{"id":4327,"date":"2013-09-06T14:24:33","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T18:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=4327"},"modified":"2013-09-06T14:26:12","modified_gmt":"2013-09-06T18:26:12","slug":"writers-on-the-craft-of-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=4327","title":{"rendered":"Writers on the craft of writing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>\n<w:WordDocument>\n<w:View>Normal<\/w:View>\n<w:Zoom>0<\/w:Zoom>\n<w:PunctuationKerning\/>\n<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas\/>\n<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false<\/w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>\n<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false<\/w:IgnoreMixedContent>\n<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false<\/w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>\n<w:Compatibility>\n<w:BreakWrappedTables\/>\n<w:SnapToGridInCell\/>\n<w:WrapTextWithPunct\/>\n<w:UseAsianBreakRules\/>\n<w:DontGrowAutofit\/>\n<w:UseFELayout\/>\n<\/w:Compatibility>\n<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4<\/w:BrowserLevel>\n<\/w:WordDocument>\n<\/xml><![endif]--><\/p>\n<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>\n<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState=\"false\" LatentStyleCount=\"156\">\n<\/w:LatentStyles>\n<\/xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid=\"clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D\" id=ieooui><\/object>\n\n\n\n<style>\nst1\\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }\n<\/style>\n\n<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>\n\n\n\n<style>\n \/* Style Definitions *\/\n table.MsoNormalTable\n\t{mso-style-name:\"Table Normal\";\n\tmso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;\n\tmso-tstyle-colband-size:0;\n\tmso-style-noshow:yes;\n\tmso-style-parent:\"\";\n\tmso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;\n\tmso-para-margin:0cm;\n\tmso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;\n\tmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\n\tfont-size:10.0pt;\n\tfont-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\n\tmso-ansi-language:#0400;\n\tmso-fareast-language:#0400;\n\tmso-bidi-language:#0400;}\n<\/style>\n\n<![endif]--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho';\">\u201cBe daring, take on anything. Don\u2019t labor over little cameo works in which every word is to be perfect. Technique holds a reader from sentence to sentence, but only content will stay in his mind.\u201d <em>\u2013 Joyce Carol Oates<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho';\">\u201cProse should be a long intimacy between strangers with no direct appeal to what both may have known. It should slowly appeal to feelings unexpressed, it should in the end draw tears out of the stone.\u201d <em>\u2013 Henry Green<\/em> <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho';\">\u201cNice writing isn&#8217;t enough. It isn&#8217;t enough to have smooth and pretty language. You have to surprise the reader frequently, you can&#8217;t just be nice all the time. Provoke the reader. Astonish the reader. Writing that has no surprises is as bland as oatmeal. Surprise the reader with the unexpected verb or adjective. Use one startling adjective per page.\u201d <em>\u2013 Anne Bernays<\/em> <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho';\">\u201cI\u2019ve tried to figure out what good writing is. I know it when I read it in other people\u2019s work or my own. The closest I\u2019ve come is that there\u2019s a rhythm to the writing, in the sentence and the paragraph. When the rhythm\u2019s off, it\u2019s hard to read the thing. It\u2019s a lot like music in that sense; there\u2019s an internal rhythm that does the work of reading for you. It almost reads itself. That\u2019s one of the things that\u2019s hard to teach to people. If you don\u2019t hear music, you\u2019re never going to hear it. That internal rhythm in a sentence or a paragraph, that\u2019s the DNA of writing.\u201d <em>\u2013 Sebastian Junger<\/em> <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho';\">\u201cThis sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It\u2019s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals\u2013sounds that say listen to this, it is important.\u201d <em>\u2013 Gary Provost<\/em> <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho';\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho';\">These wonderful thoughts are all from one of our favourite websites: <a title=\"Advice to Writers \" href=\"http:\/\/www.advicetowriters.com\" target=\"_blank\">Advice to Writers <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho';\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cBe daring, take on anything. Don\u2019t labor over little cameo works in which every word is to be perfect. Technique holds a reader from sentence to sentence, but only content will stay in his mind.\u201d \u2013 Joyce Carol Oates \u201cProse should be a long intimacy between strangers with no direct appeal to what both may&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[23,22],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4327"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4329,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327\/revisions\/4329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}