Time to Write

Kurt Vonnegut's tips for writing with style: number three

Years ago, Kurt Vonnegut wrote an article sponsored by the International Paper Company, on how to write with style. He intended it mainly for writers of non-fiction, but the tips apply equally to novelists or short story writers. I'm featuring one per day; this is number three.

3: Keep it simple

As for your use of language: Remember that two great masters of language, William Shakespeare and James Joyce, wrote sentences which were almost childlike when their subjects were most profound. 'To be or not to be?' asks Shakespeare's Hamlet. The longest word is three letters long. Joyce, when he was frisky, could put together a sentence as intricate and as glittering as a necklace for Cleopatra, but my favorite sentence in his short story 'Evaline' is this one: 'She was tired.' At that point in the story, no other words could break the heart of a reader as those three words do. 

'To be or not to be?' asks Shakespeare's Hamlet. The longest word is three letters long.

Joyce, when he was frisky, could put together a sentence as intricate and as glittering as a necklace for Cleopatra, but my favorite sentence in his short story 'Evaline' is this one: 'She was tired.' At that point in the story, no other words could break the heart of a reader as those three words do. 

Joyce, when he was frisky, could put together a sentence as intricate and as glittering as a necklace for Cleopatra, but my favorite sentence in his short story 'Evaline' is this one: 'She was tired.' At that point in the story, no other words could break the heart of a reader as those three words do. 

Simplicity of language is not only reputable, but perhaps even sacred. The Bible opens with a sentence well within the writing skills of a lively fourteen-year-old: 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.'

Jurgen adds:

This advice is echoed by another of my favorite writers, Elmore Leonard, as well as many others. If people are noticing the writing, they're not paying attention to the story. 

 

 

Kurt Vonnegut's tips for writing with style: number two

Years ago, Kurt Vonnegut wrote an article sponsored by the International Paper Company, on how to write with style. He intended it mainly for writers of non-fiction, but the tips apply equally to novelists or short story writers. I'm featuring one per day. This is number two.

2: Do not ramble, though

I won't ramble on about that.

Jurgen adds:

Neither will I. 

 

 

 

Kurt Vonnegut's tips for writing with style: number one

Years ago, Kurt Vonnegut wrote an article sponsored by the International Paper Company, on how to write with style. He intended it mainly for writers of non-fiction, but the tips apply equally to novelists or short story writers. I'll feature one per day for the next seven days.

1: Find a subject you care about

Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.

I am not urging you to write a novel, by the way--although I would not be sorry if you wrote one, provided you genuinely cared about something. A petition to the mayor about a pothole in front of your house or a love letter to the girl next door will do.

***

Jurgen adds:

I saw this idea in action when I first went to Hollywood and worked as a script reader. The company for which I worked accepted scripts from all over the country, without requiring that the writer have an agent. I noticed that many of the scripts we received from writers outside of New York and Los Angeles were not formatted correctly but they had an energy missing from many of the "correct" scripts. I think that's because those authors were writing about things they cared about, instead of trying to guess what Hollywood wanted or trying to ape the previous years' successes.

Sunday stories: Doing it for the children

This is a little experiment in flash fiction, using photos by a very talented photographer, Ryan McGuire, who generously lets people use his images without charge - you can find them at Gratisgraphy. The idea is to craft a story in 100 words or less. If you'd like to have a go, write a story to go with this picture, 100 words maximum, and put it in the comments section.

"I could have made it as a serious actress. I still have that clipping from the review of 'Our Town' that said I was "also quite convincing" and praised our play as "above the usual standards of a high school production." I did movies, too. My favorite was "Kill, Baby, Kill!" in which I was "Second Victim." But I realized I have a higher calling: to bring cheer and laughter to children. Sure, I'm giving up money and fame, but just imagine how delighted kids will be when they see this face.”

Beware of LitFire Press

Another day, another "service" that is interested in extracting money from writers' wallets. The excellent Writer Beware newsletter points to a new one: LitFire Press.

They have been cold-calling (or cold-emailing) writers, claiming to have heard about or even read some of their writing and identifying them as being perfect for their publishing packages...which, of course, come with a hefty price tag.

They claim "hundreds of published titles"...but there seems to be no trace of most of them. Wouldn't it make sense to offer a list? There are only seven...and a few of those were published by imprints of Author Solutions, a company notorious for hard-sell tactics and many complaints.

Another possible danger signal: several of the "consultants" working for LitFire previously were employed by Author Solutions. 

Here's a sample sentence from a letter received by one of the authors they targeted:

"We  would like to have to know if there is anything that we can possible help you with when it comes to book distribution and marketing." 

The rest of the letter is on the same level.

A letter from a different LitFire "Senior Marketing and Publishing Consultant" included paragraphs lifted directly from the marketing materials of two legitimate marketers and consultants.

The alarm bells should be ringing loudly by now. I'm not saying they're doing anything illegal, but all the signals are there that you would do well to explore all other options first.

If LitFire would care to send me a list of the hundreds of titles they've published, and to explain why the materials they send to writers are so full of basic errors, and why their Senior Marketing Consultant thinks it's OK to plagiarize other people's marketing materials, I'll be happy to post their response. 

 

Michael Morpurgo on writing: facts into fiction

This link is to an article in which Michael Morpurgo talks about how he combined elements of several true stories for his book, "An Elephant in the Garden":

- http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Michael-Morpurgo-man-feeds-imaginations/story-23668689-detail/story.html

I think it's interesting that although he could have written a version of the story set in England, he decided to challenge himself by setting it in Dresden. 

The book has been adapted as a one-woman play, which premiered recently in Exeter.

The article includes this advice: 

“It is important that you are passionate about the story. You have to really care. If you are doing it to get rich and famous – forget it. Writing will come to you, but the more research you do the better. There comes a moment when you must sit down and write. It’s in the writing that you find your voice. Once you start, your confidence and self-esteem build with it.”

The "lost" book that sold a million copies

The Independent featured an article (about a book, The Letter for the King, that sold a million copies in the Netherlands, but took more than 40 years to be translated into English. Last week, it appeared on the shortlist for the Marsh Award for the best children's book in translation. A new English "winter edition" comes out next week. 

The way they marketed the English edition is fun: ... leaving more than 100 copies on London Underground trains for people to discover. The books carried a letter for the reader, sealed with wax, with instructions to spread the word via mouth and social media.

Tomorrow, First News, the weekly children's newspaper, is launching a Dragt-inspired letter-writing competition to encourage young readers to engage in an endangered art. The prize: the winner's height in books for his or her school's library.

The author, Tonke Dragt, is 84 and ill.

Her biographer says, ""She really lives in those books as well. You can ask her about the characters and she really knows them like family. If you like stories as much as she does, you almost don't need the real world." ... Tonke is someone who can't throw anything away," she recalls. "Everywhere, there were books and drawings. There were also dolls' houses. When she started a new book, she built a new little house herself so she could really know the way the doors opened, for example."

 

The author also did the illustrations--here is an example:

 

 

Writing in The Guardian, reviewer Phillip Womack: "The book is beautifully constructed and has passages of urgent writing that take their inspiration from fairy tales as well as the Arthurian legend."

The book tells the story of a teen-age boy's knightly quest. Womack concludes: "At the end of the book, a jester tells Tiuri a story about a man who chased a rainbow: 'he realised that what mattered was not the rainbow itself but the search'. And Tiuri's search is gripping, delightful and true." 

 

Don't stop...but maybe change

"You fail only if you stop writing" -- Ray Bradbury

Bradbury never did stop writing, not until he stopped breathing. He gave you the feeling they were pretty much the same thing.

After the 99th rejection or a few particularly frustrating incidents it can be tempting to stop, but one thing I've found helpful is to switch to a different genre or even a totally different type of writing for a while.

I've spent a lot of my career writing scripts but when I got fed up with some of the more aggravating aspects of that, I switched to writing non-fiction books.

Since then I've tried something totally new for me, a young adult novel and a book for kids.

Yes, it's good to focus your efforts because breaking in to any type of writing is a challenge and you don't want to spread yourself too thin. However, as the saying goes, sometimes a change is as good as a rest.

(You'll find great writing advice from Ray Bradbury and many other classic and modern authors in my book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass. It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.)