The fragile beauty of being alive
A collection of beautiful ideas about writing from my curation bucket.
Hey, y’all—
Not a week goes by that I don’t pass on some tidbit or link or book from the inimitable Donald Maass. His writing advice so perfectly illuminates the emotional and moral components that turn a plodding plot into a story with layers of meaning. This isn’t only applicable to literary fiction; this is applicable to story.
So join me in Maass’s thoughtful exploration of how the fragile beauty of life can emerge in any story, as we practice The Writes of Fiction.
The fragile beauty of being alive
“So, let us suppose that in any work of fiction you wish to freeze a protagonist in a moment of pure being. Of being fully present. Of vividly apprehending reality. Of profoundly experiencing beauty, hope or hopelessness. How can you engineer such an effect?
Signal the intent to the reader by making the chosen moment significant. Magnify ordinary details. Load them with meaning for your protagonist.
Because your protagonist is untethered from what is routine, give your protagonist something to do which is out of the ordinary, odd, and quixotic. Create a quest for something seemingly random; something visually real but which, actually and underneath, cannot be bought in a store or found at the end of a road.”—Read the rest from Donald Maass at Writer Unboxed.
More on assimilating beauty into your writing: Copy a fresh page from your mentor’s work. Then make a bullet-point outline of the page with enough detail that you can relate all the major points on your own. Next, list all the things about the writing that make it work well for you. Can you “hear” the author’s voice? Can you spot the narrative and artistic choices? Can you identify the strengths, what makes it successful at making itself heard?
Now turn the original copied text over and attempt to replicate that page of writing as closely as possible. You can use your style and structure notes, but don’t refer to the original text. Don’t try to create your own version; using your memory of the writing’s voice and your notes about what went into it, try to reproduce what the author created.—Read the rest at Develop your writing muscle through imitation