The Uniqueness of You
By Therese Walsh | February 16, 2010 |
Before I landed an agent and publishing deal, I read something on a well-regarded writerly website about similes. I think the advice went something like this: You shouldn’t have more than two similes in your entire story because they can be distracting. I did a quick check of The Last Will of Moira Leahy and found two similes in the first paragraph. And I liked them. A lot. Unpubbed writers have to take care with advice and learn to listen to gut instinct. I decided to reject the cautions and leave my similes. I’m glad I did. Similes are something that help define me as a writer. They’re also how I often make sense of the world.
I spoke with a friend of mine recently about her story. She’s big on color. There will always be splashes of red or blue or orange or yellow in scenes depicting either violence or passion or domestic angst or just plain silly happenings. Color as theme is something she hones in on in life; it snags her attention and captivates her imagination. Reading her work means seeing things through the lens she uses daily, and I think it sounds fascinating.
Some authors write detail amazingly well — down to the pores of skin, the grain of a wood — while others blur details, only focus on the ones they consider most important to the story.
Some see life through a veil of irony. Their stories may be dark, witty, smart.
Some are action-oriented, driving their story fast and fearlessly from one event to the next, while others linger in the introspective in-between.
All of these approaches can be good, brilliant even, when you allow the unique way you see, hear, smell and in all other ways perceive the world to come through in your writing. Consider our own Barbara Samuel who even lets us taste story–rich soups, flaky biscuits, the zest of life. It’s what she loves, and that’s why it’s on the page.
How do your perceptions affect your writing? What does your writerly fingerprint look like?
Photo courtesy Flickr’s chrischappelear
Therese Walsh (she/her) co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006 and is the site’s editorial director. She was the editor of WU’s only book, Author in Progress, and runs the Writer Unboxed UnConference.
Her second novel, The Moon Sisters, received starred reviews and was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and Book Riot.
Learn more about Therese on her website, and sign up for her newsletter to be among the first to hear about any new projects.
This is a great post and something I think about constantly. As a novice writer who is a little shaky on her feet, when I get nervous or doubtful I tend to re-devour writing books and advice. And then, I angst. “Uh oh, there’s an -ly word in that sentence. But, who cares? That’s not as bad as the four metaphors on pages 7-8! Strike that! My whole novel is lame. This guy says 3rd person multi-POV is overdone! Waaahhhhh.”
I am still trying to figure out what my “writerly fingerprint” is all about. So even though I love all the writing advice, I think I need to try and ignore it – at least for the time being.
.-= Rebecca @ Diary of a Virgin Novelist´s last blog ..That’s not how it happened, Isabel Allende! =-.
This post is close to topic I often think about. I am not yet sure of my writerly fingerprints. I suppose through my writing, I am still discovering exactly how I look at the world. Sometimes my voice is clear and cut, and I can see it. But at other times, I am not so sure. So it’s an ongoing process, and hopefully eventually a rewarding one.
.-= Dolly´s last blog ..Guest Post by Adam Slade – On Editing Experience =-.
Just what I needed to hear, just when I needed to hear it.
Love you guys.
I don’t know if I can yet see my “writerly fingerprint”, but I do know that there’s a big difference between a “writerly fingerprint” and a writer’s tics, and it’s important to play the former up, but eliminate the latter! Also not to confuse the two. My overuse of the word “just” is not a fingerprint, it’s an evil awful tic. A crutch.
So even though I may not be able to name my fingerprint yet, I think you’re absolutely right that you have to trust your judgment on things like that — things that are a matter of taste and preference, not absolute rights/wrongs.
And personally I’m glad you stuck by your similes. I read the excerpt of Moira Leahy and really enjoyed it! The book should be coming soon via Amazon, right after all this ridiculous snow clears…
.-= Kristan´s last blog ..In it for the long haul =-.
How true: your point about being careful not to take every advice as if it were carved in stone. Writing as a craft has its general ideas about what is good and what isn’t. But writing as an art form has to answer to higher criteria, which are much more difficult to describe. And it’s up to each writer to hone their craft and heighten their sense of what makes art: and than make the decisions for each work.
In life, I am very attuned to sounds and smells, but in writing, I find I am much more interested in finding out what the characters think and what motivates them. My writing tends to explore the inner workings, the conflicts, the assumptions, the confusion, much more.
.-= Yat-Yee´s last blog ..Grab-A-Line Monday =-.
Having been a visual artist before becoming a writer I do detail, color, light in my character’s world. Once, I read that one should only use one adjective for each noun, and sometimes none. I went through one of my stories and deleted, deleted. When I finished and read the result, the story felt dead to me. I’d cut all the things I love about life. Painting a scene, I’d say is my fingerprint. Nice article. Thanks for sharing. I’m going to follow you. :)
Sometimes you can capture two or three dimensions (sight, taste, sound etc) in one good similie than in a whole sheaf of exposition. I’m always trying to inject sounds for some reason, dunno why. I guess that’s my imprint.
Great post! Lots to mull here.
Can’t. Stop. Looking. at the pretty picture! I LOVE that swirl of colors :-)
I think the important thing to do is know the “rules” well enough to know which ones are breakable when you get to them in your own writing.
Personally, I’m big on describing scents in my writing. I don’t overdo it, but I probably do it more than most. And I love reading them in scenes… There’s something about imagining the smell of something that just zaps me right into the story.
I’m glad you said that about similes. I avoid them like the plague because I feel like that can sound forced, BUT if done well, they’re like the perfect icing on an already decadent cake. (ha, I didn’t intend to write one there.) I stick to metaphors.
I have lofty goals for my new wip — I want light to play such an important role that it’s almost like another character. As someone who tends not to describe things much, it will be tricky.
.-= Melanie´s last blog ..Another "Last" and a Beginning =-.
I am in such a twiddle about how I do it, that reading this post has sort of calmed me down. Writerly fingerprint? sometimes what I write makes me happy, sometimes it bores the f’ing pants off me. I am near the end of 1st draft of WIP, and motoring. The first 25k landed me an agent. She liked my ‘voice’. O dear not really calm at all…..
I love metaphor. I love it in music, I love it in movies, I love it in books.
Even beyond the simile, which I like, too, metaphor makes me giddy. When I discover some everyday thing in my life could be a metaphor for a deeper idea (and OH, JOY! when it works for my WIP!), I can spend a lot of time studying it and perfecting the transfer from my brain to paper.
I also enjoy reading through a first draft and realizing I’ve “accidentally” created a theme using objects or settings, etc. Far better than if I’d planned it.
On that two-simile thing — I’m reading A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore. She often uses two similes in the same sentence. And she’s a celebrated literary writer, right? The key is doing it well, I think.
.-= Julie Kibler´s last blog ..Buried Under White Piles =-.
I think this is a very good post. There is a lot of writing advice out there and it could be very easy to lose your style in everyones preferences.
I’m not sure what exactly my fingerprint looks like. I’ll have to read some of my own stuff to figure that out.
Excellent post,Therese. Whether writing myself or reading someone elses work, I LOVE both simile and metaphor. They have the power to bring abundant life to the ordinary. Well done and my writing comes to life.
http://www.barbaraforteabate.com
I’m not visual at all. I’m ear-oriented, and I enjoy the sounds of words and nuances of meaning. I love comments that imply more than they say. I’m writing a first novel (YA) and my teen characters are a bunch of smart-asses.
-Steve
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