This article is a companion to “Watch Me Edit Prose” Original: Penny’s eyes flashed from Jamie’s scarlet dagger, to his face, then, with an effort of will, to his chest, watching for movement. The dagger had not been scarlet a
Writing a story down is hard, but it’s only half the battle. After drafting comes editing, which is a whole skill on its own. I can’t tell you everything I know about editing, let alone all that could be known.
Stories can have some wild, wild premises. When it comes to the beginning of the story, the catalyst if not the chronological beginning, we’ll accept a coincidence that would break the entire story if it were the hinge of the
Last week we looked at a scene from The Princess Bride. This week we’re going for something a bit more brutal, much less comedic, certainly more gory. This won’t include a review of the movie the scene is from- I
What does a fight scene do, besides the obvious of ‘stop one person, allow another person past,’ tournament style? I could say that I’ll be answering that question, but honestly, it’s too big. Fight scenes come in all shapes, colors,
In a deviation from my preferred modus operandi, I’ll be using the term ‘aesthetics’ under a definition I prefer not to. Whereas I’ve tended to define ‘aesthetic’ as ‘relating to beauty’ or ‘relating to coherence on all levels in reflection
Poetry is well known for its rhythm and its meter, particularly by those who know that not all poetry relies on such. Many an English speaker has fond or at least present memories of childhood rhymes like Mother Goose, traditional
In Part One, we considered the two layers of interpretation (intention and results), their facets, their two modes of interaction (including meta-intent), and the two purist interpretations- to see only the results (death of the author) and to see only
I addressed ‘death of the author’ quite early on in this blog’s career, and frankly, when I reviewed that article a half a year later, I was unimpressed. Thus, today I’ll be returning to the topic, giving what I believe
G.K. Chesterton, as I have already noted, could write some odd stories. In that, he is far from exceptional. What makes Chesterton so intriguing is his mastery in writing those odd stories, that he could take a premise as outrageous