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But no one told me (maybe because it’s
such a no-brainer? I don’t know).
I’m telling you so you don’t have to
waste your time trying to figure it out like I did.
Here’s the tip:
Take some of your favorite authors –
ones you’d like your writing to look a little bit like, because somehow their
words sing to you – and type them out into whatever writing program you use. How
their writing looks on the page is often very different than how it looks in
Word or Open Office, etc.
Likewise, your writing will look very
different when (or if it already is) published versus when it’s staring you in
the eyes on your computer screen.
Three different genre examples:
Here’s an excerpt from Jane Austin’s
classic, Pride and Prejudice
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| The book |
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| Typed out in Word |
Here’s something a little more
up-to-date and literary from Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things
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| The book |
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| Typed out in Word |
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| The book |
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| Typed out in Word |
You see what I'm saying? The formatting looks very different when it's printed. It's more chunky, in general, so I used to think I needed to write these long, arduous passages of prose to get it to look like it needed to in a book. Not so much, as it turns out.
Now it's your turn -- if you haven't done this exercise already, go find a few of your favorite books and type out a page or two. Make sure to use pages where the writing varies, because dialogue will look different on the page than the more blocky-looking description and story-filler. (And just because I wonder, what are the books you've chosen? I'm a cat when it comes to curiosity.)
If you have done this before, what was your experience like? Was it helpful for you to do this, or no? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Huh, I never thought of this before. Will have to try it sometime.
ReplyDeleteYou should, and then tell me which books you chose, because I love to know what people are reading.
DeleteThis is interesting - something I've never considered before. I may give it a whirl this week!
ReplyDeleteI hope it was just as interesting after you gave it a whirl? And that it helped somehow?
DeleteI've never tried this, but I've edited enough work that ended up published that I'm well aware of how much different text looks in Word vs. book form. Vastly different!
ReplyDeleteI know! I was so surprised when I did this. For whatever reason, it made all the difference for me and my writing.
DeleteOh, wow. I'd never heard of doing this before, but I LOVE this idea! Fantastic! I always wondered how my paragraphs would look when printed as a book, but maybe I'm doing it backwards. I need to try typing up some of my favorite authors' pages to see how they compare. Then I'll know more what to expect. Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteYes! Exactly! I'm glad the idea struck a chord. Yay!
DeleteI did this completely by accident--when I used to type out of boredom and for fun. By the time I was doing it, I had already had a few things published (but nothing in a book) so I had some idea of the difference.
ReplyDeleteI have also read about this technique not just from a formatting perspective but from a flow/style perspective. If you actually type out passages that are especially striking or resonant to you, it can be a way of going deeper into the author's technique and maybe discovering where some of the magic lies in hopes of harnessing it yourself.
Ooo, I love how you say that. So true, about the style and technique. I'm all about going deeper and harnessing magic. Good thoughts, Masked Mom. Good thoughts. Thank you.
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