leiphos
Bluelighter
- Joined
- May 8, 2008
- Messages
- 1,147
Do you have specific rules you follow when writing? Do you have a lot of little writing quirks like I do? Some rules I always follow:
1. Don’t overuse the verb “to be”
2. Don’t overuse participles
3. Don’t use conditional statements (ie: “I look up AS the birds fly overhead”. why not just say: “I look up. The birds fly overhead.” This way instead of telling the reader they happen at the same time, I let them actually happen at the same time.)
4. Opposition is more dramatic if you don’t call attention to it. “My father smiles wide at me BUT his eyes refuse to meet mine.” versus the stronger: “My father smiles wide at me. His eyes refuse to meet mine.”
5. Form follows function. Everything style-wise should be purposeful and should emphasize the content of the poem. Style and form for the sake of style and form is pointless.
6. Sometimes the word that ought to be in the poem is not the one you wrote, but a word that sounds similar.
7. Never tell the poem what it is about. Let it decide.
8. Showing is not always better than telling.
9. Never, in neither fiction nor poetry, should a character gaze into a mirror.
1. Don’t overuse the verb “to be”
2. Don’t overuse participles
3. Don’t use conditional statements (ie: “I look up AS the birds fly overhead”. why not just say: “I look up. The birds fly overhead.” This way instead of telling the reader they happen at the same time, I let them actually happen at the same time.)
4. Opposition is more dramatic if you don’t call attention to it. “My father smiles wide at me BUT his eyes refuse to meet mine.” versus the stronger: “My father smiles wide at me. His eyes refuse to meet mine.”
5. Form follows function. Everything style-wise should be purposeful and should emphasize the content of the poem. Style and form for the sake of style and form is pointless.
6. Sometimes the word that ought to be in the poem is not the one you wrote, but a word that sounds similar.
7. Never tell the poem what it is about. Let it decide.
8. Showing is not always better than telling.
9. Never, in neither fiction nor poetry, should a character gaze into a mirror.