Analysis Essays
Week 2
Analysis Essay Week 1
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"A Note on Technique" from On Teaching and Writing Fiction by Wallace Stegner, he states his ideas on how to create a good piece of writing. His ideas mostly have to do with scene and summary, the start of the story, and how it should tie in with the characters. STegner says, “Because no situation can exist apart from what brought it about and what it leads to-apart, that is, from its antecedents and its consequences—the writer will be led both forward and backward from his germinal knot of tension.” and this shows the importance how you introduce your characters.
The idea he starts off by explaining is the best way to even start a writing. An example, is that he states “a short story must start off running, must begin on a rolling slope, as near to the end as possible.” This is basically saying in short stories, you cannot take a long time to get into the main situation. The author also brings up the terms summary and scene, and says that these two things are the only part of fiction, “but neither are simple.” In order to keep the story flowing in straight line, dialogue and actions need to not include any irrelevancies. Stegner says, “ He must deal at least a little with the past, which in fictional technique is called summary or exposition; and he must deal with the dramatic present, which is called scene.” This helps inform writers on how to introduce scene into their writing.
An idea that Wallace Stegner brings up is that “There are many balls to be kept in the air at once.” Action, dialogue, and tone need to all be brought into each paragraph in order for the story to flow. Other ideas of his are listed. FIrst, to “start in the middle”. This would take away from the slow beginnings of books, that are hard to get into. Second, ending a book is hard, and do it without any “leftovers or repetitions”. Lastly, do not explain too much.
His format for bringing ideas to the table is quite simple. He explains his key points to writing, and goes into great detail. At the end, he states more ideas in a numbered list form, without going into much detail. He puts a lot of emphasis on summary and scene, which is clearly most important in his writing technique.
For my own writing, I am going to start in the middle more. Getting a story started is the hardest part for me. I struggle with the beginning. Another point that was brought up by Stegner that I might not be able to do very easily is not explaining too much. It will be hard for me to be vague in a story and not have every detail stated. So far, these ideas don’t apply to any current pieces of writing for me but I know they will be helpful later.
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Week 3
This chapter in Stephen King's On Writing holds a lot of information about description. What I learned from this chapter is that too much description because you need to keep the reader wondering. Description "begins with visualization of what it is you want the reader to experience." according to King. You need to find the happy medium between too much detail and not enough. Stephen King said that "Description begins in the writer's imagination but should finish in the reader's." This makes sense to me, because the writer should always leave some room for the reader to paint a picture inside their head. You need to include a small number of great details first, but from there, do not use a lot. It is also important to remember to not get caught up in describing the setting too much, because it "is about the story, not the setting."
Week 4
In Lorrie Moore’s “How to Become a Writer”, she writes from a personal level and
tells her journey of becoming a writer. She tells her story starting in high school when
she began writing, being told she “has no sense of plot”, all the way to college, when
she is told that she had “a ludicrous notion of plot”. Her story is a long journey through
different majors and lots of different decisions to become a writer because it gives her
“brief, fragile, untested moments of exhilaration”.
The idea that this author presents is that you should follow the path that belongs
to you, and what makes you happy. Though it may not be ideal to others, you must do
what you want. The author writes this idea by telling about her switch in majors to
writing. She says, “the kids in your nursing project will be dissapointed but you have an
urge, a calling, a delusion, an unfortunate habit.” The author also presents these ideas
by using second person. She puts the reader in her shoes to walk through the story as if
we were her.
I liked the author’s idea of using second person. I think I will use it in future
writing. It makes the writing seem way more personal and like you are actually in the
story. I have never before tried to write in a different point of view like this. It could have
been beneficial in my mini memoir to put the reader in my place.
Week 5
Week 12
In Plot from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, the author discusses how plot should develop in your story. The main idea that is written in this text is that plot is expressed and shown through the actions and feelings of your characters. Lamott says that, “Your plot will fall into place as, one day at a time, you listen to your characters carefully, and watch them move around doing and saying things and bumping into each other. You’ll see them influence each other’s lives, you’ll see what they are capable of up and doing, and you’ll see them come to various ends. And this process of discovering the story will often take place in fits and starts.” This is an important main idea because it truly shows that you need your characters to set the story into place for you. Another main idea is that there needs to be drama in the plot to draw the readers in and keep the story flowing.
The author presents many ideas throughout the writing. One idea is, you need to keep moving your characters forward. Lamott says that the actions your characters portray must be true to their character and they cannot be faking in a certain way to move the plot along. These are both good ideas. If a character is acting out of character just to move the plot along or in a certain direction, your character is not going to develop true to themselves in the story and the character will seem off. However, you have to keep your characters moving forward and progressing or it will seem like a boring, repetition of the same old things in your story. There needs to be progress throughout the story to keep it entertaining. Lastly, Lamott says that there needs to be a climax for the story to really be successful, and there needs to be a “healing process” or deceleration after.
Lamott presents these ideas in an organized way, while still tying all ideas back to the importance of characters in plot. She writes the piece idea by idea, and paragraph by paragraph, keeping it organized in flowing in a way that is easy to understand. She also brings examples from real life into the text.
As far as it goes for my writing, I will definitely use the idea of expanding the plot through character. I do not do this in my writing and I think it could be very helpful. When I am writing a piece that has a story line, and made up characters, this idea will help me.
Week 16
In How Do You Know When You’re Done? By Anne Lamott, the author discusses exactly what the title says. She talks about how to know when you are finished writing. The main idea is, you are done when you can no longer go on with it. She says, “...it’s the very best you can do for now- well? I think this means that you are done.”
An idea the author presents is that being done is a never ending process and you could technically go on forever. She writes about this by using a metaphor. She said, “You get a bunch of the octopus's arms neatly tucked under the covers- that is, you’ve come up with a plot, resolved the conflict between the two main characters, gotten the tone down pat- but two arms are still flailing around. Maybe the dialogue in the first half and second half don’t match, or there is that one character who still seems one- dimensional. But you finally get those arms under the sheets, too, and are about to turn off the lights when another long sucking arm breaks free.” To me, this represents that there is always more work to do. But at some point, you have to tell yourself, that you are done.
In my writing, I will use this advice because I could spend hours re doing some things. However, this writing tells me sometimes it's better to just stop and step back instead of going on forever.