Set Your Writing Apart

Set your writing apart from the others. Wow your readers with the obscure, eclectic look. Don’t let any of your writing become stagnant to the reader’s eye. Let your reader view something real, tangible and inviting.

Instead of pummeling your story along, slow down and let the reader get a whiff of your senses. Let them feel your anguish or joy, the softness or roughness of its outer core, or clarity of taste and smell. Describe the object or scene, delving into all the senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Don’t spare your gifts of the word in carving into detail this object, no matter how simple or complex it is.

Practice your craft with an ordinary object, a living organism or a man-made tech machine. If you’re facing a dull read of your story, this could spark up the drab and let in a little bit of light. Plain and simple stories, such as - boy meets girl, boy gets girl, they get into a fight and she leaves him (or vice versa), then they make up and end of story – can be given a second chance when a description of objects, scenes or people here and there bring them to life.

Start with sight—describe the texture, shape, colors, and clarity with metaphors or similes. Next, add hearing—do you hear anything associated with the object? If not, you can skip this sense. Touch the object, rubbing your hands along it if you can, and write down what you feel. Now, smell it—what do you smell? If you smell anything, even a chemical smell, write it down. Last of all is taste. You may not be able to taste it, but if you can, do not hesitate to show the comparison against another similar taste.

Now, combine some of these sentences to spare no workouts of the mind. Like going to a symphony or a Broadway musical, isn’t it? The reader will get caught up in this object which has now taken shape into their soul, and now cannot put the story down. They must read on. . . .

Lights, Camera, Action!

The most memorable writing, in my estimation, comes from carefully planned out metaphors or similes and personification intermixed with a mere sprinkling of passive sentences. "Artsy" writing is what I call it. Pulitzer prizes and other awards adorn authors who praise the metaphor and personification words to their advantage. Locking these creative doses with simple passive sentences tone down the heavy medley, and instead blossom forth what the writer is actually trying to say. Succinct and precise words describe a scene to additionally complement the sentences.

A metaphor or simile describes something using words that are not literal to explain further with figures of speech, phrases or symbols. The simile adds "as" or "like" to the entity to mellow out the figure of speech, while the metaphor is straight-on with its descriptive words. Personification adds life to an object or abstract notion. Passive voice sentences use 1) non-active verbs, and 2) pose the object at the beginning of the sentence and the subject placed at the end of the sentence preceded with the word "by."


Example: (metaphor) She gossips a lot, talks about others behind her back. She is a snake.

Example: (simile) She gossips a lot, talks about others behind her back, like a snake.

Example: (personification) She sat down in the velveteen chair, the wings rounding off her arms to its sides, its purple plush caressing the girl's shape, softening her grief.

Example: (passive voice) A man was struck by a car while crossing Main and Oak Streets. (An active voice would be "A car struck a man while crossing Main and Oak Streets;" notice the passive voice has the man (object) in the front of the sentence instead of the car (subject) as in the active voice.)

Other passive voice sentences contain non-active verbs, such as linking verbs: She made it to the play. This may seem very bland, but mixed with active sentences, it can abruptly halt the reader to sum up all the active sentences to one meaningful statement.

Welcome!

Have you ever thought about writing the great American novel? Well, there are many times in the day I say to myself, "If I could only get the time to write," and the next day comes along, and there are a million things to do again.

Suffice it to say, I created this blog to spur my imagination, my muse, to write and get that novel done! I hope this blog will compel your creative juices to flow, too. I wish you many happy writing days to follow!

- Linda