Elmore Leonard: 10 Rules of Writing.

1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per  100,000 words of prose.

6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

Daily Devices: Periphrasis.

The term ‘periphrasis’ refers to a writer's intentional use of excessive language and surplus words to convey a meaning that could otherwise be constructed with fewer words and more direct. The use of this device can be to exaggerate a sentence, to create a grander effect, to beat around the bush and to draw attention away from the core of the sentence's purpose

I'm eating an elongated yellow fruit for lunch today.

In the above example; "I'm eating an elongated yellow fruit for lunch today", becomes "I'm eating a banana for lunch" in its simplest form.

Instead of simply saying “I am displeased with your behavior”, a furious teacher might say, “the manner in which you have conducted yourself in my presence of late has caused me to feel uncomfortable and has resulted in my feeling disgruntled and disappointed with you”. I'm sure we've all had one of those teachers who spoke using periphrasis twenty four hours a day.

Creative Exercise: Abandon Sobriety.

"Write drunk, edit sober."

- Ernest Hemingway.

Poetic Forms: Clerihew.

Clerihews are generally short and precise in their form, with a focus on amusing the reader. These poems are simple in their construction and can be very fun to write. The name comes from Edmund Clerihew Bentley, who established the form as a teenager.

Clerihews are four lines long and have an AABB rhyme scheme. They are about a specific person, and the second line must rhyme with the person's name. This is where they make for good fun between friends. Clerihews are meant to be funny, even silly. There are no restrictions concerning rhythm or number of syllables.

An Example:
  
There once lived a hobbit named Frodo
Whose stature resembled that of a dodo
He liked to wander, get dirty, and sing
But when he took baths, he always left a Ring.

I found this cute nod to Tolkien's character Frodo on the internet, author unknown; however, I had to add it because it sparked my interest in clerihews again.

Daily Devices: Onomatopoeia.

Onomatopoeia is defined as a word, which imitates the natural sounds of a thing. It's that simple but can be used to great effect by talented writers. It creates a sound effect that mimics the thing described, making the description more expressive and interesting.

For example, “The gushing stream flows in the forest” is a more meaningful description than simply saying, “The stream flows in the forest.” The reader is drawn to hear the sound of gushing water which makes the expression more effective.
 

In addition to the sound they represent, many onomatopoeic words have developed meanings of their own. For example, “whisper” not only represents the sound of people talking quietly, but also describes the action of people talking quietly.

Generally, words are used to tell what is happening. Onomatopoeia, on the other hand, helps the readers to hear the sounds the words they reflect. Hence, the reader cannot help but enter the world created by the poet with the aid of these words. Animal sounds are great; Meow, Moo, Neigh, Tweet, Oink or Baa, all muster the image of their corresponding animal.

The beauty of onomatopoeic words lies in the fact that they are bound to have an effect on the readers’ senses whether they are understood or not. Moreover, a simple plain expression does not have the same emphatic effect that conveys an idea powerfully to the readers. The use of onomatopoeic words helps create emphasis.

What's the Difference?

What is the difference between a metaphor and a simile? Aren't they basically the same? While I'm afraid not. The terms metaphor and simile are slung around as if they meant exactly the same thing and as writers we need to know or craft inside and out.

A simile is a metaphor, but not all metaphors are similes. Metaphor is the broader term.

In a literary sense metaphor is a rhetorical device that transfers the sense or aspects of one word to another. For example: The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.

In the above example, the moon is being compared to a sailing ship. The clouds are being compared to ocean waves. This is an apt comparison because sometimes banks of clouds shuttling past the moon cause the moon to appear to be moving and roiling clouds resemble churning water.

A simile is a type of metaphor in which the comparison is made with the use of the word like or its equivalent. For example: My love is like a red, red rose.

This simile conveys some of the attributes of a rose to a woman: ruddy complexion, velvety skin, and fragrant scent.

Some metaphors are apt. Some are not. The conscientious writer strives to come up with fresh metaphors.

A common fault of writing is to mix metaphors.

A general during World War II was reputed to having mixed the metaphor don’t burn your bridges, meaning “Don’t alienate people who have been useful to you,” with don’t cross that bridge before you come to it, meaning “Don’t worry about what might happen until it happens” to create the mixed metaphor: Don’t burn your bridges before you come to them.

Many metaphors are used so often that they have become cliché. We use them in speech, but the careful writer avoids them: hungry as a horse, as big as a house, hard as nails, as good as gold.
Some metaphors have been used so frequently as to lose their metaphorical qualities altogether. These are “dead metaphors.”

In a sense, all language is metaphor because words are simply labels for things that exist in the world. We call something “a table” because we have to call it something, but the word is not the thing it names.

A simile is only one of dozens of specific types of metaphor.

Creative Exercise: Warm Bath.

 

"For homework…drink a glass of cognac in a bathtub."
- Professor Sean Garrity.

Daily Devices: Allegory.

Allegory: a symbolism device in which an abstract idea is given a form of characters, actions or events. Usually a rhetoric device, an allegory suggests a meaning via metaphoric examples. This can be used by writers as a top down approach to writing and is often chosen to shed light on darker themes with the use of personified characters.

Examples of stories that make use of allegory:

• Animal Farm by George Orwell.
• The Rabbits by John Marsden.
• The Lord of the Flies by William Golding.  

Example: George Orwell’s book Animal Farm.

Using the actions of animals on a farm to represent the overthrow of the last of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II and the Communist Revolution of Russia before WW II. Orwell uses allegory to expose the greed and corruption of the Revolution.

Daily Devices: Personification.

Personification: is often used and a commonly recognized literary device used in a third grade classroom. It refers to the practice of attaching human traits and characteristics to an inanimate object, phenomena or animal.

When employing personification, the writer should keep a few things in mind in order to convey the message that they want without confusing their readers. A writer needs to think about what kind of emotions and meanings they want to convey when using personification and whether or not those thoughts are appropriate to the description of the object. There is no point referring to an owl as wise unless it is going to do something intelligent. Without the follow up actions that the personification conveys the statement, “the wise owl” is simply a cliché. Good writers use personification to give their writing life and to connect with their readers. Personification helps to relate ideas by giving inanimate objects human qualities, allowing an author to convey his meaning more effectively.

Example: “The Captain recalled that the winds were angry that day, the storm had murderous intentions.”

Daily Devices: Diction.

Diction: the term used to describe a distinctive tone or mood set by an author’s writing techniques. Diction is not just a writer's choice of words but can include the atmosphere, assertiveness, dialogue and style of writing. Diction is the mark of quality writing, usually judged by the prevailing standards of proper writing and speech of current trends. It is also understood as the selection of certain words or phrases that become standard features employed by a particular writer.

Example: Writers working in the fantasy genre may employ archaic terms such as ‘thy’, ‘thee’ and ‘wherefore’ to imbue a Shakespearean mood to their story. George R. R. Martin creates his own terms like ‘Ser’ and ‘Maester’ that allude to fantasy origans but hold a unique place in his world.

Daily Devices: Cacophony.

Cacophony: is a device that uses words and phrases that suggest tough, coarse sounds within the phrase. These words give sentences a jarring and harsh sound that can create a disturbing off-putting atmosphere. It can also be used to imply a sudden or abrupt halt in your story.

Example: Her fingers rapped and pounded the counter, and her foot thumped against the floor in frustration.

Daily Devices: Hyperbaton.

Hyperbaton: a literary device employed by writers who alter the regular positioning of words and phrases in order to create a inversely structured sentence that conveys the same meaning. Through the use of hyperbaton, words or phrases transgress their conventional placements and result in a more complex or intriguing sentence structure. This literary device can be used to add more complexity and flare to your sentence structure. Hyperbaton is what makes Yoda’s deep philosophical quotes so memorable and it can be used to create your own quirky characters.

Example: “Together they drove along the dusty, outback roads”. This sentence is a variation of the more conventional, “They drove along on the dusty, outback roads”. In the example, we see how the first sentences sounds more interesting compared to the standard second sentences.

3 Tips Towards Better Dialogue.

Good quality dialogue can bring a character to life, it can convey their true feelings and help develop the story. Writing good dialogue is a skill that must be practiced but also an art that will require your own passions, thoughts and flare to truly flourish. Below are three tips that will improve your writing simply by making you aware of your own writing habits. 

#3 The Overuse or Underuse of Dialogue Tags.

Dialogue tags are like signposts, attributing written dialogue to characters. Their primary purpose is to show which characters speak and when. The frequency and positioning of dialogue tags become more important as the number of characters involved in a scene increases. Some examples are of dialogue tags are:

• She said.
• He asked.
• They answered together.
• Carl yelled.
• Susan joked.

The simplest tags are often most appropriate – readers scarcely notice the use of said and except to register who’s speaking. It is important to use an appropriate tag; for example, using the tag “Susan joked” after the character just told an amusing witticism is redundant – “Susan jokes” would be more appropriately used after the character had playfully mocked a friend. The rule of thumb is to stick with said or basic dialogue tags like asked, answered and depending on your genre an occasional screamed or whispered.

#2 Writing too Formal.

You may be fine spoken member of the grammar society; however, your characters will not always be like you. It is important to know when you can break the rules of English in your writing and the easiest place to do so is in between speech marks.

If your character is from South America, a lowly street urchin or a pirate they will likely speak very differently to your own internal voice. They say things like:

• “Me and Jack went to the movies,” said the young boy.
• “I an’t never seen no ‘gator dat big in me life,” said Guss.
• “Run’na shot’across the bow before we sink, ye scurvy dogs!” called the Captain.

There may be times when you want a character to speak in a precise, correct manner – that will give readers cleat insight into the type of character in your book

#1 Having Every Character Sound the Same.

This can be a similar problem as being too formal. Writings often listen to their internal voice and if you write all of your characters like your internal voice they will all end up sounding the same. It helps to listen to how other people speak; grandparents speak very differently than their grandchildren.

For each of your characters, you should think about any habitual phrases they may use. You won’t want to overuse these, but they can be a useful way to cue the reader that a particular character is speaking. What words they don’t use? This again relates back to formal writing. Perhaps a particular character never swears, maybe they tend to avoid long or complicated words, how expressive they are – or how outspoken they are. Some characters have a way with words; others don’t say much, or say it awkwardly when they do. See if you can identify a little quirk or habit in your friends or family’s speech.

Daily Devices: Alliteration.

Alliteration: a literary device where carefully selected words beginning with letters of the same sound group are chained together in a sentence. This can be either a specific vowel group or a consonant sound. A successful alliteration is achieved by creating a repetition of similar sounds in your sentence. The most common recognised example of alliterations is when the words all begin with the same letter. Alliterations can be used to add character to your writing, to give speed or flare to a particular sentence and often to bolster a spirit of ‘fun’ for the reader. Alliteration can help you invent wonderful and exciting character names; from Peter Pan to the Wicked Witch of the West.

 

Example: Daniel’s dog dove deep in the dam, drinking dirty water as he ducked below.

Content to Follow

The Internet is a boundless ocean of knowledge and you have docked at a modest island called The Creative Writing Compendium. Here you will find tips and advice to improve your writing technique. I too have spent a long time at sea, looking for the best places to hone my skills and instead have build my own tropical paradise. Feel free to taste the fruits that will grow here as I share what I have gathered and cultivated over the years.

You need only bring your love for reading and writing.