Have you tried improving your prose by typing through the works of writers you aspire to write like? Hunter S and Ben Franklin both did it, so give it a shot! Give tips, experiences, different ways you have tried.
Copyworking Techniques
Have you tried improving your prose by typing through the works of writers you aspire to write like? Hunter S and Ben Franklin both did it, so give it a shot! Give tips, experiences, different ways you have tried.
That doesnt help, hunter was on an IV drip of crack and chivas and ben franklin was lobotomized by lightning.
Youre better off writing out the names of characters, making a list of settings and who is there at any given time, and trying to chart plot arcs as they changed.
Joan Didion did it too, with Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. She's not a IQfy darling but she was a pretty good writer.
Yes all the time. I noticed while hanging around museums the kids copying masters, I figure it's about the same. Not sure about typing though, I do it long hand and I try to remember the sentence then write it out and see where I naturally do it differently and what to correct to... even if it doesn't do anything it is a confidence booster...
Didn't know this, p cool.
>Youre better off writing out the names of characters, making a list of settings and who is there at any given time, and trying to chart plot arcs as they changed.
Probably good to do too.
>That doesnt help,
Yes, it does. It amounts to studying their sentence structure and diction choices.
Ayy thats a good tech too though
Exactly the motivation for it. I've always felt like technique is the most important part of craft, except that while studies like music and art aren't especially natural, since writing is language (and language is aquired early) it is more difficult to understand how to craft a good sentence or paragraph as practice than it is to run a scale.
I've been using copyworking for stylistic pastiche and the results are quite noticeable.
>stylistic pastiche
like what?
Since I dont know how to write well, I feel free to write whatever. So I warm up with copywork, and then jump into whatever Im working on. Sometimes its a different author every day, so even though the story may be continuous it is filtered through the influences of the copywork writers Im imitating. Something like pynch, delillo, hg welles, rilke. Cant say its good yet but there is definitely an impression that sticks around.
I've done this many times. I know it's autistic. I don't copy the whole book but the first 25-50 pages because often when you submit to a publisher, that's one of the early stages, sending the first few chapters for them to read. I figure it's a good way to learn. I noticed that very readable books have chapters that are shorter than short stories typically. The chapters in Tolstoy are often less than 2000 words (that's like 5-6 pages) and sometimes less than 1500. Most great short stories are 3-5k words or more. A chapter that is as long as a short story in a novel feels extra long. An example, in Moby-Dick, the chapter, "Cetology," which a lot of people tend to get stuck on, is the longest in the book, and it's about 5k words. Now I know, you'll say its because of the subject matter, but earlier chapters also go on about very specific subjects without advancing the plot, but people don't seem to complain about them as much as "Cetology." It makes sense that a 5k chapter feels longer than a 5k story, because storytelling-wise, the chapter doesn't necessarily have a huge climax were major questions are resolved.
Obviously there are books like Ulysses were the sections are very long, and that's a good book, but it's not an effortless book like reading Tolstoy can be.
I've also noticed that the books that seem to have strong openings have first chapters that are shorter than the rest, often under 1000 words even. e-girlta is an example. It's like a page, front and back. The Sun Also Rises is another book I find myself picking up and easily falling into rereading again effortlessly. The first chapter is ~1300 words. I remember Farewell having a first chapter that is only 3-4 pages as well.
Write how you want, but if you want your book to be easy for someone to pick up and quickly become engrossed in, make the first chapter shortish. Just a theory.
I've started an experiment in which I commit an entire short story (about 5k words) to memory. It will take about two months at the rate I'm going. Time will tell if it has any effect on my writing.
One other method I want to try is to write down the function of every line and then try and reproduce a story with the same line by line function. For example see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT81Q3osi8c&list=PLCK-mph6iXUhFfikRi92vdvz1F7DhTX6X&index=16&ab_channel=StoryGrid
Interesting. Can you explain what you mean when you "write down the function of every line"? Like are you separating things into categories?
>dialogue
>scene setting
>action to move story forward
>literary aside that relates to the story's theme
that type of thing? or what?
Yeah pretty much. Breaking the text into a set of beats, writing from those.
I'm curious, what is the short story that you are memorizing? A classic in your chosen genre, or one chosen more randomly?
It's not really a classic but it wasn't chosen randomly either. It's "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien. It's one of my favorites. It's in English, has good prose, a modern style, is not too long and found both critical and popular success. Surprisingly few stories fit those criteria.
That's a good one. "The Man I Killed" from the same book would've been good as well, I think it has a great technical structure wit the repetitions of the details traumatizing the narrator each time he repeats them
Helped my writing a bit. Two exercises that helped me lot more that are very similar
1 rewrite their writings in your own words but with their syntax and structure.
2 translate writers, for this you prob have to know both languages. Though I think a dictionary and Google can help you
Have a notebook and transcribe poems that move you in a presentable, attractive script for future reference (returning to read at least 1 a day)
I did that with passages from paradife loft, should keep that going. Thats a good one.
You all very sophisticated in your choices and analysis meanwhile I’m starting to write little nuggets of expressions from Norm Macdonald’s (Not) A Memoir, and new to knowing how to use a semicolon and colon.
And all those “thereby” transitional (academic) words
I have had a book or two whose style I want to ape, so I kept the pages open, but I’ve never copied the text like I’m copying a drawing. That’s weird.
have you heard of a commonplace book? where people write down excerpts or quotes that they like? hardly rare or weird
if this actually worked professional typists would be the best novelists in the world. it's like thinking you're an economist because you stood outside of a bank for awhile
it's just a form of studying anon. you still have to be creative and want to make art unlike some typists
huh? OP said copying famous works of writing could improve your prose. being a professional typist is not the same as copying famous works of writing, and improving your prose is not the same as being the best novelist in the world. maybe you should try retyping the posts you're responding to so that you understand them better