A topic ripe for tackling while Sun glides through Gemini is: writing. Good writing is an art, a craft and a skill. I do not pretend to be an authority, nor can I claim anything more than a modest level of competence in stringing the odd blog post together, and that'd be on a good day - but I do recognise good advice.
Simplicity and economy are key to good wrting. Astrologically those attributes relate to....let's see....Virgo, Capricorn, Saturn, with Mercury, the writer's planet overall. My natal Mercury is in Capricorn, I'm relying on that as credential enough for holding forth on this topic.
In a favourite book The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, the Strunkian half of that duo had this to say:
Strunk was born 0n 1 July 1869 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Natal Mercury was in last degree of Gemini (its sign of rulership) and, what pleased me most, a Yod linking Cancer Sun and Jupiter Taurus by sextile then by two quincunx aspects to Saturn - putting economical Saturn at the business end of the Yod, symbolically channeling energies of his Sun and Jupiter through economical Saturn.
Another book, picked up secondhand recently, The Miracle of Language(1991) by Richard Lederer, has further advice on simplicity/economy in writing in a chapter titled The Case for Short Words :
Keeping this post economically brief, a last note to highlight first lines of some well-known novels, illustrating how brevity can pay dividends :
Call me Ishmael. —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851).
Elmer Gantry was drunk. —Sinclair Lewis, Elmer Gantry (1927).
It was a pleasure to burn. —Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953).
It was love at first sight. —Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (1961).
All this happened, more or less. —Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969).
A screaming comes across the sky. —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow (1973).
It was like so, but wasn't. —Richard Powers, Galatea 2.2 (1995).
Simplicity and economy are key to good wrting. Astrologically those attributes relate to....let's see....Virgo, Capricorn, Saturn, with Mercury, the writer's planet overall. My natal Mercury is in Capricorn, I'm relying on that as credential enough for holding forth on this topic.
In a favourite book The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, the Strunkian half of that duo had this to say:
"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."
Strunk was born 0n 1 July 1869 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Natal Mercury was in last degree of Gemini (its sign of rulership) and, what pleased me most, a Yod linking Cancer Sun and Jupiter Taurus by sextile then by two quincunx aspects to Saturn - putting economical Saturn at the business end of the Yod, symbolically channeling energies of his Sun and Jupiter through economical Saturn.Another book, picked up secondhand recently, The Miracle of Language(1991) by Richard Lederer, has further advice on simplicity/economy in writing in a chapter titled The Case for Short Words :
When you speak and write, there is no law that says you have to use big words. Short words are as good as long ones, and short, old words - like sun and grass and home - are best of all. A lot of small words, more than you might think, can meet your needs with a strength, grace and charm that large words do not have.
Big words can make the way dark for those who read what you write and hear what you say. Small words cast their clear light on big things - night and day, love and hate, war and peace, life and death. Big words at times seem strange to the eye and the ear and the mind and the heart. Small words are the ones we seem to have known from the time we were born, like the hearth fire that warms the home.
Short words are bright like sparks that glow in the night, prompt like the dawn that greets the day, sharp like the blade of a knife, hot like salt tears that scald the cheek, quick like moths that flit from flame to flame, and terse like the dart and sting of a bee.
Here is a sound rule: Use small, old words where you can. If a long word says just what you want to say, do not fear to use it. But know that our tongue is rich in crisp, brisk, swift, short words..........
The title of this chapter and four paragraphs that you have just read are wrought entirely of words of one syllable.........
Keeping this post economically brief, a last note to highlight first lines of some well-known novels, illustrating how brevity can pay dividends :
Call me Ishmael. —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851).
Elmer Gantry was drunk. —Sinclair Lewis, Elmer Gantry (1927).
It was a pleasure to burn. —Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953).
It was love at first sight. —Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (1961).
All this happened, more or less. —Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969).
A screaming comes across the sky. —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow (1973).
It was like so, but wasn't. —Richard Powers, Galatea 2.2 (1995).
"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."
ReplyDeleteThat's so part of the time and depending on the type of writing. It all depends on what you are trying to do too. In fictional writing, quite often you need to string it out to slow the action and create a long time frame within a few words.
I like to use this and then conceal the action within it. So it will be a long thing about love or whatever and suddenly a missile takes out the person saying it.
Short choppy phrases and dialogue speed it all up.
Sometimes it's necessary just to give chapter and verse and that's tedious but scholarship demands it, for gravitas.
The trouble with blogging is that most just want the short, pithy line, just as they only want the slam-dunk in basketball. The educated tend to like the slow build, like experienced lovers.
James Higham ~~ Yes, I agree that one set of rules can never fit every situation, but basic good practice remains at the core of written material, whatever genre or style.
ReplyDeleteWhat you're describing has rough equivalence in art too.
Photo realists paint in the Strunkian mode - easy to understand, easy on the eye. Impressionists, modernists and abstract artists use their lines and colours to produce atmosphere, hints and emotions - as in the kind of fiction writing you mention.
Horses for courses - but rider must still sit squarely on the horse to retain credibility.
:-)