Was, was, was (some very brief advice about description)
Week four of the workshop I led at my local library focused on description; I actually don't have any notes for you, as we simply had a vigorous discussion on what made descriptions great, read a few excellent passages of description and analyzed them.
Oh, and we and almost tore our hair out doing the following exercise:
Write a descriptive passage without using the word "was."
Yep. That's it. Try it and report back. It's a great way to exercise your writing muscles.
As we discussed afterward, though removing many (perhaps most) of the wases (hmm...weird word to pluralize) will absolutely strengthen your descriptions, removing them all may weaken it. Sometime the best way to say something is the quickest, simplest way, one that won't draw attention. That's where "was" comes in.
(And knowing when you've got it right? That's where critique partners come in.)
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| One thing we discussed was how a good description brings a scene to life by including good sensory details and use of unique, active language: the verbal version of what Caravaggio did in this painting... |
Write a descriptive passage without using the word "was."
Yep. That's it. Try it and report back. It's a great way to exercise your writing muscles.
As we discussed afterward, though removing many (perhaps most) of the wases (hmm...weird word to pluralize) will absolutely strengthen your descriptions, removing them all may weaken it. Sometime the best way to say something is the quickest, simplest way, one that won't draw attention. That's where "was" comes in.
(And knowing when you've got it right? That's where critique partners come in.)
I think that's a great exercise, Faith. During my junior year of high school our English teacher took it a bit further: no verbs of being! NONE! We learned a lot from that... the impact of action verbs and a more appropriate use of is, are, was, were, be, am, been.... At the time we thought he was weird, but in retrospect that week of those exercises acted as a springboard to a much easier time in college English composition and for a few of us professional publication (He would be proud that in the above sentences I only used two verbs of being... unless you count the litany along with the "be" in this parenthetical commentary!).
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of the 'was' challenge!
ReplyDeleteI confess I skip over most descriptive passages because they don't add to my imagination. I love it when the page comes to life and I find it difficult to do solely through description. I try as much to weave it into action. That said, when I am stuck, I resort to the concrete -- description.
ReplyDelete