Beauty in the Breakdown: Editing Description

When autumn arrives, I go into academic mode. Blame all those years of school when fall not only meant new things to wear, but new things to learn. With this concept in mind, we'll start September with the first installment of a series called Beauty in the Breakdown. It will cover how to edit various aspects of a story, starting with description, dialogue, narrative and scene.

Since these elements are common, we often take them for granted and don't make each word count, because we can still get by without each word saying exactly what we mean. Yet, it's increasingly important to be selective about what to keep and discard, because in this competitive environment more people are writing, but not everyone is writing well. So, here are reasons to perfect your craft: to distinguish yourself from other writers, learn about writing through your work, hone your editing senses, and improve your style and technique.

The best time to edit—whether it's description, dialogue or narrative—is after giving the work a rest. If you're editing your own work, paper is still a great way to see your writing from an outsider's perspective, as is reading it somewhere besides where you normally write. It's also important to look back over a section after you've finished the next. This provides a perspective you wouldn't have otherwise. While editing, slow down so that you can see—and hear—the words and phrases.

One of the commonest facets of fiction and nonfiction is description. Whether you're describing a place, an event or a character, description is everywhere, so much so that we often fail to view it critically. And a critical perspective, in the constructive sense, is key. If you catch your missteps, your work will be more highly regarded and more publishable. Description is important, too, because through your portrayal, you're asking the reader to trust you, and today more than ever that's a tall order. Still, trust is essential, and a writer must prove worthy of it. Look for more on editing description in the next post.

For a free online editing workshop, visit my website Adele Annesi.

Essential Conversations on Creativity: Style With Peter Selgin

Author, artist, writer and teacher Peter Selgin, Winner of the 2007 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction and author of 179 Ways to Save a Novel, a must-read for all writers, shares his insights on that all-important element of writing — style.

AA: It could be said of writers that we are what we read. But how does a writer select, develop and assimilate style?

PS: I think it's so important for writers to find their own, unique influences. I myself have done this by combing the stacks and shelves of libraries and used book stores. The best-seller lists I avoid, since their influence is everywhere. The same goes for the classics, though it's important to have read the classics, if only to know where you fit into the 4,000 year-old conversation known as literature.

My method goes something like this: I scan the shelves for spines that intrigue me—either with their titles, just because something about their shape or even the color or texture calls out to me. Those books I pull from the shelves and open to their first pages while trying not to read any cover matter or learn the name of the publisher, or anything else that might in some way bias my response to the actual writing. I read the first paragraph. If I like it, I read a few more. Since I can only allow myself so many books to borrow or buy, I exercise very strict standards in choosing.

By this means, I've discovered some of my all-time favorite books and authors, including Emmanuel Bove, whose now thoroughly forgotten first novel My Friends begins:

"When I wake up, my mouth is open. My teeth are furry: it would be better to brush them in the evening, but I am never brave enough. Tears have dried at the corners of my eyes. My shoulders do not hurt any more. Some stiff hair covers my forehead. I spread my fingers and push it back. It is no good: like the pages of a new book it springs up and tumbles over my eyes again."

And Hans Falada's The Drinker, which starts out:

"Of course I have not always been a drunkard. Indeed it is not very long since I first took to drink."

And The Dreams of Reason, by Xavier Domingo:

Seventh year of the war for independence in Algeria. Seventh year of living in Paris. Seven years of sleepwalking from urinal to urinal. Seven years of unconsciousness, of being half asleep and idiotic and happy. They are not seven years in hell, no, nor seven years in purgatory. They are seven years in limbo. Innocent, stupid, and cruel. Like a cat or a small boy.

You see why I've wanted to make these authors mine? Anyway, the great books that we discover entirely on our own are the ones that form us the most, the forgotten ones, the ones no one else is reading, the ones we bond with most meaningfully, whereas anyone can read the bestsellers.

AA: What's the difference between style and voice?

PS: A writer's style covers all of his work, while he may alter his narrative voice from project to project to suit each one. Voice is subordinate to style.

Also editor of Alimentum literary magazine, Peter is the author of Drowning Lessons  and Life Goes to the Movies. To learn more about his books and classes, visit Peter Selgin and the essential blog Your First Page.

Conversations on Creativity: Architettura Viva

Angeloni's studio in Castelvecchio

Our discussion on creativity includes a conversation with Milan-based architect Maurizio Angeloni. Here's his take on inspiration and legacy.

AA: How would you like your work to be remembered?

MA: I would like for the result of my efforts to remain as a testimony to my work as "un'architettura viva," a living structure, not a monument, per se, but a place where people can actually live their daily lives.

AA: Whose work do you find most inspiring?

MA: As to the architecture I most admire, I'd have to say that home on a waterfall, Falling Water seems to me an optimal testimony left by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Creativity: The Harmony of Form and Function

In keeping with our theme of conversations on creativity, we've expanded our discussion to include other disciplines. This week we spoke with Milan-based architect Maurizio Angeloni for his take on inspiration and creativity.

AA: Where do you get ideas for your work, and how do you incorporate originality?

MA: In occupying myself with architecture and the work I do, I get inspiration from the very area for which I'm creating the plans and drawings, from the actual form of the land, the morphology, paying close attention to what has been build around it, even in times past in that location. In other words, from the characteristics of the architectural traditions of the region.

AA: Italy is a place with a lot of old and new construction, to say the least. How do you deal with the contrast?

MA: What really spurs me on are the other, less obvious constructions in the area, even those that are old and unused. Regardless of why they were created, I see in their form the possibility of reuse and adaptability for the current needs.

The Saving of a Vacation: 179 Ways and More

Most people would kill for a trip to Italy, but with family and other concerns, this year's visit was less than stellar for us. Still, there were bright spots, most notably revising my novel from my cousin's architecture studio overlooking ripening grain fields of the March region and the Adriatic, and reading 179 Ways to Save a Novel, by Peter Selgin.

The pastoral setting between the sea and the foothills of the Apennines was perfect for seeing problems with the text of the novel that I probably wouldn't have caught in more familiar surroundings. But even if you're not on vacation, check out this helpful book at Amazon.

It's a great help, whether you're working on a novel, short fiction or even nonfiction. Also check out Peter's new blog, Your First Page. Billed as a place to submit for free the first 350 words of your novel, it can be beneficial for other works, too, since many of the same principles apply.

Ciao, e a presto!

Learning the Inner Story, With Mary Carroll Moore: A Journey from Nonfiction to Novels

Mary Carroll Moore is an award-winning author, novelist, artist and teacher whose work has appeared over 200 publications. Her latest novel is Qualities of Light. Mary has a particular gift for helping writers find the emotional truth in their work to make it the best it can be. This week, she shares insights on transitions and the writing life.

AMA: What aspects of writing do you find most exciting, especially going from one genre to another?

MCM: An exciting aspect of the writing life, to me, is the option of skating into a new genre. I used to think my twelve years as a newspaper columnist, my twelve nonfiction books, would create a smooth transition to fiction. Was I ever wrong.

AMA: How did you transition from nonfiction to fiction?

MCM: I started writing short stories 10 years ago. Not so distant in form from a compact and focused newspaper column, the short story also has a beginning, middle, and end. But that's where the similarities stop. Not knowing this, I outlined a couple of story ideas, turned on the creative imagination, and waited for miracles. But my characters were flat as if they'd emerged from badly written sitcoms. They moved, they faced conflict, but essentially the story had no meaning. There was more to learning this new genre than I expected.

For more information, visit Mary Carroll Moore and her insightful blog, How to Plan, Write and Develop a Book.

For one the most well-known writing challenges, also visit National Novel Writing Month One, voted one of Writer's Digest's 101 best writing websites.

For information on the seventh-annual CAPA University writers' conference on May 8 in Hartford, CT, visit CAPA-U for more information. Keynote speakers are doctors Henry Lee and Jerry Labriola on "Writing True Crime."

Inspiration: Capturing the Emotion

A writer's inspiration has boundless sources, everything from dreams to doing laundry. What makes the difference is how that inspiration gets put to use.

Poet Doris Henderson, author of What Gets Lost, talks about her inspiration and how she uses it. Note the eloquent language of her explanations.

AA: What inspires you as a poet, and how do you put that to use?

DH: Dreams are a wonderful source of inspiration. A woman is drowning, and calling my name. I can't see her in the evening dusk. The water is terribly cold. I strain, I wait, then suddenly the calling stops, and I am alone. "Would you have plunged into that icy water if you had seen her, just glimpsed her? Would she have pulled you under? You walk away, and no one calls your name." It's not necessary to recall every detail of the dream. And you can change portions of it to make the story more effective. The important thing is how the dream made you feel. This is what you try to recapture.

AA: Is there a way to hone the ability to put inspiration to use?

DH: There is the "free write." Write in a notebook every day for ten minutes or so. Write quickly, whatever comes to mind. Do not censor yourself! You will discover thoughts and feelings you didn't know you had: "I wish to be a mountain lion in my next life. A lazy one." These pages can be a source of new poems, or they can just be "warm-up" exercises. Either way, you get the creative juices flowing. It may take many revisions to refine the poem, but the kernel of it is there.

Visit Doris Henderson at Antrim House Books. Also visit the Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, for ways to develop your creativity. Also visit The Connecticut Poetry Society.

Inspiration and Ideas: A Poet's Take

Prolific poet Doris Henderson, author of the poetry collection What Gets Lost, has been published in various literary journals and anthologies. She also has three chapbooks: Transformations, Leaving the Plaza and Distances. This week, she discusses the role and sources of inspiration in writing.

AA: What's the role of inspiration in poetry?

DH: Inspiration in writing — certainly it plays a major role. Poets don't plan their work by figuring it out logically ahead of time. It has to be spontaneous, at least in the first draft. Sometimes it comes from memories — moments from childhood, recollections of one's relatives. I see my grandfather sitting with his visiting "little sister," drinking homemade elderberry wine and reminiscing about their past life in Italy, by the hour, completely transported, as though their present life didn't exist at all.

AA: Poets often an original perspective and approach to writing? Where does that come from?

DH: Another approach is to have a different "take," or point of view, on an ordinary experience, like pulling weeds, and it suddenly occurs to you that we are intruding on their territory, not the other way around. What are they thinking? "In June the heather weed and Queen Anne's lace blow their heady fumes. They long to put us all to sleep for just a century or two, with all the engines rusting in the field, sweet William, tiny buttercups sprouting from broken hub caps, wild grass over the dirt-blown roadway, sunflowers over the plate glass windows at the mall..."

Visit Doris Henderson at Antrim House Books. Also visit the Academy of American Poets for more information on this creative genre.

Wrong or Write: Adventures in Imaginative Writing

Writer, blogger and satirist Lauren Salkin blows open the doors of traditional thoughts on writing and the writing life. Today, she posts on imagination.

"Sometimes there are regrets after I realize the word I deleted, and can't undo, actually fit the phrase perfectly. If only words were like a pair of shoes to put on and get a sense of how they feel in motion. It's hard when words lie like dead weights on the page, with no personality or color. Though, colorful red or green words hurt my eyes and are distracting on the page. It is the way in which the words flow that makes them colorful. And that is a very good reason for tap, tap, tapping the keys. I enjoy hearing the clicking sound. It means that something is happening right below my nose. Somehow, my lips and chin are involved but only through proximity."

"Sound is good for writing, as long as it is comforting and not annoying like the dry cleaning bags. Often when I write I can't see what lands on the page until I look at the monitor. Like dry cleaning bags, writing can also be surprising, especially when a word appears like gobbledygook. Sometimes, I supervise the progression of words and stare at the white rectangle that is supposed to simulate a page. I can make words appear or go away, like an old blouse that hangs in the dark, scary part of the closet with seasonally incorrect clothes. Sometimes, my mind is dark and scary. But, I need to go there at times to air out my thoughts with the tap, tap, tapping of keys. That's why I write, to right the wrong."

For more musings from the gravitational pull of the mind, visit Lauren's blog, Think Spin.

Re-Vision and the Cold Light of Reason

Meet multiple award-winning nurse poet Cortney Davis. Also the poetry editor for Alimentum literary journal, Cortney has authored Leopold’s Maneuvers and a number of poetry books. Her latest book is a series of essays, entitled The Heart's Truth: Essays on the Art of Nursing.

An active and working caregiver, Cortney finds joy in the revision process of writing.

AA: Give us a sense of your writing process.

CD: I find that, at least for me, the writing process is one part inspiration, one part making-my-self-sit-down-and-do-it, and two parts revision. I've discovered over the years that I really don't like to write—until I get into it.

AA: That's an honest appraisal. Take us through the process after the initial idea.

CD: I might have an idea or an inspiration, a vague and amorphous "something" following me around, but until I make myself sit at my desk and get to work, that inspiration goes nowhere (and can so easily be lost). And I can find plenty of excuses not to get to my desk: plants to water, bills to pay, floors to sweep, phone calls to return. But when I finally do get to writing—perhaps hours or even days later—-hen the creative process takes over and I'm in another world. Hours may go by, but it seems as if time stands still.

AA: What happens in the next stage?

CD: Once that initial "blob" of writing has been done, once I have a rough draft or two of a poem or an essay printed out, I must let that initial work rest for several days. If I try to revise or edit too soon, I can kill any piece of writing. It's as if that initial creative burst, that fire, has to have time to cool before I can sift through the embers.

AA: That's an important point. We've all ruined work by going back too soon. What happens then?

CD: A few days or a week later, I can return and, in the cold light of reason and craft, re-vision the original work and make it better. Although I drag myself kicking and screaming to the initial writing process, I love to revise. There is nothing better than spending time re-reading, re-thinking, going deeper, looking at sounds and words and sense and taking that initial raw inspiration and turning it into something that goes beyond the first impulse, beyond the self.

AA: Nathalie Goldberg mentions "re-visioning" as well. What happens when you hit a dry spell? Or do you hit dry spells?

CD: Alas, I'm a slow writer; sometimes there are no inspirations, and so I must force myself to sit and stare at the empty page until something happens. There are plenty of times that an idea might arrive, but it falls apart in my hands or I can't do it justice. Rarely, very rarely, the urge to write is so strong and compelling, and a poem comes so rapidly, that it takes my breath away. Those are the shining moments every writer lives for. But, usually, my creative process is a plodding one.

AA: What's your advice to writers in general?

CD: Do the work; let it rest; look again and revise, all the while hoping that all my years of trudging have taught me something: to do the work even when I find it difficult, to have the patience to wait, and to trust that mysterious inner voice that shapes the final product.

Visit Cortney at Cortney Davis