tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30244796385665217062024-02-08T12:21:57.219-05:00Word-WellMichael Serafin-St. Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00222406476906035537noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024479638566521706.post-46050020175920614172008-03-26T12:52:00.000-04:002008-03-26T13:41:00.826-04:00The Three "Rs"---Lesson Two----"Reflection"<span style="font-size:180%;">Rhythm</span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><em>Reflection</em></span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Response</span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">A writer's second consideration, and this week's topic, is </span><em>REFLECTION.</em><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Water reflects the sky, a mirror reflects your image in it, and what is happening? Something which exists is seen from a new angle, from a direction opposed to reality... almost a new reality in itself. No longer in three dimensions, it has been reduced to the plane of a sheet of silvered glass or the dappled surface of a lake or stream. When real objects in the reflection move, the image in the glass or water moves too, but in another dimension, in a way abstracted from the original.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">That is one sense of this second "R" word which is crucial to being a writer of creative work. What a creative writer does, part and parcel, is <em>reflect</em> his world in some new way. It cannot be a rounded-out, whole-hog version of that world, because writing lacks direct imposition to some of our senses. For example, it speaks, but not out loud. Things normally heard, songs and sounds, must be implied or evoked through <em>language.</em> </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Of course all the other senses must be dealt with in the same manner, but for our purposes today, let's just settle on one, SOUND.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Choose for your topic a sound, or series of sounds. Map out a plan. What sound? Where is it coming from? Do we even know? What does that sound signify? Is it a warning? A signal? Just happenstance? What emotion does the sound evoke? Is it loud, soft, shrill, mellow? Can it be described by comparisons or phrases such as "loud as a steam engine" or "quiet as a mouse"?</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Take some careful time FIRST to <em>study </em>your sound. What are its intimate attributes? What makes your sound distinguishable from all others? Is one of its attributes a very high pitch? Perhaps you can emphasize that characteristic by comparing it to others which are very low. Loud/soft? Nearby/faraway? Look for such dichotomies and contrasts and use them.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">A valid exercise is to make lists of such attributes down one side of a piece of paper. List as many as you can, and feel free to transpose contexts. Is a sound "orange" as opposed to "blue"? It can be, if you want to look on it that way. The more complete your list becomes, the more detailed, the easier it will be to write because you have dug up the raw material for your personal REFLECTION.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">For when I do this, that is the heading I mentally put above my lists.... Reflections. And the second sense of the word then comes into play... contemplative thought. What does all this<em> mean?</em> It generally is obvious to me what these words all mean once I have listed them, and the framework for whatever it is I am to write becomes gelled. Not set into stone, naturally, but given depth and body and purpose.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Finally, I take my list and begin starring items and ideas I hope to incorporate into my work, choosing both likely and unlikely "suspects". And for each starred item a create a phrase that suits my fancy, writing it on the page opposite. I make the word or concept into a tangible statement. The left side might merely list the single adjective "loud". The right might flesh that out into "impossibly loud, incredibly earshattering".</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">And then I have begun to write. Take some time to try this yourself, and see. </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span>Michael Serafin-St. Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00222406476906035537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3024479638566521706.post-69928548000526776362008-03-16T08:46:00.000-04:002008-03-16T09:27:14.982-04:00The Three "Rs"---Lesson One----"Rhythm"<span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><em>Rhythm</em></span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Reflection</span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Response</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">This week's assignment involves the first of the three words every writer should consider carefully and include in his or her work as a matter of course, no matter what genre, style or topic is chosen:</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>Rhythm:</em></span> How do the words themselves come off the page? Are they stilted and clumsy, or do they flow like water and oil? What voice is taken...the staccato of surprise, or the lazy glissando of long-accustomed familiarity? Do we skip, hop and jump from thought to thought, like a frog on lily pads, or do we sweep from point to point to point like a dolphin seeking sardines? This is what we mean by <strong>RHYTHM.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">YOUR MISSION:</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Pick a genre to write in (poetry will be fine for this exercise) and:</span><br /><ol><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Establish a rhythm in three lines of verse, and choose a subject (pomegranates?)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Maintain the established rhythm (do not revise the established three lines)</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Complete the work within twenty minutes</span></li></ol><p><span style="font-size:85%;">(You'll note that the choice of subject is secondary to getting that rhythm going...make the words work for you and not in any blind alley of restriction.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Good luck...........have fun............bring back some trophies!</span></p>Michael Serafin-St. Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00222406476906035537noreply@blogger.com2