Random Babble

[kethni]

I'm starting my first assignment for my Lit course today. I had a look at the forum with the intention of joining in but was scared off by the people who have already had plays performed and poems published. (Why're you doing this course exactly peeps?)

I'm not actually sure what's expected of a writing assignment except there seems to be a lot of emphasis of descriptions of the senses. I have read the text books sensory descriptions, they made me wince. Isn't there enough purple prose in the world without encouraging more?

I did not write this, I'm merely quoting from my text book:

'I described a young lad, drenched by the rain, entering a new, grown-up world - a barber's shop - for the first time. After deciding against 'soaked to the skin' and several similies that seemed to me either too familiar or too odd ('drowned rat' 'dripping leaf') I wrote that he 'flapped through the red, white and blue fly strips like a grounded fish'. I think this way the verb worked as hard as the similie.'

Maybe it's me, but have MUCH rather she'd written 'drenched by the rain' or 'soaked to the skin'. If I'd come across a description of someone flapping like a grounded fish I'd have thought they were struggling to breathe, not wet through. It just seems so laboured you know? I prefer writing that doesn't jump up and down going 'Look at me! Look how clever I am!' I think that's one problem I have with some poetry, it's so incredibly self-conscious about being poetry.

So, yeah. Hmm.

On the plus side I'm really finding 'clustering' helpful. That's sort of free association for fic ideas and characters. I've done it for a couple of story ideas and got some really interesting results.

I've also done some haikus. Nothing as much fun as the chocolate cake one though :P


Cat crouching down low
Spies a something moving
Pounce! Catches her tail.

Crisp air, sharp and cold
Blue skies in the early
Moonlight I write by

The wind blows, leaves scurry,
Long grass wavers but stands tall
And the cat runs away

Brown eyes dark and round
Made to frown far too much
Happiness eludes.

Crackers and blue cheese
Pleasant fare in the sunshine
Need a cup of tea.

Dear beloved kitty,
Leaves on the path invite not
Your urination.

 

Comments

[hanuueshe.livejournal.com]

To be fair, getting poems published is one of the things that can happen to you by accident. And then you still need the lit course, because you often don't know what you did right or how it worked or anything.

Purple prose. :( Yeah flapping fish =! wet in my book either.

[kethni.livejournal.com]

You can publish by accident? I didn't know that.

[hanuueshe.livejournal.com]

Don't ask me how, but this happened to me as a twelve-year-old. I just got a letter saying "Congradulations, you win. Your poem will be in our next book. Do you want a copy or six?" Which was the best thing to happen to me as a twelve-year-old to be honest.

It might have just been something my school does, though, because it happened to another one of my classmates.

[boudecia7.livejournal.com]

Hee! The haikus are awesome.

And yeah, that description was in no way an improvement over the original. I actually DO like sensory descriptions but you've got to be careful not to waste too much space or be so clever that you cut yourself, you know? That grounded fish simile belongs on a bad!fic site. :-O

[kethni.livejournal.com]

I quite enjoy hiakus :looks furtive:

I'm working on the sensory descriptions although I challenge anyone to sit in a room and honestly find three things they can taste. Without licking the furniture at least. I must admit three smells involved giving Tangelo quite a surprise and taking the top off the deoderant...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who found the grounded fish similie hard work. It made me :S

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

it's not just you! drenched or soaked, something simple that would work just fine (totes got the fish gasping for breath image, too!)
i hate it when writers use 15 words to say what they could have done in 5

[kethni.livejournal.com]

Oh good! That's a relief, I was wondering if I was just not getting it. The same woman wrote the whole text book so I'm sure there will be other head spinners to cope with.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

ugh, but at least you can have sporking it!