Post #30 – Women’s Memoirs, Writing Prompt – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
By Promptly Portland
WORDS
Just Words
but, more than words
especially when we string them together into a sentence
Last week, I wrote about a focus on words — short words, long words, ordinary words, extraordinary words. I hope you tried the exercise and are ready for Part 2. (If you didn’t have time and want to go back, here’s the link.)
Actually, one of our readers, Janet Riehl, figured out what was on my mind. Yes, the length of individual words has an impact on the complexity of our writing. But the next level of use of the word tool comes into play with a memoirist creates sentences. Want to create a breathless pace? Use a series of short sentences. The reader flies through a moment, an hour, a day, even a year with you. Want the reader to linger with you as your lazily sit by a meandering brook? Try extending the length of your sentences. Let them meander along with the brook.
If we think about music, there are fast passages and slow passages. Similarly, words create a tempo for the reader and the memoirist controls this by varying the length of the sentences.
When writing that all important first draft, some sentences will be short and some will extend over multiple lines. It isn’t as if you write them all the same and then need to begin to vary the length. Instead, when editing, one considers the desired impact on the reader and deliberately adds to or subtracts from sentences in order to create a pacing, a mood, an effect.
500 Words (or More) Writing Prompt:
1. Find a paragraph in a memoir that is particularly vivid for you. Analyze it: Count the number of sentences. Count the number of words in each sentence. Do several long sentences follow each other? Are short sentences used to create an impact?
2. Now, rewrite the paragraph. Try making a long sentence short. Make a short sentence long. You can do this by combining sentences or by cutting some in half. How do the changes alter the impact, the rhythm of the story? Which do you like better?
3. Try this exercise with one of your own paragraphs. Combine any two adjacent short sentences. Take all your longer sentences and turn each into two sentence. Read aloud your original version. Read aloud the revised version. In what ways does the length of the sentences change the impact of your story?
4. Go back to your original paragraph that you chose for #3. Read it aloud again. Do you want the read to speed through it? Does it have one most important sentence? Can you stop the reader or have her linger on a detail in the paragraph? Try various effects with everything from a one word sentence to a multi-line sentence. Then read again out loud. Realize that the words in your sentences give you control over the flow or pacing of your story just as a musician works with everything from a whole note to a 64th note to create the effect she wants to create.
5. I know this is a long exercise. Even if you don’t have time for #1-#4 above, try this: What can you convey in a short sentence? (Stop. Yes. No.) Short sentences can often convey an immediate reaction, an emotion. What can you convey in a long sentence? For example, it provides a platform for rich sensory detail. Write what you think might be an effective short sentence. Write what you think might be an effective long sentence.
Until next time,
Promptly Portland
memoir writing prompt
writing tips
craft of memoir
memoir writing
writing
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I love the parallelism about how to use both words and sentences as part of the writer’s crafting toolbox.
“If we think about music, there are fast passages and slow passages. Similarly, words create a tempo for the reader and the memoirist controls this by varying the length of the sentences.”
Naturally, I am enraptured by your comparison of writing to music. For multi-creative types and for those of us who love synesthesia, and interdisciplinary influences, this is pure gold.
The Pre-Raphaelites loved synesthesia as a way to intensify and overlap sensual word cues.
My mission on Riehlife is to create connections through the arts and across cultures. To connect music to writing is brilliantly helpful. This makes us aware of the music of language and how constant the creative process is across media.
Indeed, such merging is at the heart of our modern multi-media in technology–that has, in fact rolled over into dance performances in the form of movement, sound, and visual imagery projected behind the dancers.
Thanks for this intriguing post and helpful exercise to improve our writing craft.
Janet Riehl
Hi Janet:
Thanks for your comment and elaboration on Promptly Portland’s writing prompt. Your creativity, your “connections through the arts and across cultures” enriches all of us.
-Matilda
Hi Janet:
Separately you asked about our RSS feed. If you sign up in the top box in the middle column, you’ll get our weekly digest of blog posts. We used to send it out daily, but many people felt that was too much. Of course, you’re welcome to check in daily, as you do. We appreciate your interesting comments.
-Matilda