Tuesday 10 July 2012

THREE REVELATIONS a fluid metaphor and Unstonehenge


FAKE STONEHENGE
*image from LONDONIST.COM

It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it. ~ Anais Nin

I spent a few minutes in retrospection and it occurred to me that while I’ve been writing I’ve been wading waist-deep in words and constantly snagged by rules. 

Words are fluid like the sea.

In the expanse of words:
     some float on the surface and are easy to reach – constantly in use
     some are deep
     some are frothy  – they look pretty only at first glance
     words change their intensity depending on the light of meaning, and emotional impact.

Rules are nets that try to shape words into rigid forms:
     some are like seawalls – necessary barriers that stop words flooding everywhere.
     like groynes, some rules intrude in and among the words; they are designed to shape our understanding.
     constantly submerged in words, the rules change – eventually; they are worn down by use.

Who says I can’t stretch a metaphor into a simile :D *hahaha

THREE REVELATIONS:

While I have been spending far-too-long thinking about writing, I realised I have learned three important things:

·         No matter what you are writing, the basic material has been used before.

·         It’s how you put the elements together with creativity and flare that creates “voice.”
And voice is the only thing that is unique.

·         You can be positively inspired by something that has been done before.

WHAT HAVE YOU REALISED ABOUT WRITING?

6 comments:

  1. "Voice" is one of those abstract concepts people like to throw around, but then what they really want is for everyone to write in first-person present-tense with a white sixteen-year-old girl narrator. Maybe I'm exaggerating. Sometimes it feels like not by much.

    Anyway, every book sounds about the same to me when I read it because it's MY voice in my head when I'm reading. I mean I don't even know you, let alone what you sound like.

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    1. Hi PT
      Rock you with I don't think such a thing as voice exists.

      I think it does.

      When I'm writing I'd love to be able to whisper - I don't think it comes out that way.

      Both openings are MG:

      He wasn't looking he was sitting with his eyes wide open.
      It was early. The sun was bright enough to send fingers of shadows up the wall but not warm enough to chase Jack’s chill away.

      I stopped crawling. The space under the bush was dark. Parting the branches, I peered out and held my breath and waited. I curled smaller, pulled at my navy cardigan until it covered my white school shirt. Outside, there were giggles and snapping from the dried twigs that littering the ground. Inside, my heart beat drummed come-get-me. Behind me, something shushed and it wasn’t the wind blowing through the leaves.

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  2. Love the metaphors and the fake stonehenge

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    1. Hi Madeline
      The Fake Stonehenge is spectacular. I'm glad you enjoyed my musings on writing. I think I got a bit carried away on the tide of... ;)

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  3. Enjoyed this post. I am editing at the moment and your sentence, "What we are familiar with we cease to see," caught my eye. Good to meeet you.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Suzanne
      Thanks for the follow :D
      I've been scribing in pen and regretting having to type it all again after. It's the one bad habit I love.

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