Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Creative Paragraphing

finished CH 49 again; word count 87,042

Writing Tip: In fiction, we can get away with re-writing some of the rules, some of the time. Not all the time, even though poet e.e. cummings did banish capital letters in his work. Sentence fragments are something that fiction writers can get away with. Again! only if they don't over do it.
So what is creative paragraphing? You may have already picked up the idea that it is breaking some rule. Right! To add emphasis, the sentences are listed instead of running along back to back.
This is The Grawl thinking:

So where were the statues? Where was their protector? The castle? The island? The mine?

But this is the same stream of questions in creative paragraphing:

So where were the statues? Where was their protector?
The castle?
The island?
The mine?

3 comments:

  1. "Don't overdo it."

    Tis just what I needed; I tend towards using a moderately overboard amount of sentence fragments when writing from one character's point of view and weaving in his/her thought stream.^_^

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  2. I have often wondered that when I read books!! I always guessed just what you said, true authors can take liberties with their writing.

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  3. There are three rules to writing a great novel.Unfortunitely, no one knows what they are...
    See, there are very few rules that can't be broken in moderation.

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