Thursday, May 16, 2019
Words With Impact: Draw Poetry Techniques Into Fiction Clichés
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.” John F. Kennedy
Here we continue to look more intently at the language we
use on a day-to-day basis and examine ways to enhance it. It’s amazing how
often we speak in clichés and obviously we try to avoid them in our
writing—both fiction and non-fiction. We sometimes forget, though, that often
clichés came into being because of their unique and fresh way of perspective.
Although we’re focusing on poetry techniques in these next
exercises, the ability to capture a poetic eye freshens all our writing—across
styles and across genres. Vignettes also require this type of insight due to
the sparseness of length.
Non-fiction pieces are also brought alive with poetic images
and metaphors. Here’s another excerpt from an essay by Patricia Hampl in “I Could Tell You Stories.” Note how her
description combined with simile draw us to share her experience.
“The stranger’s
remark, launched in the dark of the Greyhound, floated across the human
landscape like the lingering tone of a struck bell from village church, and
joined all the silence that ever was, as I turned my face to the window where
the world was rushing by along the slow river.”
Action Steps:
Practice Clichés
1. Take well-known clichés and
shift them around. Make a list of as many common ones that you can think of and
then crisscross them just for fun. Some will be hilarious and ridiculous. And
some might spark a new phrase.
Example. “Flat as a pancake, good
as gold” becomes flat as gold, good as a pancake.
2. This is really entertaining in
a small group of writers and rather surprising at some of the images that can
come to the surface.
3. Practice shifting old concepts
around until they become new and fresh.
Share: Choose one or two of your favorites. Why—funny or
serious?
Read deep, marcy
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