Joelabel’s Canon

Posted on February 10, 2003 in Writing

I’m putting the last touches on the short story that I am submitting to the writing group tonight and doing my best to be kind as I mark up the papers of the writers who present this week.

I am coming to formulate a personal artistic canon:

• Clichés: Characters other than the narrator can use all the clichés they want. After all, what they say tells something about them. The narrator may use clichés but only if s/he makes them her/his own: they must either be used in a way that opens a new insight into their meaning or they must be turned on their head for a laugh.
  
• Emotions: You may goad a reader into nearly any emotion including despair, sadness, hilarity, joy, fear anger. It is perfectly fine to make a reader terrified of you or so mad that they want to punch you in the nose. But you must never, ever, irritate or bore them.

• Description: Limit your description to the things which tell the reader something about the character.
  
• Vocabulary: It’s OK to use fancy words which help describe, but watch out for academicism.
  
• Imagery: Make images feel like they are there.
  
• Rewrites: Keep rewriting until the last possible moment. Don’t be afraid to go back and fix klunky stuff. The rule that says “cut cut cut” is wrong: many people need to add.
  
• Sentence Length: Try to avoid making sentences that resemble 100-car-long mixed freight trains. Don’t do too much with a sentence. Stick to one idea. Break long sentences into little ones. Watch out for using “and” as a period or comma substitute.

Helpful suggestions welcome.