Showing posts with label Anne of Green Gables. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anne of Green Gables. Show all posts

Friday, May 30, 2014

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night ...

I recently finished reading the classic book "Wrinkle in Time" with my eight-year-old. It begins with the famous—and much maligned—line, "It was a dark and stormy night ..."

Writers look down on this opening phrase as being "obvious" and "too moody." It has been the butt of jokes from "Throw Momma from the Train" to Peanuts comics. But I'd like to write a brief defense of Madelaine L'Engle's linguistic choice as well as take a look at what makes descriptions work ... or not work.

L'Engle's phrase, at its most basic, does, indeed, set a tone for the book. And it describes the intensity that the character Meg feels. It also foreshadows the "dark"/sinister beings the characters will encounter, as well as the darkness through which the characters travel during their cross-planetary adventure. So I think that mentioning a "dark night" is thematic and relevant to L'Engle's whole book; she writes it as a fight between love and "the dark."

So what about the complaint that to describe night as dark is too obvious? I would argue that there are all kinds of nights. There are nights that seem like a faint orange hue hangs between the greenness of piled snow and heavy-set clouds. There are purple nights. There are also cold bright nights when the sky is clear and the moon shines like a shadeless pendant bulb.

And yes, there are stormy nights when the darkness seems to swallow up every detail out of reach, as though a cocoon of black velvet envelopes you: a dark and stormy night.

But these days, readers want more than that. We expect writers to paint with words in a more extraordinary way.

On the other hand, overly long or beatific descriptions are considered passé: Flip to almost any page in the classic "Anne of Green Gables" series and you'll find paragraphs of detail like: "a veritable apple-bearing tree, here in the very midst of pines and beeches ... all white with blossom. It's loaded [with apples]—tawny as russets but with a dusky red cheek. Most wild seedlings are green and uninviting."

While most of us still appreciate (and even love) L.M. Montgomery's lengthy stylistic descriptions for its time, these days such florid language is considered "purple prose."

Needless to say, descriptions can make or break even the best concepts and plots. Writers need not only to be gifted storytellers, but word makers and image creators of a new bent.

One author who excels in this is Mark Zusack. Consider some of these images from "The Book Thief":

  • a short grin was smiled in Papa's spoon
  • one [book] was delivered by a soft, yellow-dressed afternoon
  • empty hat-stand trees
  • the gun clipped a hole in the night
  • the summer of '39 was in a hurry
  • the smell of friendship
  • [the] crackling sound ... was kinetic humans, flowing, charging up
Zusak has an uncanny ability to describe. A grin is offered up as if it is a picture from a film director's storyboard. A sound is described using imagery. A feeling is described as a scent. Ideas are personified and people are chemicals.

So think well when you are describing. Go over your story and take the time to find new ways to bring imagery to your reader. And keep it somewhere between "purple" and "dark and stormy."

Do you have a favorite metaphor or simile? Share it below!

Friday, February 14, 2014

A Valentine to My Favorite Kid Lit

Feb. 14, '14
Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is a perfect day to begin as a UCW blogger, because I love children's books!

Seemingly simple stories of children's lit are filled with mixtures of classic archetypes, whimsy, the joy of the ridiculous, and commentary on social structure, even while often under the guise of short sentences or rhyming verse. MG and YA categories often tackle the most difficult social and emotional issues head on—more so than adult novels, I'd argue. (And life is really just high school played out less openly, right?)

As a writer I often go back to my favorite children's books to review how that author dealt with arc, character, setting, or language. When I'm knee deep in writing my own story it helps me to go back to the classics. I re-read and ask myself, 'What unique characteristics make this book timeless and how can I bring that to my own work?'

Here's a Valentine to my Favorites:

Winnie the Pooh and House at Pooh Corner - A. A. Milne
Milne is a master of character and social commentary. Yes, we all know the Disney version, but have you actually read the original Winnie the Pooh? My fave is House at Pooh Corner, but you just can't have one without the other. (Having enjoyed the recent UCW post on audiobooks, I should say that the Peter Dennis readings of these—available on iTunes—are excellent. And Dennis is the only person authorized by the Milnes to do public readings, so that's saying something.)

A Time to Keep - Tasha Tudor
Tudor is one of my favorite illustrators. Jann Brett's highly detailed borders evoke Tudor's work. And Tudor is a great storyteller about times gone by. I never got over the idea of having a glowing birthday cake floating down a river at night.

Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
This is a classic princess tale of a girl rising up from orphanhood. But the best thing about Anne's story, of course, is the dichotomy between her over-inflated "romantical" view of life and the real-world scrapes in which she inevitably—continuously—finds herself.

Bear Snores On - Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
Can you even get over those adorable illustrations?! And the language is scrumptious:

An itty-bitty mouse,
pitter-pat, tip-toe,
creep-crawls in the cave
from the fluff-cold snow.

Nuff said.

The Lottery Rose - Newberry Award-winning Irene Hunt
This is one of the most poignant books from my childhood. I found it in the school library when I was in fifth grade and chose it because the title was "romantical" (thank you, Anne). What I found instead was a book that dealt honestly with child abuse. It made me aware of what writing is capable of doing ... and that beauty in the written word can come from handling ugly truths.

I hope this literary valentine list will add a new book to your reading library.

Send your favorite book a valentine by commenting below!