McClanahan, Rebecca: Word Painting
Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively
Writer: Rebecca McClanahan
Genre: Writing Reference
Pages: 250
This book came highly recommended to me by my Odyssey classmates, particularly maggiedr. And since I count description as my number one weakness in writing, I bought it right away, only to leave it on my shelf until I was in the mood.
The mood struck when I had to choose some craft books for my required reading list this term at Seton Hill. This wasn't the only description book I stuck on the list, so it was interesting to compare this to Monica Wood's Description.
At first, I found this book terribly laborious and boring. However, I soon realized my reaction came from a mixture of McClanahan's abundant enthusiasm for the subject (an enthusiasm I do not share) and from the fact I was sick. Poor basis for judging a book. I put it aside while I suffered from my plague, and picked back up when I knew my brain could process everything.
Thankfully, I didn't find it boring. Nor did her enthusiasm grate on me, but whether it's because I didn't notice or because she toned it down from the beginning, I can't say. But I did find some of her points engaging, and they struck home with me.
The first was her talk on originality, and how originality doesn't mean that writers should come up with something so complex and abstract that no one can understand it, nor does it mean that writers should come up with something that's never been done before (let's face it: it's been done before). McClanahan discusses how originality's word origin is, actually, origin, and she uses this as an important lesson for her students: for writing to be original, it must come from the origin, and the origin is the writer. Self. Life. Not that we should necessarily "write what we know," but that we write about the things we're most passionate about, stuff we believe in.
This rang true for two reasons: the work I feel is my personal best is the work that's come from within. Be it my own personal experiences or my own outlook on life, my writing seems sharper and clearer when coupled with something I feel confident writing about. The second reason this rang true was because of a lesson from Odyssey: how so many writers are so inspired by what they've read or watched on television or film that they aim to recreate this love in their own fiction. Often, the results are derivative work that lacks substance (case in point, Tolkien and all of his clones), and it's not until the writer reaches within that the fiction comes to life as something other than imitation.
Another engaging lesson from McClanahan's book was her discussion of a writer's "constellation of images." This phrase was first coined by Stanley Kunitz, who believed this was a writer's source of originality. Kunitz said that "if a writer never discovers her constellation, she may produce adequate, even good, work; but the work will never rise above superficiality" (99). Kunitz's central star that revolved around all of his works was the death of his father. McClanahan reveals hers is doubles of any kind, a metaphor that grew out of the death of her infant twin sister.
I don't imagine that every writer's central star is necessarily a specific grief. I liken it to issues and emotions that fascinate us and grip us in our personal lives and those are the metaphors that bleed into our writing. McClanahan encourages writers to take these metaphors further and be aware of them in our writing, so that these metaphors become regular motifs.
Her entire chapter on figurative language is actually very, very good. She breaks down the definitions of each, discusses what works better when, and talks about how metaphors can't be sprinkled in: they're an organic part of the writing and the craft. If I had to fault her at all for this section, it would be for the lack of warning to those writers of speculative fiction, because in speculative fiction, metaphors can easily be taken literally.
That isn't to say that McClanahan isn't spec-fic friendly. She doesn't appear to have any bias against it, and even though she regularly uses literary and classical references for her examples, she does comment on speculative fiction, especially in terms of world-building, where she compares it to historical fiction: where a reader can't take the setting for granted, and the writer has to fill in the details without going overboard.
I definitely got more out of this book than I bargained for. McClanahan discusses point of view, characterization, and narrative line as well. Not that I'm complaining, but I naively expected a book about pure setting for some reason, and while she covers that too, I feel I got more out of this than just the usual, "This is how to describe (or not describe) a room." Which she does cover, and for which I'm grateful.
I think what makes this book stand out so much is her focus on the symbolic power of description, how it does more than simply show the reader what's going on. It can make the reader feel what's happening as well, and I think that's the lesson I need to hear again and again, because all too often, it's easy to get wrapped up in trying to visually please my readers instead of using description to my own advantage.
Would I recommend this? Sure. It's definitely a different view than Monica Woods'. Just take note that McClanahan does use literary and classical examples. I was fine with this personally, because I was familiar with some of the texts she uses, and I was also happy to have a discourse on the subject that took place outside of the speculative fiction circle. In a way, it reminded me what the standard rules and expectations are, which I needed. Because I can't break the rules until I understand exactly what they are, and it's hard to apply these rules to speculative fiction if I don't understand them intuitively. I think I have a better understanding now, and I'm glad to have this in my library.
One note of amusement: like any description book, McClanahan warns against the dreaded -ly adverbs. Yet, the subtitle includes one of those dreaded adverbs: "A Guide to Writing More Descriptively."
Surely I'm not the only one to see irony in that. :)
Next up: Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction: April 2007