Writing Tips from Craig Clevenger
I read a couple good essays by Craig Clevenger this weekend on LitReactor: one about descriptions and one about "disembodied action." Some things to remember:
1) It's the "conflict" in a description that's interesting. You don't need to have a laundry list, or as Clevenger describes it, as "fashion catalogue copy," when it comes to describing a character - pick the contrasting details. Contrast or conflict is what makes a person interesting and what turns him/her from a flat, two-dimensional stereotype to a real, complex human being.
A few striking examples from his essay:
“I wear a black suit and tie and a dirty white shirt. The clothes hang loose, as if borrowed.”
–Will Christopher Baer, Kiss Me, Judas
(the contradiction lies in the formal, put-together nature of the black suit, the tie, and the white shirt, and the not-put-together nature of the dirt and the loose fit.)
“I was stirring my brandy with a nail boys,
stirring my brandy with a nail.”
–Tom Waits, Get Behind the Mule
(the sophistication of brandy and the rough, dirty, manual-labor-feel of the nail)
2) When it comes to syntax in describing action, have your character be the source of action unless something is truly out of his/her control - then you can have the action come from elsewhere. The examples Clevenger uses involve a heart pounding or knees buckling - that's out of the character's control, so it makes sense that it's the heart or the knees acting. "My fists clenched" doesn't make as much sense - you want to show your character is angry, not his fists. You should use involuntary action very sparingly so it doesn't lose its impact.
3) Clevenger had an interesting post script on passive voice that I want to include word-for-word; I had professors in grad school that I think were confused about this.
If you check Strunk & White, you will find no reference to the term “passive verb.” Seriously. Check it out for yourself. I’m not kidding when I say “there’s no such thing as a passive verb.” People confuse the above use of being verbs with the real culprit, the passive voice. And the passive voice has nothing to do with the type of verb being used, but everything to do with the who or what is doing the action. The passive voice is a matter ofsyntax, not vocabulary. It happens when the person or thing being verbed assumes the role of subject in a sentence, i.e., your syntax is backward.
The rain hammered down onto Bob.
The subject is rain, the verb is hammered, the object is Bob, receiving the hammering. Hammer, when used as a verb, is by no means passive, but to say, "Bob was hammered on by the rain" is to use the passive voice, no matter how “aggressive” your action verb.
His boss was shot by him.
Passive voice. The verb object assumes role of sentence subject.
He shot his boss.
Active voice.
He had shot his boss through the face—
Active voice with an action verb, but the verb did its business before the current narrative action,
—and now he had nowhere to hide the corpse.
He had shot his boss.
Still active voice, but told in the past perfect.
Ad infinitum. There are no passive verbs, only passive voices. One last thing, Strunk & White says to “avoid” the passive voice, but nowhere is it expressly forbidden. When to make the exception is up to you.
I'm finding LitReactor to be a useful resource - check it out.
1) It's the "conflict" in a description that's interesting. You don't need to have a laundry list, or as Clevenger describes it, as "fashion catalogue copy," when it comes to describing a character - pick the contrasting details. Contrast or conflict is what makes a person interesting and what turns him/her from a flat, two-dimensional stereotype to a real, complex human being.
A few striking examples from his essay:
“I wear a black suit and tie and a dirty white shirt. The clothes hang loose, as if borrowed.”
–Will Christopher Baer, Kiss Me, Judas
(the contradiction lies in the formal, put-together nature of the black suit, the tie, and the white shirt, and the not-put-together nature of the dirt and the loose fit.)
“I was stirring my brandy with a nail boys,
stirring my brandy with a nail.”
–Tom Waits, Get Behind the Mule
(the sophistication of brandy and the rough, dirty, manual-labor-feel of the nail)
2) When it comes to syntax in describing action, have your character be the source of action unless something is truly out of his/her control - then you can have the action come from elsewhere. The examples Clevenger uses involve a heart pounding or knees buckling - that's out of the character's control, so it makes sense that it's the heart or the knees acting. "My fists clenched" doesn't make as much sense - you want to show your character is angry, not his fists. You should use involuntary action very sparingly so it doesn't lose its impact.
3) Clevenger had an interesting post script on passive voice that I want to include word-for-word; I had professors in grad school that I think were confused about this.
If you check Strunk & White, you will find no reference to the term “passive verb.” Seriously. Check it out for yourself. I’m not kidding when I say “there’s no such thing as a passive verb.” People confuse the above use of being verbs with the real culprit, the passive voice. And the passive voice has nothing to do with the type of verb being used, but everything to do with the who or what is doing the action. The passive voice is a matter ofsyntax, not vocabulary. It happens when the person or thing being verbed assumes the role of subject in a sentence, i.e., your syntax is backward.
The rain hammered down onto Bob.
The subject is rain, the verb is hammered, the object is Bob, receiving the hammering. Hammer, when used as a verb, is by no means passive, but to say, "Bob was hammered on by the rain" is to use the passive voice, no matter how “aggressive” your action verb.
His boss was shot by him.
Passive voice. The verb object assumes role of sentence subject.
He shot his boss.
Active voice.
He had shot his boss through the face—
Active voice with an action verb, but the verb did its business before the current narrative action,
—and now he had nowhere to hide the corpse.
He had shot his boss.
Still active voice, but told in the past perfect.
Ad infinitum. There are no passive verbs, only passive voices. One last thing, Strunk & White says to “avoid” the passive voice, but nowhere is it expressly forbidden. When to make the exception is up to you.
I'm finding LitReactor to be a useful resource - check it out.