"Beautiful" Prose

[E.CaimanSands]

wotf018 Not I...

...said everyone

Lol, agreed.

Oops, even Gator is hiding under the couch.

It's ok Gator dear, it's only a photo.

Has it gone yet?

Yes, we're on the next page.

[liz]

Um, eeeek!



Did someone say SPAM?

I'm baa-aack.

Sorry, couldn't resist

To the Gator: You could totally take this beast.

[E.CaimanSands]

To the Gator: You could totally take this beast.

Noooo! Don't make me do it!

Poor Gator. It's most unlike her to feel intimidated.

[LDWriter2]

Um, eeeek!



Did someone say SPAM?

I'm baa-aack.

Sorry, couldn't resist

To the Gator: You could totally take this beast.

I think the one they captured that weighed a ton or was two, is even bigger. Out of the water it looked fat.

[LDWriter2]

i know this thread is quiet now, but . . .

in peter greenaway's the pillow book, one of the calligraphers says:

"the word for smoke should look like smoke; the word for rain should look like rain."

he is talking about chinese characters, but i always think of it in relation to writing. the plot is the drawing; the prose is the coloring, the nuance, the shading. how you write it, for me (and i know i am in the uberminority here), is as important as what you write. i can read a well-written book with an ehh plot and finish it, but i can't read a poorly written book, because then i can't see the plot for the bad mechanics obscuring it. a reminder of the necessity of good editors, yet fewer and fewer publishers are willing to pay for them.

the pace of the language can do as much to build suspense as the words themselves; a sonorous, or a jangling, description shapes my apprehension of a location as much as the actual adjectives being used. you can use a formal style to underscore, say, a repressive regime and its effects on people; you can use a poetic meter to carry readers through a particularly painful scene and leave them with a sense of perseverance, even hope, without actually saying it.

the last readings which i found interesting for style were catherynne valente's silently and very fast and the hilary mantel duo, wolf hall and bring up the bodies. the valente is gorgeous and sweeping and takes the time to balance character, image, and plot all through the prose. i'm overdue to revisit it, but it felt at once poetic and muscular . . . and it told a story in upwards of, oh, 15,000 words? that other folks would have told in 5,000. and thank goodness she does. on the other end of the spectrum, the mantels funnel an enormous amount of english history into a compressed voice that just barely keeps her vast chessboard in play. it's a tremendous balancing act, and it falters in a few spots, but it goes like stink . . . and considering how far we are from the tudor era, it's got something to offer for sheer worldbuilding, even if you're not into the so-called "litfic"-ness of it.

I think you have a point. About the comparison of Chinese writing and storytelling anyway.

[E.CaimanSands]

Um, eeeek!



Did someone say SPAM?

I'm baa-aack.

Sorry, couldn't resist

To the Gator: You could totally take this beast.

I think the one they captured that weighed a ton or was two, is even bigger. Out of the water it looked fat.

That was obviously because it had just eaten.

I'm not sure we want to know that, Gator.

[LDWriter2]

Okay two links here one to a series of pics of the gator and one to an article about the capture.


Some are of other large gators so pick out the ones with the largest one.

Google pics


National Geographic article

story listing

[E.CaimanSands]

Okay two links here one to a series of pics of the gator and one to an article about the capture.


Some are of other large gators so pick out the ones with the largest one.

Google pics


National Geographic article

story listing

Few of these gators look happy and free, despite the grins.

[LDWriter2]

Some like the big fat one are going to a park, not a zoo...if I recall correctly from the article.


But I saw an article about an alligator they picked up in Detroit for vagrancy. It was just hanging around an empty field.

Are you sure Gator is around????

Or did she hop a boat over here?


If she shows up on my doorstep I'll slap her on the nose(With an iron bar)...how she would know my address though I'll never tell.

[E.CaimanSands]

Some like the big fat one are going to a park, not a zoo...if I recall correctly from the article.


But I saw an article about an alligator they picked up in Detroit for vagrancy. It was just hanging around an empty field.

Are you sure Gator is around????

Or did she hop a boat over here?


If she shows up on my doorstep I'll slap her on the nose(With an iron bar)...how she would know my address though I'll never tell.

Pleased to hear those gators are going to a good home. I suppose that's the problem if you are over-large and over-friendly, you turn into a "nuisance alligator."

Gator isn't very large, and she's still here, sniffing around the Christmas tree, trying to find that fishy smell... There really is a strange smell in the vicinity of the tree, too. Not sure what it is... Mouldy dog biscuit maybe.

[LDWriter2]

Pleased to hear those gators are going to a good home. I suppose that's the problem if you are over-large and over-friendly, you turn into a "nuisance alligator."

Gator isn't very large, and she's still here, sniffing around the Christmas tree, trying to find that fishy smell... There really is a strange smell in the vicinity of the tree, too. Not sure what it is... Mouldy dog biscuit maybe.

Have you changed the water lately?


We've had that problem a time or two but this year the tree is sucking up all the water...my wife forgot about that little detail when she wanted a real tree this year.

And yes the smelly water was before we got the fake tree.

[E.CaimanSands]

My tree is plastic.

[boydcobb]

why? Is writing prose that difficult that making a beatiful one is hard?

[LDWriter2]

Has to do with how you do it and if it takes away from the story.


Beautiful sentences does not equal good story telling. Well, sometimes it can but it can also make the story dry or distract the reader.


Someone else might say it better.

[Kary English]

Brad Beaulieu. I'm in the middle of The Winds of Khalakavo, and it's gorgeous. It also struck me that he writes like I do (but better).

And he writes omni! I think I feel a writer crush coming on.