James Kilpatrick, the political columnist who was parodied by Dan Ackroid in the origianl SNL ("Shana, you ignorant slut!"), also wrote a column devoted to great writing.
He often wrote that you should listen to the sound of your writing. Meaning: does it flow, do the words compliment each other not only in terms of proper definition, but emotion and cadence.
I've sometimes thought that good prose was related to good poetry. It just has that ring to it. (Of course, this may apply more to "literary" than action, mystery, thriller, YA, etc. But still, "it ain't gonna go if it don't have that flow").
What this lengthy preamble is leading to is my observation that a lot of the stuff I've read on some of the writers' forums definitely lacks this quality (and perhaps that's why it's not being published).
I'll read something like:
Marla sat at the kitchen table. The ticking of the clock had become a pounding in her head. She stared blankly through the smudged window. Thoughts of a painful past consumed her. "Why, oh, why had he left me?" she thought.
At that point, I honestly don't give a dang about Marla or why she got dumped. (Maybe the guy dumped her because the talks like that, too.)
Then I pick up something by one of my favorite writers (in this case, Elmore Leonard) and read...
The manager of the hotel and one of his desk clerks were the first to observe the colored man who entered the lobby and dropped his bedroll on the red velvet settee where it seemed he was about to sit down. Bold as brass. A tall, well-built colored man wearing a suit of clothes that looked new and appeared to fit him as though it might possibly be his own and not one handed down to him.
(This is from Hurrah for Capt. Early, a short story about a black hero of The Charge Up San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War--and the racism he overcomes after returning. This is actually the second graph.)
Leonard is not known as a "pretty" or elegant writer. His stuff, especially when it deals with the dregs of Detroit and Miami, is tight and economical. He doesn't employ a lot of literary tricks. He just tells a riveting story that flows from sentence to sentence.
I asked my wife to look at some of my writing. She said, "well, it kind of seems like you're trying too hard." Best criticism I ever got!
He often wrote that you should listen to the sound of your writing. Meaning: does it flow, do the words compliment each other not only in terms of proper definition, but emotion and cadence.
I've sometimes thought that good prose was related to good poetry. It just has that ring to it. (Of course, this may apply more to "literary" than action, mystery, thriller, YA, etc. But still, "it ain't gonna go if it don't have that flow").
What this lengthy preamble is leading to is my observation that a lot of the stuff I've read on some of the writers' forums definitely lacks this quality (and perhaps that's why it's not being published).
I'll read something like:
Marla sat at the kitchen table. The ticking of the clock had become a pounding in her head. She stared blankly through the smudged window. Thoughts of a painful past consumed her. "Why, oh, why had he left me?" she thought.
At that point, I honestly don't give a dang about Marla or why she got dumped. (Maybe the guy dumped her because the talks like that, too.)
Then I pick up something by one of my favorite writers (in this case, Elmore Leonard) and read...
The manager of the hotel and one of his desk clerks were the first to observe the colored man who entered the lobby and dropped his bedroll on the red velvet settee where it seemed he was about to sit down. Bold as brass. A tall, well-built colored man wearing a suit of clothes that looked new and appeared to fit him as though it might possibly be his own and not one handed down to him.
(This is from Hurrah for Capt. Early, a short story about a black hero of The Charge Up San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War--and the racism he overcomes after returning. This is actually the second graph.)
Leonard is not known as a "pretty" or elegant writer. His stuff, especially when it deals with the dregs of Detroit and Miami, is tight and economical. He doesn't employ a lot of literary tricks. He just tells a riveting story that flows from sentence to sentence.
I asked my wife to look at some of my writing. She said, "well, it kind of seems like you're trying too hard." Best criticism I ever got!
I think things can get too pared down for my taste sometimes.