[stylist] Three key elements for creative writing

Thu Jan 19 00:58:42 UTC 2012

I did some research online to help better illustrate the vital elements
neccessary in creative writing. I have copied the entire page here, but
I'm also providing the link if you wish to just visit the website.
http://absolutewrite.com/novels/3_elements.htm

The 3 Most Important Elements of Fiction Writing
By Magdalena Ball

Even highly celebrated and well-paid authors miss them. While almost all
writers are clear on the importance of plot, there are other writing
skills such as a strong narrative voice, good deep characterization, and
relevant, subtle scenery description that set a work of fiction apart,
rendering it literary or great. In my work as a reader for a small
publishing house, I have seen these omissions in nearly every manuscript
that has come across my desk. 
If these three elements are patchy or not well-controlled, a piece of
fiction will be amateurish, shallow, and potentially unpublishable
(unless your name is Grisham or King). No amount of exciting plot or
poetic description of the surrounding environment will make up for it.

Following is a list of the three most important elements of fiction
writing, along with a series of exercises and references to help writers
improve in these critical areas.

The very best way to improve your writing in these, and other areas, is
to read lots of writers who have excellent control in these areas. They
are also referenced. There will always be something subtle that extends
beyond writing classes and even articles such as this, and that is the
writer's ear. Extensive reading of good quality literature can help
develop that subtle ear for what works and what doesn't. In the
meantime, the following tips will help clarify where the main areas for
writing great fiction lie. Hint . . . it isn't in the plot. 

Strong narrative voice
The narrative voice is critical to any work of fiction, and it is
probably one of the most overlooked areas of focus for new writers.
Vague narrators, uncertain tense, and an unclear voice are all the
result of poor narration. A great writer will have total control over
his/her narrative, the voice that guides the reader through the story.
As Noah Lukeman, the author of The First Five Pages, says: "Viewpoint
and narration comprise a delicate, elaborate facade, in which one tiny
break of inconsistency can be disastrous, the equivalent of striking a
dissonant note in the midst of a harmonious musical performance. The
easiest way to ensure you have a clear narrative voice is to write in
the first person. This makes your narrator an obvious character, and
thereby ensures that, as a writer, you will be thinking about that
development. 

However, first person isn't appropriate for all fiction, and it has its
limitations, since it ties the work to a single perspective. For third
person narratives, the key point is to ensure that the narrator is
actually defined as clearly as any other character, regardless of how
visible or invisible you want that narrator to be. Any straying from the
main narrative voice or mistake in consistency can be a disaster, unless
your control and experience are extensive and vast. 

A good narrative voice is generally consistent, and doesn't switch from
first ("I"), to second ("you") to third ("he or she") person, unless the
author is doing it quite deliberately, and it takes great skill to pull
off switching narration. In most cases, switching person will destroy a
story. More subtle, but equally important is the need to keep the
narrative viewpoint consistent. It can be hard work to develop a single
viewpoint, and using multiple viewpoints can be complex, with the need
for careful, well-crafted breaks between viewpoints and a really clear,
plot-oriented reason for doing so. The reader must have a good sense of
the narrative voice, including why that voice sees things the way it
does, and whose perspective it is taking. 

Some tricks to help develop the narrative voice include the following: 

Read authors with exceptional narrative control. Margaret Atwood, Peter
Carey, Salman Rushdie, and Julian Barnes are among the very best authors
for narrative control. Their novels tend to be fuelled by great
narrators and characterization, and reading work like theirs will help
develop the writer's ear for what works in narration.
Try re-writing a piece of your own work from a different viewpoint, and
noting the effect. You may actually improve the piece, but if not, you
will at least begin to understand the impact.
Try creating a profile of your narrator. Write out his/her "back story."
Put together a number of paragraphs on his/her life, motivations, and
fears.
Take a paragraph from any great writer's work. Try a classic like
Dickens, Eliot, or Joyce, or some other well respected novelist, and
take note of the narrative voice. Now write out a paragraph on the
narrator.  Describe his/her motivations, past, and the hints that the
writing conveys on the narrator's involvement in the overall story.
References for more information on narrative voice:

http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/art/crisis/crisis4a.html 

"Paradigm, Point of View, and Narrative Distance in Verbal and Visual
Arts" by George P Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown
University

http://english.tyler.cc.tx.us/engl2307nbyr/narrativepov.htm

A simple but useful guide to the different narrative voices, from
Candace Schaefer

http://www.qcc.mass.edu/booth/102/ptview/index.htm

A slide show by Sheila Booth of at QCC Mass - including a complete
overview of the narrative voice.

http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/ellibst/PowerPoint/Lect11/sld019.htm

Point of view in narrative fiction slide show from National University
of Singapore

Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, Jane Burroway,
Addison-Wesley Pub Co; July 1999, ISBN 0321026896 

Characterization
Characterization is related to narrative voice, as the narrator is
generally a character too. While most writers understand the importance
of characterization, and it is not as subtle a skill as the narrative
voice, modern bestsellers and genre writing still tend to be plot rather
than character-driven, especially in our world of fast paced, instantly
gratifying television and film. Cliched, superficial characters are the
mark of a poor writer. A great character can save an overly simplistic
plot, but no amount of action will make up for unbelievable or shallow
characters. A good character has the same kind of depth, complexity, and
believability as an interesting person. The reader wants to know more
about them; to spend time with them; to imagine their lives beyond the
boundaries of your fiction. There are a number of books written about
creating good characters (see References below). However, the basics of
characterization are as follows:

Ensure that your reader cares about the characters. Solid characters are
not enough - they have to inspire strong feeling.

Good characters are complex. A reader's response to them should also be
complex. This means they grapple with the same things real people
grapple with - morality, the meaning of life, love, death, time
management, etc. No one is purely good or purely evil. The most
unloveable protagonist must still have something to make their story
interesting to the reader, and believable. Cliched, cardboard characters
will ruin the best plot. This means that characters should be
well-drawn, and detailed. Their dialogue must align with their history,
and every character, even minor ones, must have some sort of history
that is discernable by the reader. 

All characters must count, and must be related to the meaning and
narrative of the story. Extraneous characters who appear and disappear
without relevance to the plot will confuse the reader and weaken the
fiction. 

Characters should sit at the heart of any story. This means beginning,
and continuing with characterization throughout the entire story. It is
not enough to describe your characters at the start and then forget
about it. People are full of contradiction, depth, and corridors to
explore. Characters should be too. 

Avoid contrived description. Characterization should be woven into the
plot and handled with subtlety. 

Some tricks to help characterization include:

Pick a passage from great fiction (any of the examples above will do, or
anything you might be reading, as long as it is literary), and identify
the character. Describe, in writing, his/her back story. How is it
relevant to the overall novel?
Do the same thing for a piece of your own work. Take one of your
characters and write out a page of 'back story.' This is something that
isn't going to appear in your work, but it will form the basis for the
things your characters do.
Try writing a few paragraphs of "stream of consciousness" for one of
your favorite characters. If you aren't sure how to do this, try doing
it for yourself. Just spend a few minutes listening to the interior
voice in your head. Close your eyes and let your mind wander at will,
and then quickly write it down as close as possible to how it was. Leave
out punctuation and let the thoughts flow, stop and start in the same
chaotic rhythm as they do in the mind. If you are still unsure, check
out the masters; James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and William Faulkner in
The Sound and The Fury; all do wonderful things with this technique.
Try a form of "mind-mapping" for your characters. Place one of their
names in the middle of the paper, and draw a circle around it. Now
around that circle, place aspects of that person in lines that eminate
from the central point. This will give a good feeling for the complexity
that makes up this person. Once you have done this, you will have a much
better idea of who this character is, his/her motivations, and hidden
internal dialogue.
Developing your writer's ear for what constitutes good and poor
characterization is critical for every fiction writer, and the best way
to do that is to read fiction by wonderful and challenging authors. All
of the narrative masters cited above are also masters of
characterization, and there is also Charles Dickens, whose characters
tend towards the comic, but never unbelievable, Tim Winton, Toni
Morrison, or James Joyce (who can ever forget Leopold and Molly Bloom
from Ulysses?).

References for more information on characterization: 

http://www.sfwa.org/members/Crispin/ACC_Characters.html

"The Key to Making Your Characters Believable"; by A.C Crispin

http://ut.essortment.com/characterswriti_rxgl.htm

"Creating fictional characters" by Pagewise

http://www.paintedrock.com/memvis/rockmag/files2000/rock00-14W/character
s.htm

"Ten Keys To Developing Your Characters" by Lorraine Heath

Creating Unforgettable Characters, Linda Seger, Henry Holt, July 1990,
ISBN: 0805011714

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King. Pocket Books, May 2001,
ISBN: 0671024256.

The Stuff of Fiction: Advice on Craft., Douglas Bauer, Univ of Michigan
Pr; December 2000. ISBN: 0472067338.

Subtle Description of Setting
Many creative writing classes focus on the writing of scenic
description. Good descriptive writing is an excellent skill; however, it
can be overused to the detriment of a piece of fiction, especially when
combined with poor characterization. An abundance of natural scenery or
the telling of a setting, unrelated to the characters, will seem
gratuitous and amateurish. Gorgeous scenery is not an error in itself.
Descriptive writing can be powerful, creating the setting and backdrop
for the work, and providing some very moving passages.However, purely
purple prose tends to be glossed over by readers, as an attempt at
writing prettily rather than writing meaningfully, and it can actually
be quite dull.

Every single piece of description must have some relevance to either the
character development or the plot. The classic maxim is to always show
rather than tell. Paint the scene, delicately, and let the characters
find your scenery for you; let the scenes unfold. Let your reader enter
your fictional universe and visualize the setting themselves through
scenes, events, dramatization, symbolization, or open ended description
in which the reader can participate directly.

Some tricks to help improve scenery description include:

Try to write a paragraph of setting description with no adjectives at
all. This will not only create a very vivid, dramatic scene, but will
also force you to show rather than tell, as multiple adjectives are at
the heart of telling.
Read the following short passage from Kafka's The Trial(165-6):

He went over to the window, perched on the sill, holding on to the latch
with one hand, and looked down on the square below. The snow was still
falling, the sky had not yet cleared. For a long time he sat like this,
without knowing what really troubled him, only turning his head from
time to time with an alarmed glance toward the anteroom, where he
fancied, mistakenly, that he heard a noise. But as no one came in he
recovered his composure, went over to the washbasin, washed his face in
cold water, and returned to his place at the window with a clearer mind.
How much of the setting does this seemingly simple paragraph reveal? How
much have we learned about both the situation, the character, and the
scene? Try and do something similar in a different setting, with a
different character (use of your own if you have a story in progress).

As with narrative voice and characterization, read authors who excel in
writing good setting. This will, once again, help you develop your
writer's ear for this, and ensure that you can spot purple passages in
your own work.
Re-write, re-write, re-write. Julian Barnes has been cited as saying
that he re-writes every page something like 47 times. This may seem
excessive, but the heart of good writing is re-writing, and this is
critical for your setting and description of the environment within your
fiction. Cut out anything that seems the slightest bit superfluous. Your
writing will be more professional, stronger, and more powerful.
References for more information on description of setting:

http://www.eclectics.com/articles/setting.html 

Lori Handeland's article on setting

http://tntn.essortment.com/writingfiction_rcck.htm

"Creating the perfect setting for writing fiction" by Chrystal McCoy

The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection
Pile. Noah Lukeman, Simon & Schuster, January 2000. ISBN: 068485743X.

The Elements of Style, Strunk & White, Alllyn & Bacon, January 2000
(reprinted), ISBN: 020530902X

The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors,
and Publishers (14th Edition), John Grossman, University of Chicago
Press, Sept 1993, ISBN: 0226103897 

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Benni Browne, Dave King,
HarperCollins, March 1994. ISBN: 0062720465.

Of course it takes more than a good narrator, good characters, and good,
subtle scenery description to make a great piece of fiction, but these
three areas will set a great piece of work apart from a mediocre one.
The most common error is patchy narrative voice, and all writers should
approach this area with some thought and caution, since it is much less
well-taught in writing classes than techniques like plot development and
characterization. Once again, the best way of becoming a master in these
critical fiction areas is by being aware of their importance, and by
reading good quality literary fiction, noting always the way the author
deals with the narrator, the character development, and the subtle
relationship between scenery and character, setting and plot.

Magdalena Ball is content manager for The Compulsive Reader, Preschool
Entertainment, and is the author of The Art of Assessment: How To Review
Anything. Her fiction, poetry, reviews, interviews, and essays have
appeared in hundreds of on-line and print publications.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/

"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: tplimage?lid=41000000030512613&pubid=21000000000252345
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 5122 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/stylist_nfbnet.org/attachments/20120118/edb9b8e1/attachment.obj>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: tplimage?lid=41000000030280055&pubid=21000000000252345
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 43 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/stylist_nfbnet.org/attachments/20120118/edb9b8e1/attachment-0001.obj>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: tplimage?lid=41000000030470598&pubid=21000000000252345
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 8757 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/stylist_nfbnet.org/attachments/20120118/edb9b8e1/attachment-0002.obj>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: tplimage?lid=41000000030427015&pubid=21000000000252345
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 12172 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/stylist_nfbnet.org/attachments/20120118/edb9b8e1/attachment-0003.obj>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: tplimage?lid=41000000030387941&pubid=21000000000252345
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 8148 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/stylist_nfbnet.org/attachments/20120118/edb9b8e1/attachment-0004.obj>