Try This at Home!
1. Write a scene with complete descriptions and full language, telling the reader everything you think she might want to know.
Now rewrite the same scene, using very concise language intended to suggest rather than explain in detail. Weed out every unneeded detail, every unnecessary adjective or adverb.
Read and compare. Which do you think is better? Or are there strengths to both ways of doing it?
2. Reread the short passages listed below. Choose one or two passages, and write passages of your own, imitating the style.
Daniel Keyes"Flowers for Algernon" |
Frederik Pohl Gateway |
Cordwainer Smith "Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons" |
Ursula LeGuin The Left Hand of Darkness |
|
William Gibson Neuromancer |
Theodore Sturgeon More than Human |
Jane Yolen "The Boy Who Drew Unicorns" |
3. Write a scene or a very short story in one of the following formats:
first person / third person
wise old storyteller
newspaper article
diary
lab report
personal letters
cartoon
Other?
Now try writing the same scene in a different format. Can you do it? Or do some formats work only for certain kinds of scenes?
