Stein on Writing Part 18

4. Thou shalt not saw the air with abstractions, for readers, like lovers, are attracted by particularity.

5. Thou shalt not mutter, whisper, blurt, bellow, or scream, for it is the words and not the characterization of the words that must carry their own decibels.

6. Thou shalt infect thy reader with anxiety, stress, and tension, for those conditions that he deplores in life he relishes in fiction.

7. Thy language shall be precise, clear, and bear the wings of angels, for anything less is the province of businessmen and academics and not of writers.

8. Thou shalt have no rest on the sabbath, for thy characters shall live in thy mind and memory now and forever.

9. Thou shalt not forget that dialogue is as a foreign tongue, a semblance of speech and not a record of it, a language in which directness diminishes and obliqueness sings.

10. Above all, thou shalt not vent thy emotions onto the reader, for thy duty is to evoke the reader's emotions, and in that most of all lies the art of the writer.

When you get the good news of a book contract, let me know and share the pleasure.

SOL STEIN.

Action: In fiction, action connotes something happening that is not necessarily physical movement. Adversarial dialogue is action.

Architecture: In the design of a larger work such as a novel, the purposeful order of scenes.

Aria: In any creative form, a longer speech designed to evoke an increasing emotional effect on the reader or viewer. See speechifying.

Backstory: The characters' lives before the story, novel, or film began.

Book doctor: A person who provides a free-lance editorial service to writers for a fee. Book doctors critique book ma.n.u.scripts and shorter material; some do detailed suggestions and line-editing of complete ma.n.u.scripts, services previously supplied by publishers. They charge by the hour or by the nature of the a.s.signment.

Cliche: A hackneyed expression, tired from overuse.

Coincidence: In fiction, something that happens by chance and is insufficiently motivated.

Crucible: In fiction, a situation or locale that holds characters together as their conflict heats up. Their motivation to continue opposing each other is greater than their motivation or ability to escape.

Diction: Choice of words, probably the best identifier of quality in writing.

Eccentricity: An offbeat manner of behavior, dress, or speech peculiar to a person and dissimilar to the same characteristics of most other people.

Echo: In dialogue, an answer that repeats the question.

Engine, Starting of: The moment when the reader's curiosity is so aroused that he will not put the book down or turn to something else. It usually carries an intimation of conflict, a character threatened or wanting something badly that he can't have.

Episodic fiction: A story told in parts in which one event happens after another without seeming to be integrated into the whole.

Flab: Extraneous words, phrases, and sometimes lengthier matter the elimination of which strengthens prose.

Flab Editor: A copyrighted computer software function enabling the user to highlight individual words and hide them or bring them back at will to see the difference their excision makes in the strength of text. See the Software section of Chapter 34.

Flashback: A scene that precedes the time of the present story.

Handle: A short description of the book designed to evoke interest in it.

Immediate scene: A scene that is visible, as if being filmed.

Jargon: Words or expressions developed for use within a group that bar outsiders from readily understanding what is being said. The purpose of language is to communicate or evoke; jargon obfuscates or hides.

Line s.p.a.ce: Four blank lines in a double-s.p.a.ced ma.n.u.script, used within chapters to indicate a break, usually of time, or a s.h.i.+ft to a different location.

LMP: The initials of the Literary Market Place, the directory of the American book publis.h.i.+ng industry, listing book publishers, editorial services, agents, a.s.sociations, events, and industry yellow pages. This huge, expensive directory can be consulted in many public libraries. It is invaluable for the writer whose work is ready for the market.

Marker: An easily identified signal that reveals a character's social or cultural cla.s.s, heredity, or upbringing.

Metaphor: A figure of speech that results when words or phrases are brought together that do not ordinarily belong together, yet by their proximity convey a fresh meaning. One thing is spoken of as if it were another. Some of the best novel t.i.tles are metaphors (e.g., The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter).

Motivation: The source that impels an action, the reason that something is done.

Narrative summary: Offstage action usually conveyed in general terms.

Oblique dialogue: An indirect reply not in line with the preceding speech, not directly responsive.

Omniscient: Describes the point of view in which the author roams everywhere, including the minds of all the characters.

One plus one equals one half: A formula designed to remind writers that conveying the same matter more than once in different words diminishes the effect of what is said. A corollary of this equation is that if the same matter is said in two different ways, either alone has a stronger effect.

Particularity: A precisely observed detail rather than a generality.

Point of view: The perspective from which a scene is written, which character's eyes and mind are witnessing the events.

SASE: Seldom spelled out, it is an abbreviation for "self-addressed stamped envelope." To receive whatever is being offered, you are required to enclose such an envelope with your request or the item or information will not be furnished.

Scene: An integral incident with a beginning and end that in itself is not isolatable as a story. It is visible to the reader or audience as an onstage event, almost always involving dialogue and other action.

Segue: Derived from music, it means to glide as un.o.btrusively as possible into something new.

Showing: Making fiction visible to the reader as if it were happening before his eyes, moment by moment.

Simile: A figure of speech in which two unlike things are compared, linked by "as" or "like" (e.g., "He's fit as a fiddle").

Speech signature: Within dialogue, a tag that is characteristic of the speaker, such as Jay Gatsby's "old sport."

Speechifying: Monologue of one person that runs too long.

Static: Describes a scene lacking visible action or dialogue that moves the story forward.

Suspense: The arousal and sustaining of curiosity as long as possible. Involves antic.i.p.ation and sometimes anxiety about what is going to happen.

Tags: The means by which a speaker is identified, most commonly "he said" or "she said."

Telling: Relating what is happening offstage.

Tension: Delicious moments of anxious uncertainty. Derived from the Latin tendere, meaning "to stretch."

Vanity press: A firm that advertises to writers, offering to publish their books for a fee. Usually the service is that of manufacturing a small edition and providing scant notice to the public that the book is available. A few of America's most prestigious publishers have kept a well-guarded secret: they also publish books under "vanity press" conditions. Consider it a last resort for a book a writer must see in print whatever the cost.

Voice: The author's "voice" is an amalgam of the many factors that distinguish a writer from all other writers. Many authors first find their voice when they have learned to examine each word for its necessity, precision, and clarity, and have become expert in eliminating the extraneous and imprecise from their work. Recognizing an individual author's voice is much like recognizing a person's voice on the telephone.

This glossary Copyright 1993, 1995 by Sol Stein. Reproduction or excerpting without prior written consent prohibited.

1 "The Housebreaker on Shady Hill" has always held a special interest for me because I've lived in that house for more than thirty years. I hasten to add we are not the people in that house. The house on Shady Hill is not the house Johnny Hake lives in. It is the house he steals from in the story.

2 I deal with the s.e.xual politics, outrageous experiments, glories, and shenanigans of this interesting group in a work-in-progress ent.i.tled Pa.s.sing for Normal. Here I concern myself solely with the technique playwrights learned that can be used to advantage by writers of fiction and film.

3 In Afterwords: Novelists on Their Novels, edited by Thomas McCormack, New York, 1988, St. Martin's Press.

4 I urge every writer who wants to improve his sense awareness to study Diane Ackerman's extraordinary book The Natural History of the Senses.

5 As a guide to the probable sources of romantic love, I have recommended to many writers Helen Fisher's

Anatomy of Love.

6 What is it about your character that you like especially? Does that happen to be also a trait of yours? If it is, that may be a symptom of the autobiography trap, creating a character that is too like yourself, which hurts the distance that every author needs from his creations. One way to ameliorate the problem is to give the character a distinctive trait-positive or negative-that you are absolutely sure you don't have.

* If you were about to take your only vacation of the year, how would you feel if your character were going along? You would probably be seeing your character at mealtime and in between, day in and day out for a week or two. Honestly now, would you look forward to that? You are asking your reader to spend a good number of hours with that character. You may need to add some sparkle to your character, some interesting eccentricity, perhaps a personality characteristic that will make his company more enjoyable.

* How well do you understand your character? One way to find out is to imagine that you have just won a lottery jackpot of two million dollars. Your character doesn't know you've been playing Lotto, but he is likely to hear about it on the news. People have mixed feelings about the sudden success of friends. Would it be better for you to tell your character the news yourself? How is your character likely to take the news about your new wealth? Would any of his reactions be useful in making him more interesting?