by Wayne Harris-Wyrick - guest contributor
Sometime you may find yourself plodding along on that novel
or article and realize that it lacks sparkle.
What can you do to add zing to your words? Try switching genres.
Prose writing, particularly certain types of articles, is
often dry and pedantic by nature. Or so
it often seems. Even the most detailed
account of how to tune up your car need not overflow with boring
descriptions. Yet readers have an
expectation when they open the book or particular magazine and start to read
your words.
Try this exercise: write the
first chapter of the book or major premise of your article as a poem. Breathe new vibrancy into your work. As Richard Pettinger wrote “A good poem
should be able to lift the reader out of the ordinary and give glimpses of a
more illumining reality, engage the heart of the reader, or offer hope from
seemingly painful experience.” Engage
your reader’s heart, regardless of what you write. Try it as a rhymed poem or an ancient Greek
epic poem. Or perhaps an Elizabeth
Barrett Browning love poem. “How can I
fly faster than light? Let me count the
ways.”
Is your exposition flat?
Are you telling instead of showing?
Try writing the entire piece as a screenplay, allowing only dialogue and
limited descriptions of the characters’ actions. Describe your character’s physical appearance
as if he or she shared a first-time intimacy with a blind person. How would the blind lover later describe your
character to their best friend the next morning? She never saw him, so the description would have
to include only what she could glean: the sound of his voice, the feel of his
skin, or the taste of his lips. She might
relay how he smelled or the texture of his clothes. Remember: this blind person isn’t giving a
fashion report; she is describing a budding love relationship.
Write your science fiction or horror novel as a children’s
picture book. I know, it’s totally
inappropriate for young kids, but that’s not the point. How few words can you use to create your
scene? And imagine the illustrations
that would go with it. Better still,
draw them! Anything you can do to
increase your immersion in your own story will make your words more enjoyable
to your readers.
Write your YA urban fantasy as a newspaper report. A newspaper article must have who, what, when
and where in the first two paragraphs. And
newspaper editors cut from the bottom up when the article is too long to fit
around the ads. That’s why it sometimes
seems as if a newspaper story was cut off in the middle. Write it out, then remove a paragraph or two
and see if it still makes sense. You
certainly don’t want your novel to read like it’s right out of the newspaper,
but by going to the extreme of dry writing you may be able to drain it all out
of your manuscript.
Whatever you write, use to all the instruments of in the
writer’s toolbox. If you aren’t familiar
with all the tools, learn them. Your
readers will thank you for your hard work.
