Wednesday, September 15, 2010


Crushed rocks shattering stone gargling marbles are spewing from some woman's mouth on TV.


What the hell is wrong with her????


She has just been smoking 40 packs a day for years, Jerry said.


Is this show for real, I ask.


It's another one f those reenactments. I can't watch this, he tells me.


Eek.


For Erin again. Keep unraveling your thoughts and stitching them on the page.

Today I read through a few more creative writing tips. I find the following: a really good story can compensate for less-than-brilliant writing, but brilliant writing will not save a bad story.

First of all, a story is built on words. The wrong words will get you nowhere. I suspect I now hear the pages of some good story somewhere falling from the reader's grip. The reader wants spice, something daring bold determined hard strong abrupt surprising and overall, endearing. As in, I don't want my dress to fit well, just like a good story, I want it tight, bright red, with black laces zigzagging up the back.

A well worded sentence is also not an example of good writing. It's white noise. Be outlandish. Be honest.

Nope. Brilliant writing saves everything. Perfect and beautiful and magical writing leaves its characters and plot way down below until they shrink like specks. Good writing is the clothing hung on a character. It is the reason we pause, forgetting about the plot, and tilt our heads back to better hear the words again and again.

I have never arrived at the end of a book, slapped its covers shut, and said, wow, what a great story! I have sat in wonder of a person's dexterity with words. They are not bricks. You don't line them up and build a good story. You fling them wide, chase after them, rearrange their meaning, use them like little blades to cut the precise meaning from the muck. You twirl that same tool around, aim it differently and swing it like a hammer. Words have a job that no good story can carry. Whether by force, or stealth they must creep under your skin or into your ears where they'll remain. Now those are good words.

I think Lily is a good story, but if some obedient student had believed that a good story could compensate for brilliant writing, the student may conclude that more effort should go toward plot than prose. The writer may go on about Lily's day, but forget about Lily. Wrong wrong wrong! You need to let your head run and the words billow out, then fix the mess with an eraser. What will this student have when the good storylines run dry?

Take out the baking soda, sugar, eggs, and flour, and whip up a strong recipe for internal narrative, then you can write well about any topic anytime. Good words make a good writer, not good stories. Good stories may be amusing, but good writing is memorable. What ass gave such limp advice about a good story. I want to reach into the Internet and take a potato peeler to this person.


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