Week 14 Lab: Writer's Write

The first article I read was titled "What is a Paraprosdokian?". In this article, I learned that a paraprosdokian is a type of sentence that ends in an unexpected way. Typically, a paraprosdokian is used for comedic effect. I learned that while I've made use of paraprosdokians in my humor, it would be interesting to try to learn to use them in my sentences.

Source: Amanda Patterson. "What is A Paraprosdokian?". Writers Write. https://writerswrite.co.za/what-is-a-paraprosdokian/

The second article I read was titled "3 Super Sidekicks & What They do for Your Story". This article focused on how a sidekick is essential to the plot of many good stories, and it also says when to leave sidekicks out. The article focuses on three sidekicks: Doctor Watson (Sherlock Holmes), Samwise (Lord of the Rings), and Obelix (Asterix). The article explains that a sidekick should not be used unless it furthers the plot, but, even then, special attention must be paid when writing a sidekick. The sidekick should help the protagonist or bring out more of the protagonist that would not be visible without someone close with him.
The author makes note that Doctor Watson was particularly effective as a sidekick because his character was so well-developed. Further, Watson also told the story of Sherlock Holmes, giving more insight into Sherlock Holmes as a character without giving away all of Sherlock's secrets.
Samwise was so good as a sidekick because he was so supportive of Frodo throughout the entire series. Without Samwise, Frodo would not have been able to finish his quest. However, J.R.R. Tolkien did an excellent job of not making Samwise into the main character. Samwise also added comedic relief and keep the books relatable to readers.
Obelix was a great sidekick because he was necessary to the comic and was like "the other half" to Asterix. Obelix was strong and sometimes dumb. This caused Obelix to unwittingly mess up Asterix's plans, creating comedy.

Source: Christopher L. Dean. "3 Super Sidekicks & What They Do For Your Story". Writers Write. https://writerswrite.co.za/3-super-sidekicks-what-they-do-for-your-story/

The next article I read was "The 3 Best Tips For Writing Dialogue". Anyone who has read my stories this semester knows I struggle with dialogue. In real life, I'm a simply-spoken person. I prefer to keep my vocabulary simple and understandable, and I do not go on-and-on about anything (unless it is civil engineering related; don't even get me started on concrete...). However, this has sadly leaked into my writing style in a manner such that dialogue stories I write are too straightforward and don't build much plot.
The article stated that the three tips for better dialogue are read, listen, and watch. This article can be summarized rather quickly. First, does your dialogue match the tone your story is trying to set? Don't use wording that wouldn't actually be used in that scenario. Second, it is very important that the character acts like they speak. If a character is speaking something sad, it is useful to show that the character is sad through descriptive wording. The final piece of advice is to never write with an accent. Readers do not want that.

Source: Christopher L. Dean. "The 3 Best Tips For Writing Dialogue". Writers Write. https://writerswrite.co.za/the-3-best-tips-for-writing-dialogue/

An image of dialogue from Public Domain Vectors

Week 4 Lab: TEDEd Videos on Style

General Notes:

This week I've decided to watch videos on creative writing style. I have noticed that I tend to struggle with style while writing stories for Indian Epics class. I think I struggle because I have been trained to write engineering papers - papers with no usage of pronouns, no colorful language, and with an emphasis on relating theory to experimental results instead of using creativity. I'm usually doing at least one lab report a week, so it is hard for me to switch to a creative style and do well. I hoped that watching these videos would help me learn to write in a more creative style.

Notes from Videos:

The Power of Creative Constraints

• Creative constraints are needed to help narrow down what to do
• Imagine trying to invent with no constraints
• Iterative and innovative creativity both exist
• Many discoveries are made on accident while researching another topic

What Makes a Hero

• "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" - book discussing how all heroes are essentially the same character
• The Hero's Journey
• Starts in known world and travels through an unknown world
• Hero's worst fear is then faced
• Crisis - hero's darkest hour
• Treasure - after the crisis the hero somehow claims some treasure
• Result - Monsters bow down or chase out monster
• Return - Hero returns to his world
• New Life - Hero is a new person
• Resolution - All plot lines get straightened out and finished up
• Believed that we follow this type of plot as it mimics human life

How to Build a Fictional World

• Rules are made for a fictional world and the story follows these rules
• Steps to write
• Set a basic setting
• Make a timeline
• What rules exist?
• What kind of government, what do people believe in?
• Retransform entire real world into a fictional world

What "Orwellian" Really Means

• "Orwellian" used to named authoritarianism
• Really means how deceptive language works

What Makes Something "Kafkaesque"?

• Unnecessarily complicated processes
• Characters have circular reasoning that causes problems with work

How to Write Descriptively

• Must use descriptive language to ensnare someone in your imaginative world
• Use all five senses to lay out a really good scene
• Avoid cliches

Beware of Nominalizations

• Nominalization formed when adding -ity, -ition, or -ism to a noun
• Nominalizations can obscure the true meaning of a sentence
• Use verb driven sentences

The Pleasure of Poetic Pattern

• Repetition should be used as much as possible when writing poetry
• Instead of repeating same thing over and over again, repeat sounds within a word
• Assonance - repetition of vowel sounds
• Consonance - repetition of consonants

Final Thoughts

I got some valuable information from some videos, while others did not help me as much. However, videos such as "Beware of Nominalizations" was all about not doing something I've been trained to do in my engineering and science courses and was important for me to understand that this technique is not useful for creative writing. I thought that "What Makes a Hero" was a very interesting video; I had never thought about how all good hero stories have the same basic structure. 

Image of pen and paper from Flickr

Sources

See this video playlist to find all videos discussed in this post.