Or maybe the character is from Chili and, though in general may agree with that particular world view, he may prefer the avocados from his home country on a purely nationalist standpoint. Or maybe the character is a neo-nazi and, when he sees the billboard has violent thoughts towards the foreigners who are taking jobs from American (white! [I'd like to point out that I do not think this way]) workers.

That's just a few examples with a billboard, and every character will have all of these possible branches for, literally everything in the world. If you keep it in mind, you'll have a lot more luck with capturing a convincing voice.

Drawing Comparisons

April is in full swing now, and so is the celebration of National Poetry Month. Why not join in the fun by writing a poem?

For some, writing a poem is easy. They sit down, and write, and out comes something to work with, edit, revise, and shape into a masterpiece. For others (myself included) the word "poetry" brings on shivers of fear and dread.

The fear and loathing, however, does not mean writing a poem is impossible. Start with a simple comparison. What was your morning coffee like? Your breakfast? How much would you like to put sugar in the gasoline tank of the neighbor's monster truck? You see what I'm getting at here: start with something small.

Then let it grow. Compare that thing or desire to something else that's not like it. Is your object of description hard and cool? What else is hard and cool? Plates, DVD cases, and jewellery could stand in for an answer.

Now move on to an emotion. Does your coffee make you angry, happy, or something in between? How much is that emotion evoked? Explore it, and see where it takes you.

Even if poetry isn't your forte, drawing these comparisons is helpful. How else are you going to explain to your reader just how much the character hated sliding into the cool waters of the lake? Or show the reader just how bad that concept you're arguing against really is? It's all in the description. While poetry may be too flowery, too much for your specific situation, hyperbole can teach much about moderation.

-Megan

Critiquing

Critiquing is not an easy process. First the writer must be willing to hand over words written on a page. Then the reader, who will provide a critique, must pick up those words, read them, pass judgement on them, and offer thoughts on the good, the bad, and the ugly.

How exactly is this done? I'll give you the ideal critique process that I go through every time I pick up something to offer my opinion. Though this is my ideal process, it's not always possible to go though it because of whatever reason, and that's okay. I don't beat myself up about it, though I do always try to give my best.

1. I read the words on the page as a reader. I sit down, usually on my couch with a tasty beverage, and I read. I let the words take me where they will. And I put them down and let them mull over in my brain.

2. I pick up the words again, and I read them, this time with a writing utensil. Red pens are popular. I've bee liking my trusty mechanical pencil lately. I make notes about when I'm confused, when I enjoy a turn of phrase, what I like, what I don't like. And, I always try to mention WHY. The why is important, to both parties. The writer needs to know not only that someone liked or didn't like the words, but what made the reader like them. As a reader, the more I can comment on why I do or don't like something, the more I can emulate or avoid that aspect in the own writing. I put the words down.

3. I pick up the words for a third time, and I read them again. By now, I'm quite familiar with the words on the page. I mark them up. I mark grammar and punctuation and I offer ways to re-phrase sentences to tighten them; make them stronger. I comment when a sentence or paragraph isn't doing anything, when it's doing something other than intended, and when something is missing.

And, in a nutshell, that's what I do when I read for critique. Sometimes it's helpful, and sometimes it's not. The most important thing of everything though, is I constantly ask the question: Why? Why is the sentence there? What is it doing? Does it move the story forward? Does it give character or background? Or does it serve no purpose? If it serves no purpose, can it serve a purpose? Did I connect with the story on a deeper level? How did I do it? If not, what do I think can be added, or taken away, from the story so that I will connect on that deeper level?

And with that, I wish you all a happy critique.

Playing with Words

Tell me if you've heard this one: What animal can jump higher than a house?


Or the very classic: What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and on three legs in the evening?


So, what do silly riddles have to do with writing? Pretty much everything. Go ahead, try to write one, I'll wait.


Done? How did it go? It's not very easy is it? Riddles, and other word games, have a lot to teach those willing to learn. They use the rules of language, and they twist the rules all around. They are a way of saying something without saying it. Hinting around the edges of what's really being asked, or said.


There are other games that can be played with words. Try this one on. You have a flock of geese, a herd of cows...
A **** of students.
A **** of parasites.
A ***** of ovens.
A **** of dragons.


The point of all this: playing with your language leads to a better understanding the nature of the beast you work with. I'm sure I'm not the only one that aspires to actual mastery of usage. Yes, my genre does not require it, but the better I am, the better my writing will be.


So I have homework for all of you. If you didn't already, go make a riddle. A real riddle, that contains all of the necessary information to be solved, and twisted to say something else. You're all familiar with the riddle. They're the bread and butter of every trivia show you've ever watched. So go write your own, and bring them back to us.


Just to get you started, I'll leave you with one that I wont answer, before I tell you the answers to the easy ones I've already asked.


You're stranded on a jungle island. On this island, there are two tribes of people. One tribe always tells the truth, and the other always lies, and are also cannibals. You are walking on a path through the jungle, and you come to a fork in the road. Standing at the fork is a tribesman, though you do not know of what tribe. The paths lead to each of the tribes. You can ask the tribesman one question, what do you ask?

So, what animal can jump higher than a house? Any animal; a house can't jump.
Man walks on all fours at birth, on two legs as an adult, and with a cane as an old man.
Its a riot of students, a host of parasites (nyuk nyuk), a range of ovens (do the puns burn?), and a slew of dragons.

Reading

How do you read?

I don't mean "by picking up a book and looking at the marks and deciphering them into words and thoughts and ideas." I mean: "what do you do when you read?" Do you read the words on the page, and allow yourself to be transferred to another world? Do you look for and find hidden meanings and messages within the text? Do you question how the writer shaped the words into what you're seeing on the page?

Personally, I do all three. Though, more and more, I critique the writing that I see. I can't help it. I want to know how the writer made me laugh or smile; what made me have the reaction to the book that I had. How else can I do this if I don't look for it in the writing?

More importantly, how can I know what I'm doing right and wrong if I can't see it in someone else's writing? What better way to learn than from other writers?

There's a writing adage that you can't learn how to write, and you can't teach how to do it. I happen to disagree. Writing can be taught. The teaching just happens in somewhat less-than-traditional forms. The learning happens by the student, by reading, by asking questions, and by seeking answers.

So, I'll ask again: what do you do when you read? What do you do to better your own writing?