Masterlist

A while ago I bought a copy of Steering the Craft by Ursula K Le Guin, "A revised and updated guide to the essentials of a writer’s craft" since people keep reccing it. I read through to the first exercise and then Got Stuck. But I am going to have another go now I've thought some more about what kinds of writing I actually like doing (eg fanfic), and try and keep notes as I go.

She starts by talking about the importance of the sound of language *spends a bunch of time figuring out how to remove the DRM from my Kobo book so I can copy quotes*

A good writer, like a good reader, has a mind’s ear. We mostly read prose in silence, but many readers have a keen inner ear that hears it. Dull, choppy, droning, jerky, feeble: these common criticisms of narrative are all faults in the sound of it. Lively, well-paced, flowing, strong, beautiful: these are all qualities of the sound of prose, and we rejoice in them as we read. Narrative writers need to train their mind’s ear to listen to their own prose, to hear as they write.

Oh no she wants me to READ SOME EXAMPLES OF TEXT ALOUD. I didn't do this last time I read this section but I'll do it now, softly (she says to be loud but Cam is home and I'd feel silly)

• Rudyard Kipling: from “How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin” in Just So Stories: Fairytale logic
  
• Mark Twain: from “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”: Telling a wild tale in a strong dialect
  
• Zora Neale Hurston: from Their Eyes Were Watching God "To read Hurston’s sentences aloud is to be caught up in their music and beat, their hypnotic, fatal, forward drive. In this one and the next, the vocabulary is simple and familiar; it’s above all the rhythm that is powerful and effective."
  
• Molly Gloss: from The Hearts of Horses

OK AND NOW WHERE I GOT STUCK.

EXERCISE ONE: Being Gorgeous
Part One: Write a paragraph to a page of narrative that’s meant to be read aloud. Use onomatopoeia, alliteration, repetition, rhythmic effects, made-up words or names, dialect—any kind of sound effect you like—but NOT rhyme or meter.

So, trying to write something NEW and ORIGINAL made my brain screech to a halt last time. So lets try the sort of thing I actually write, eg fanfic. Jack Jeanne seems like a logical fit since not only am I into it right now but it's all about dancing and music and poetry.

Soshiro snuck into the silent space of the studio at night, the door closing behind him with a quiet snickt. His feet beat out a careful rhythm as he slowly spun into a solitary dance, a susurrus of dancing shoes sliding against smooth lacquer as his body bent and whirled to the music in his mind. He danced until it hurt, until his breath came out as a harsh wheeze from his straining chest, until the light through the shuttered windows slowly shifted from peach to blue to black. But it wasn't enough. It would never be enough. He was falling behind, losing his place, losing her, and no amount of dancing in dark was going to change that.

OK. DONE. DEPRESSING LITTLE CHARACTER PIECE: GET. Reading it out loud to myself as I went did improve it a bit, I think. I am having SO much self consciousness at the thought that it might be baaaad writing oh nooooo but it is an EXERCISE. The only way you fail an exercise is by NOT DOING IT. MOVING ON.

She had some extra advice on how to approach it that I only read afterwards, oops. DON'T CARE, IT'S DONE.

Part Two: In a paragraph or so, describe an action, or a person feeling strong emotion—joy, fear, grief. Try to make the rhythm and movement of the sentences embody or represent the physical reality you’re writing about.

*cough* I mean. Technically. Didn't I already do that? >.> But ok fine let's do another one, in a different mood. Hmm, lets go for Auni from Palia.

Oh my gosh! Let me tell you something! I was exploring up by the old temple near our house, cos it's so weird and interesting. And I saw the coolest thing! I knew I couldn't stay out too late or Mom would get mad, so I was kind of in a hurry. So I nearly missed it. But then I saw something glowing out of the corner of my eye and I turned around I saw it. The biggest fire-breathing dragonfly you ever saw! It was the size of my head! Ok maybe not that big. But really huge! And it was spitting fire all over the place! Foosh! Blahhhh!! Like I know they're called fire breathing dragon flies but they don't actually breathe much fire. Most of the time, anyway! But this one was super fire-y. It was amazing!

Not sure that's what she meant but I tried!

Did concentrating on the sound of the writing release or enable anything unusual or surprising, a voice you haven’t often used?

Ehh not really. That's actually something I think about already, so it just got me to put more effort into it, but it wasn't a fundamental change in how I write. I was really into writing silly poetry as a kid, the sort with lots of onomatopoeia etc, and some of the techniques stuck around. Reading it out loud did get me to tweak some of the wording a little.

Did you enjoy being gorgeous, or was it a strain? Can you say why?

Making the extra effort made me feel self conscious. Normally no one explicitly knows when I'm trying to make my prose sound pretty, so it only gets mentioned if I succeed. But now someone might read this post and go "wow, that was Sean TRYING to make their prose sound good? Ouch D:". Even if that person is me!

How do you respond to the work of a novelist or essayist who visibly strives to write striking or poetical prose, using unusual or archaic words, combining words in a surprising way, going in for sound effects?

Hmm. I like it sometimes, but not if I feel like it's getting in the way of actually telling the story. It's a secondary concern for me, not the main meal. But I have definitely noticed and appreciated it when it does work for me, and clunky awkward prose does undermine my enjoyment a bit.

It can be fun to think about names in fiction and what it is about the sound of them that makes them meaningful.

Yeah!

Being Gorgeous is a highly repeatable exercise, by the way, and can serve as a warm-up to writing... It might get you into the swing.

Lol nope. It was an interesting challenge but absolutely did not make me feel like writing MORE, except maybe in the sense of "wow writing without thinking about it so hard sure is a lot less excruciating".

BUT I DID IT. CHAPTER ONE DOWN. GO ME.