tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post6925163428379057126..comments2023-12-26T23:07:08.005-08:00Comments on TOMORROWVILLE: Those Dicta: Tension (first in an occasional series)David Isaakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04928598446742324391noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-17115470374570695152008-07-22T14:02:00.000-07:002008-07-22T14:02:00.000-07:00David: Your advice is dead on, and all writers sho...David: Your advice is dead on, and all writers should pay heed. Creative rule-breaking can make for some dazzling writing. And writers should heed Raymond Obstfeld's advice, too. Raymond wrote a few articles for me when I edited <I>Writer's Digest</I> years ago.<BR/><BR/>I don't think you have to pay heed to my bit of advice quoted at the beginning of your post, though. I discovered while writing <I>Everything You Know About English Is Wrong</I> that beginning sentences with commas is not only acceptable, it is <I>common</I>. For those of you interested in an example, <I>this very sentence</I> begins with a comma--and that comma is the phrase "For those of you interested in an example." The first use of the word <I>comma</I> in English was a borrowing from Latin and Greek. A comma was a short phrase, not quite a sentence. (In fact, the OED gives as the definition of Greek <I>comma</I> “a piece cut off,” which might make a good model for people looking to tighten their prose.) The word <I>comma</I> in this definition, tracing back to ancient literature and in use in English by the 1500s, was subsequently transferred to the punctuation symbol that set off the short phrase, the piece cut off.<BR/><BR/>This language never ceases to surprise and fascinate me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-4885223494500166802008-07-15T02:19:00.000-07:002008-07-15T02:19:00.000-07:00Hi, Jen--I would have gone with Man of Great Price...Hi, Jen--<BR/><BR/>I would have gone with Man of Great Price, but obviously he had no sense of humor...David Isaakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04928598446742324391noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-4677020366560300132008-07-15T02:17:00.000-07:002008-07-15T02:17:00.000-07:00Hi, Lorrie--Yeah, pearls actually have more litera...Hi, Lorrie--<BR/><BR/>Yeah, pearls actually have more literary clout than gemstones as a whole.<BR/><BR/>One of my favorite Dorothy Parker quips was when a woman held a door open for Dorothy and said, "Age before beauty..."<BR/><BR/>Dorothy replied, "Yes. And pearls before swine."David Isaakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04928598446742324391noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-38738212779124670312008-07-12T18:21:00.000-07:002008-07-12T18:21:00.000-07:00Lorrie has a point. And a pearl. I worked for a ...Lorrie has a point. And a pearl. I worked for a lawyer once who had a jeweler as a client, and the guy brought by some pearls one day for some reason I've since forgotten. I saw them on his desk and asked if that meant he was a man of great price, or just a constant irritant. I have another job now.Jen Sterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10961079238063675246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-47860474372426075382008-07-12T06:53:00.000-07:002008-07-12T06:53:00.000-07:00Could we have a pearl on every page, because then ...Could we have a pearl on every page, because then even something which starts off as a bit of grit can be cultured into a thing worth reading. Gems are trickey, what you think may be a diamond could turn out to be a bit of cut glass.lorrie porterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01774993612792784563noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-87007571342325098252008-07-08T22:42:00.000-07:002008-07-08T22:42:00.000-07:00Hi, Jen--Oh, sure! The semiprecious gems are often...Hi, Jen--<BR/><BR/>Oh, sure! The semiprecious gems are often prettier than the Big Three anyhow. (Diamonds are mainly DeBeers marketing hype anyhow.) <BR/><BR/>Tsavorite garnet is as nice a green as any emerald, and usually more flawless. (Only problem is that they aren't as hard as they ought to be.) I'm a big fan of bloodstones and watermelon tourmaline.David Isaakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04928598446742324391noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-25507742792293673242008-07-08T22:31:00.000-07:002008-07-08T22:31:00.000-07:00!A gem on every page?Think of that as Spanish. But...!A gem on every page?<BR/>Think of that as Spanish. But it is beautiful, no matter what the language.<BR/>Back to editing my novel.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-48480057090396256702008-07-08T19:39:00.000-07:002008-07-08T19:39:00.000-07:00And here I've been wasting my time with "no more t...And here I've been wasting my time with "no more than one -ly word to a page" when I shoulda just been cramming gems in there. Page one, ruby. Page two, emerald. Page three--does quartz count?Jen Sterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10961079238063675246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-89814942419135820872008-07-08T10:01:00.000-07:002008-07-08T10:01:00.000-07:00Hi, Sam--Brilliant!Now write the rest of the story...Hi, Sam--<BR/><BR/>Brilliant!<BR/><BR/>Now write the rest of the story!David Isaakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04928598446742324391noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-13893143043238010742008-07-08T10:00:00.000-07:002008-07-08T10:00:00.000-07:00Hi, Alis--Yeah, how do you know a gem when you see...Hi, Alis--<BR/><BR/>Yeah, how do you know a gem when you see it? But, of course, that sort of question runs through every aspect of the writing process.<BR/><BR/>I always read Emma's posts, and you're right--tension is really a product of other factors including rhythm and pacing (and stakes, and so on). Which I suppose is one of the reasons it is silly to look for it on every page--it isn't created de novo on a page.<BR/><BR/>As to murdering ones darlings--I generally don't. I think you have to be <I>willing</I> to kill them off in service of the book, but I don't execute them simply because I love them.David Isaakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04928598446742324391noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-87864631596332637382008-07-08T09:49:00.000-07:002008-07-08T09:49:00.000-07:00Hi, Tim--Yep, Raymond's the guy who runs the Ranch...Hi, Tim--<BR/><BR/>Yep, Raymond's the guy who runs the Rancho Mirage Retreat, now in its twenty-somethingth year. He's written so many things in so many genres you can't even track them all. (His advice: "Don't use my career as a model.")<BR/><BR/>You're right--"tension" is usually interpreted as "breathless thriller writing," and it's not a pretty thing.David Isaakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04928598446742324391noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-39472470354115741082008-07-08T09:36:00.000-07:002008-07-08T09:36:00.000-07:00Hi, Janet--Yeah, the "tension on every page" dictu...Hi, Janet--<BR/><BR/>Yeah, the "tension on every page" dictum takes a toll on the writer. <BR/><BR/>Not to mention what it does to the poor reader...David Isaakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04928598446742324391noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-7845170142236537142008-07-08T09:19:00.000-07:002008-07-08T09:19:00.000-07:00, looks up from my corpse and her ees are streamin..., looks up from my corpse and her ees are streaming with elipses. ".! You bastard! How could you?!" She launches herself at . then. Moonwhite fingernails digging for his I's. But the cops on scene catch her and pull her back.<BR/><BR/>Get him! I try to scream, but my corpse refuses to even shudder. Tear his I's out and eat them the way Father ! taught us. <BR/><BR/>I imagine him dying the way I have died, torn page by page. Lonley white leaves on a rainsoaked street.<BR/><BR/>---<BR/>Sorry, I have that same rebellious impulse.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-9307221653206125402008-07-08T08:49:00.000-07:002008-07-08T08:49:00.000-07:00I'd agree, except that the problem with my darling...I'd agree, except that the problem with my darlings tends to be that they're not so much turns of phrase as whole scenes!Alishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18406189984167289987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-2920427341432847712008-07-08T07:18:00.000-07:002008-07-08T07:18:00.000-07:00One of the "rules" I'm always most sceptical about...One of the "rules" I'm always most sceptical about is the whole "murder your darlings" thing. Just because a turn of phrase is felicitous doesn't make it self-indulgent.<BR/><BR/>I'd always err on the side of leaving it in. Let the editor murder your darlings if a slaying really is necessary!Tim Strettonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08598897603628943741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-52523266329999096742008-07-08T07:07:00.000-07:002008-07-08T07:07:00.000-07:00Emma Darwin had a great post about rhythms in nove...Emma Darwin had a great post about rhythms in novels (and other works of art) recently which is indirectly about tension. It's at http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2008/06/dancing-with-bach.htmlAlishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18406189984167289987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-7194099380737549562008-07-08T07:03:00.000-07:002008-07-08T07:03:00.000-07:00A gem on every page - love it. Now we just need to...A gem on every page - love it. Now we just need to make sure that these gems are completely different from the darlings that we are meant to kill... Ho hum, for an eye (ear?) which could tell infallibly what's a gem...Alishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18406189984167289987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-25417025060985483832008-07-08T05:42:00.000-07:002008-07-08T05:42:00.000-07:00I'd never heard of Raymond Obstfeld, so I looked h...I'd never heard of Raymond Obstfeld, so I looked him up.<BR/><BR/>He's the Rancho Mirage man, right? So you were on his retreat in June... he certainly has an impressive publication history!Tim Strettonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08598897603628943741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-60028247341560871802008-07-08T00:57:00.000-07:002008-07-08T00:57:00.000-07:00I think "a gem on every page" is magnificent.The t...I think "a gem on every page" is magnificent.<BR/><BR/>The tension one is so imprecise as to be valueless, and if imperfectly understood tends to the kind of one-paced formulaic "thriller" which is rarely anything of the sort...Tim Strettonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08598897603628943741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371628584376797540.post-81301966180910049272008-07-07T19:03:00.000-07:002008-07-07T19:03:00.000-07:00A gem on every page. I like that too. I've twist...A gem on every page. I like that too. I've twisted myself into a knot or two with the "tension on every page" mantra and had finally redefined it as "tension on almost every page". I think I'll just replace it with Obstfeld's version.Janethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04600030574995481267noreply@blogger.com