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Pretty Only Goes So Far



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Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:47 am
Caligula's Launderette says...



Pretty Only Goes So Far

Who me? Yes! Guilty as charged. I find that when I write, I want to describe everything for the reader; everything in beautous, flowery sentences that incapsulate everything, like a painter. Myopia is not my problem. So my words are pretty, rich, and I go to the ends of my mind to find synonyms that sparkle. And this is a bad thing? Unfortunately it can be, because pretty only goes so far. Just because something is pretty, and it has forty dimensions of color doesn't mean it has any depth.

When I was a wee wain, I though the key to writing well was description, especially description of my characters; each time I entered a character, a little jaunt would be conjectured with it, ie. Sara was tall, had short dark hair, etc... Oh how wrong I was. I got so caught up in describing what my characters looked like I forgot about the other things, the other six million dimensions, that had nothing to do with hair, height, piercing blue eyes the color of the the Pacific in summer or that they were wearing the latest pair of Levi's. I forgot things such as character ticks, how they spoke, how they interacted with the character. Most of the time dialogue was still hatching.

Later I found - in my poetry you will see this a lot - that I was cramming as many beautiful words as possible into a piece, turning poem into say a rich chocolate cake. Not that chocolate cake is bad. Chocolate cake is good, very good. But after awhile if you eat too much of the chocolate cake you don't feel so well, you get nauseous, and you have to obstain from it. Lesson learned here, try to bake an angel food cake or some cranberry biscotti once in awhile.

People confuse flowery language with emo razors and blood. I have this joke with my friends, our paradigm of emo is from the movie Constantine; not like I hate the film or anything, I quite like it. Keanu Reeves plays a supernatural detective who literally has been to Hell and back, and towards the end of the film he slits his wrist to kill himself, because the only way he can save the world is to die, or something like that. *mocks slitting wrists* Look! I'm Constantine. I find in my experiences that people feel that if you are writing something dark, and pretty it has to be emo. It doesn't. You can write a scene, or description without pushing the extremities.

Adding depth, have your piece in entirety actually mean something more than just a jumble of words. It's perfectly okay to write something just cause it's sounds pretty, or looks pretty, but if there is nothing beyond the silacone, people will lose interest. Treat it like a living, breathing person- beyond the looks it needs personality, charm, humor, a brain perhaps... So the word is make us, the reader, want to read your piece.

Remember, even if your piece is pretty like a new Bond girl, pretty only goes as far as the knife. Your knife, the knife I will stab you with. *grins* Just kidding, I'm not going to stab you.

Bunch of flowers,
CL.
Last edited by Caligula's Launderette on Tue Sep 26, 2006 8:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Fraser: Stop stealing the blanket.
[Diefenbaker whines]
Fraser: You're an Arctic Wolf, for God's sake.
(Due South)

Hatter: Do I need a reason to help a pretty girl in a very wet dress? (Alice)

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Mon Sep 25, 2006 9:47 am
Myth says...



I was always the opposite. I hated writing description of characters and concentrated more on how they behaved what what kind of language they used.

People confuse flowery language with emo razors and blood.


When I write something too flowery or descriptive my sister reckons my characters are on drugs and highly likely to kill themselves.

As a last note, I hate Bond girls. :wink:
.: ₪ :.

'...'
  





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Mon Sep 25, 2006 11:28 am
Emerson says...



Nice tip! Although I've never had problems with this. At least lately I don't I put my beauty in the voice, and the words I choose but balance it with the darkness of the plot or characters. I'm not sure (You'd have to ask the readers) But I don't think I produce feelings of "emo" :-D

Either way though, good tip! Hopefully someone will get some use out of it, I liked all your comparison's. Me thinking of chocolate cake in the morning is fun...
“It's necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.”
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Mon Sep 25, 2006 6:28 pm
Poor Imp says...



Oy, no emo leanings here. ^_^

...But I've often had too much fun with words to worry about all that was behind them; rather like sleight-of-hand. A game then...yet not always a good story.

Apt advice, CL. ^_^
ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem

"There is adventure in simply being among those we love, and among the things we love -- and beauty, too."
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Tue Sep 26, 2006 5:18 am
Snoink says...



Haha...

Okay. Yeah, I was a little like this, but with a much more limited vocabulary. Because my vocabulary sucks, I would read the dictionary and pick random words from the dictionary that were impressively long. And then I would do my best to incorporate them in my story.

I still do this to some extent. I wanted to use peridot and chauffeur, and I got a chance to in FREAK! Yay!

...but yeah. I'm weird like that.
Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi est.

"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly." ~ Richard Bach

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Tue Sep 26, 2006 8:11 am
Caligula's Launderette says...



As smaur would say, I'm shallow.

*grins*
Fraser: Stop stealing the blanket.
[Diefenbaker whines]
Fraser: You're an Arctic Wolf, for God's sake.
(Due South)

Hatter: Do I need a reason to help a pretty girl in a very wet dress? (Alice)

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Tue Sep 26, 2006 12:49 pm
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Wiggy says...



Snoinkus-that is funny. I might have to try it! *grins*

Cal-Awesome advice! I used to have the exact same problem. But then I realized that 10 adjectives for "flower" could be combined into 1 or 2. Ah, the lessons we learn in life. :D
"I will have to tell you, you have bewitched me body and soul..." --Mr. Darcy, P & P, 2005 movie
"You pierce my soul." --Cpt. Frederick Wentworth

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Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:06 am
Snoink says...



Haha... you really DON'T want to try it. Honest. XD
Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi est.

"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly." ~ Richard Bach

Moth and Myth <- My comic! :D
  








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