Aug 25 2009
Writing Tip: Ask Why It Works
I recently finished reading this book on writing about literature. (Tough slogging at times, and I learned anew how nuts the modern world can be, but I learned plenty.) It’s a guide for university-level students who are studying literature, meant to teach them how to analyze what they’re reading so they can pen intelligent essays about it, whether they’re writing about fiction, drama, poetry, etc.
Much of the authors’ advice boils down to this: Pay attention to your responses while you’re reading. Note your thoughts and feelings as you go. Return to your notes once you’re finished, bringing your overall knowledge of the story to bear, and figure out WHY you responded as you did.
This is excellent advice for a writer. Dig out some of your favourite books. Read them over again, even if only in sections, and think about why you respond the way you do. I just pulled Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time off my shelf, flipped it open to the first page, and read this:
It was a dark and stormy night.
In her attic bedroom Margaret Murry, wrapped in an old patchwork quilt, sat on the foot of her bed and watched the trees tossing in the frenzied lashing of the wind. Behind the trees clouds scudded frantically across the sky. Every few moments the moon ripped through them, creating wraith-like shadows that raced along the ground.
The house shook.
Wrapped in her quilt, Meg shook.
It’s a marvelous opening, but think about it. Does it grab you? Does it create a certain atmosphere or make you feel that certain things are more likely to happen than others? Why? Is it the use of words full of emotion and violence, the moon “ripping” through the clouds and the shadows “racing”? Is it the contrast of Meg, wrapped in a quilt in her attic and thus making a very small figure, with the hugeness and wildness of the world outside? What do YOU think?
Try the same thing with some of your favourite authors. Look for specific things, positive and negative: Does this opening grip me? Is this conversation moving? Have I ceased to care about a character here? Is this scene especially atmospheric? Why is my heart racing at this point in the story? WHY? What is the author doing to call forth this reaction?
In any profession, you’re wise to learn from the best. And the first key to learning is a simple question: “Why?”
