Tuesday, June 22, 2010

It's not about how you do it, it's about what you do!

I bet you've heard that saying before! "It's not about how good you draw, it's about what you draw!"

"It's not about how you write, it's about what you write!"

Well I'll tell you what, that's all wrong! Those are just the stupid encouraging words they tell people to feel good about themselves!

You watch an action movie, say Lord of the Rings, you think the fighting scenes will be good if they just showed it at the same camera angle the whole time? No of course not! Movies have lot's of different camera angles to keep interest up. Now sentences are the writers camera!

If your sentences all began with "the" it sure would be a boring book, and yes even if you write the same story as me, if my sentences are more interesting guess what, my book would be better than yours!

Here's an example of a good paragraph!

The sky was tinted light orange. A loud ring scared the creature off. It took flight from among the trash, leaving a trail of feathers behind. From all directions, people swarmed the school yard, and flooded the streets.

Now when I first mentioned the creature the reader doesn't know what I'm talking about since I speak of it without introducing it first, therefore the reader must keep reading to find out what the heck I"m talking about, then I start talking about a school yard after that, so then the reader must continue reading to get the whole picture, do you think that was a good paragraph?

REMEMBER SHORTER SENTENCES ARE BETTER! How many times have you placed your own house as a setting for a book you've read? We all have, you story is no excepting, just because you are writing about your house doesn't mean the reader has to envision your house too, that's why books are so compelling because they are personal!

Here's a bad paragraph!


The sky was bright and blue, and the clouds cuttled close together because it often gets cold way up there in the sky. They looked down upon the earth from above, and as they sway lazily with the breeze, they go with the flow, they notice the tree, who does nothing, nothing but sit and be lazy, just like the clouds, but if it weren't for the tree's oxygen the clouds wouldn't be there, and if it wasn't for the clouds tears, the tree's wouldn't be here either.

Now I call this one of my bad sentences why? Because I read it one time and it's cool, I read it again and it gets boring I read it a third time and I skip words, I don't even want to try a fourth time. However the paragraph before was less straight forward, I could read it several times and envision different things each time, I could read it maybe five or six times before getting bored.

But I say the second paragraph speaks of a more interesting topic, the first one just talks about normal things. So I hope you remember a bad drawing of pikachu is crap compared the the same drawing only it is done well...

stupid abstract and modern art sucks because usually the art is pointless and the drawings suck. Classical Renaissance art is good because it displays true skill and talent and has an emotional scene sometimes. Remember it's not about what you draw alone, it's also about how you draw it!

4 comments:

  1. This is a very nice article. My take on things though, especially since my first book was published this year, even though it has a copyright year of 2009, is that while how it is done can be important, it is even more important to hone your unique style. After all, it becomes boring if people all write the same way. I'm still learning the stuff, but at least I have the experiences gained from the publication of my first book to go on.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm glad! At least you have a published book, your much more experienced than me, though I do have my half a year horrible experience with Language Arts Honors, so at least I know how to write "properly" I'm still learning how to write interestingly...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just relax. You'll get better.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I know, but as the writer I"m not supposed to say my own book is good.... I have to let others decide that....

    ReplyDelete