Play with words or tell stories?

[Chicklet]

There are so many different kinds of authors. My boyfriend is a great writer, but he mostly writes poetry. He likes to play with words, give double meanings to things, and, well, rhyme from time to time. I like to tell stories. I don't particularly care what words I use to tell the story, as long as they're the right words. I like to create as vivid a picture as I can, though, and sometimes I choose interesting words to do it.

What do you like best about your writing? Do you like to play with words, or do you just want to tell the story? Of course people like to do both, but if you had to choose, how would you describe yourself?

 

[bridgeburner]

I like to tell stories. I will occasionally have a lovely turn of phrase of which I can be proud, but mostly I'm not much of a wordsmith and I find it tedious when the words get in the way of story-telling.

So I'm not much of a wordsmith and I'm not very patient either.


I like pulp fiction. I love Stephen King and Michael Crighton and Greg Iles. They write good stories even if it's not great literature. I read a lot of romance novels but I'm snobby about it. Cassie Edwards is the worst crap on the face of the planet. Patricia Gaffney tells a great story for grown ups who need some escapism. Emma Holly will scorch the underpants right off your ass.

As a child I loved Shel Silverstein and I wrote a lot of poetry, but as I mentioned before I'm not much of a wordsmith so my poetry is overwrought and generally very bad.....especially when it rhymes.

I'll stick to compelling pulp.



-B

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I think of myself more as a story teller than an author. I don't have a lyrical ear and thus my poetry leaves a good deal to be desired. Words are my paints, I use them to make the world my stories take place in real and to bring my characters to life. I use whichever ones seem appropriate to the tale, but rarely conciously play with them.

-Colly

 

[Singularity]

Words and Imagery Versus Story-Telling

I think I am the opposite type of writer. I love words and imagery and making a scene come alive with word pictures. Bringing it alive to the reader so he or she can taste and smell and feel, as well as see, what is happening is what I enjoy most.

The story telling and plot development side of what I write is much weaker, in comparison, I think.

Maybe I am just not challenging myself enough to work as much on plot and story development as I do imagery and the sensations-side of things, but I always seem to have a much harder time on that side of things.


Singularity

 

[gauchecritic]

Depends almost entirely on what I'm writing.

My stories have quite a unique 'voice' I'm told, that's mainly because of the vocabulary and concatentation that I use. Knowing those words (and the order they need to be written) gives me a much greater range with which to draw my characters and sometime plots. My choice of story restricts how many of those words I can use.

On the other hand, ask me to 'describe in so many words' or 'Attempt to give the impression of' and it will often take me as long to write 600 'choice' words as it does 1500 'ordinary', for a story submission.

Which do I enjoy most?

Thought long and hard for that one. I don't really know. Yes I do. The clever stuff.

Gauche

 

[prtylilstranger]

Hey baby.

I'm a story teller, for sure. I have huge respect for the people who "play with words," but my brain just doesn't seem to work that way. Instead, my talent lies in weaving a tale, and drawing people into it.

 

[MathGirl]

Sinistracerebrally............

Hiya, Chickie,
I don't think my right brain works very well, and I tend to be a linear thinker. Not very creative. I just tell the story.
MG
Ps. The story is often rather strange, but I tell it in a straightforward manner.

 

[Guest]

My friends know how much I love language, words, writing, reading. Seeing Chicklet's question I knew right away that it is never about the story for me, not primarily. What attracted me to writing for Lit. was that I might focus on the erotic (via language), vs. the story.

I like Gauche's phrase, "the clever stuff", actually felt relieved he chose it. For me, that is the work and play of language, its words and structure; I love being in it, as if immersed, drowning at will, without fear. (Ha! writing may well be the only area in which I am fearless.)

I appreciate the distinction being made about word-play and story telling, but it can be limiting and I want no limits in language.

I understand very well what Gauche has said, very well, about his voice and style; it is true. He quotes me in his sig line, self-mockingly it seems, but I appreciate his concatenations (love that word) and how inextricable they are from his content. That is writing, for me (vs. only storytelling).

Not a succinct reply, but I am reeling from a heat wave in San Francisco.

wiltingly, Perdita

 

[raphy]

I don't think I can choose, quite honestly.

I'm a storyteller. A teller of stories. To me, that means telling the most interesting story that I can, in the most interesting way. So, I develop my ideas and my characters, my plot twists and my resolutions.. But at the same time, I try and develop my telling of the tale itself, because if the plot is the engine that drives you forward, the words you chose are most surely the fittings inside the car.

And as every car is different for a different purpose, so is every story. Race cars are bare, sparse affairs with powerful engines and no luxuries. Limousines are plush, expansive vehichles with all the creature comforts one might wish for. A businessman's BMW is going to be brisk and efficient, but comfortable. It's going to get you from A to B without fuss, but in a luxurious manner. A japanese compact will still get you from A to B, but the journey isn't going to feel the same.

I think that it's one of my responsibilities as a storyteller, it's my duty, even, to think about the fittings I'm putting on my car, and how they'll affect the person riding along in it. What sort of ride do I want to give this person? I'm not decrying any of the types of vehicle, (or promoting one over another), but I do think the types themselves are important.

So no, for me, the words I use are an integral part of the story which they tell.

And I'm a storyteller.

 

[LorriLove]

hiya

i haven't finished a story yet, but when i get round to it, it will be just that, a story, i aint clever enough, nor do i have the patience to be too complex about it all.

 

[Guest]

Raff, darlin',

Though I was born and bred in the motor city, I know nothing about automobiles, care nothing about them, am not impressed by them or their owners, and don't even own one. I get your point, and I know you're a guy, but I hope I don't need a chauffer's license to read your stories.

'dita

 

[raphy]

*laughs* ... Feel free to substitute your own analogy, 'dita.



edit: I could have used clothes (What's the difference between a DKNY shirt, a D&G shirt, or a t-shirt from walmart? In the end they all do the same thing, they cover your upper body..) or horses (Arabs, western quarter horses, Andalusians - In the end, you ride 'em all and they take you from a to b) .. Or any kind of analogy where the difference between two different things is found in their aesthetics and not their purpose.

 

[sailorm72003]

I think I primarily tell a story. The word choices I make are done by what seems "right" to me, as I write it, whether as the narrator or the character.

I have been working more on making sure the words I choose are consistent with the story and mood I am trying to convey, but that is secondary to the tale, for me.

I have great admiration for those who can weave the magic of the words so well, particularly since I can recognize it without being able to achieve it.

But, that's half the fun, the attempt to improve


Sailor

 

[wornoutkeyboard]

I am more of a story teller, but then again I can also occasionally edge on a wordsmith.

To me it is all about doing what the story calls for. If it calls for a more poetic style, I use it.

But not all stories call for that kind of language.

Not to say that telling a story without the "poetry" and word-play is a task in simplicity. It certainly isn't. Writing a good, easy read without coming across as bland, cliche or sophomoric is very difficult. It is a fine line to balance upon.

I suppose I sit on the fence on this one. I consider myself whatever is appropriate to write the story at hand.

~WOK

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I'm not much of a story teller and my stories are never very long on plot. What I like to do is reinterpret things we already know. The greatest thing an author can accomplish, in my opinion, is to remake the world for us and show us things we'd never noticed before.

---dr.M.

 

[Icingsugar]

If I had do choose, I'd throw my poetry to the wolves and tell my stories. Even my poetry are most often stories. But pretty please with sugar on top, don't make me choose.

However, a good story is not a good story if it's told badly, and a little of that "play with words" is IMO essential to tell a story so that others wants to read it.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Just for the record, I think what you're asking is whether we are content-driven or style-driven in our writing. Content is what's said; style is how it's said. The ideal is probably to be both, but in my experience writers tend to favor one over the other.

---dr.M.

 

[Guest]

I'm definitly not a wordsmith. I don't write, not even a real big fan, of poetry. I don't think of myself as an author (I have only one story on lit, but 8 others on another site)

I don't create my stories i don't think. I start writing and let the characters write the story. I guess if I had to classify what I'd do, I'd go with some of the others here, I tell stories. Mine concentrate a lot more on plot and description than a lot of authors of erotica do, but I'd say I'm a story teller.

Story telling done right IS Poetry.

 

[English Lady]

I love words,I love playing with words and i have written poetry for many more years than I have written stories.


Obviously the story is important,the idea the inspiration is important but when I write it is the words and the way the flow that is important. I love to manipulate language,twist it,turn it push it around a bit and boss it into submission. I love it when i read a line and it clicks. For me its those "clever" sentances within a story that i write for.

 

[raphy]

Just for the record, I think what you're asking is whether we are content-driven or style-driven in our writing. Content is what's said; style is how it's said. The ideal is probably to be both, but in my experience writers tend to favor one over the other.

---dr.M.

I think a writer generally has to make a conscious choice to keep them balanced. I know I certainly do. I have a very specific style to my writing, and I work hard to maintain that style, but at the same time my plots include strong inter-personal dynamics, intrigue, betrayals, and enough twists, turns and questions to satisfy most readers.

As a reader, I wouldn't be satisfied unless the story I was reading had both. I'm certainly not going to be hypocritical as a writer and settle for less in my own work.

 

[Guest]

Very good observations have appeared in these last posts. Mab. notes form and content. That’s where the academicians and critics focus, on the mingling and effects of those two elements. For me (i.e., my opinion), when they are inextricable and complementary, and produce something beautiful (even horrifically beautiful) then it enters the realm of art or poetry.

Doffy says “Story telling done right IS Poetry.” Yes, and it’s usually attributable to the commingling of form and content. Otherwise you have journalism (which can be poetic or artful but rarely art).

Our English Rose scores with me emotionally and intellectually. I love reading those lines that click, and clever sentences. More, I love writing them.

And Raph’s “conscious choices” obviously produce stories done right.

It seems implied in many of the posts above that there's a judgmental factor involved in the thinking behind storytelling and wordsmithing, but there need not be. The craft of writing does not necessarily have to be so much about 'word play' as simply knowing how to play and work with the words required to tell one's story. Otherwise we merely have written narration.

Perdita

 

[Black Tulip]

As I'm still new here, can I pitch in?

I always start writing with a picture in my head. What I have to do, is trying to capture that picture in words.

After that most of the time the story starts writing itself. Like a film rolling in my head. Does that make me a storyteller?

 

[Svenskaflicka]

As usual, I defy traditional categories...

I write stories, but my language is rather poetic, and my sentence structure is such that I can make one and the same sentence go on for several lines without ever really losing track of its original topic.
I'm a sucker for emotions, and whenever I get stuck on describing a scenery or an action, I take refuge in how the the sight/smell/touch of the scenery, or how the action, makes the main character feel.

I love to play with words in my stories, making them a little more poetic and elegant than mere prose, and yet more substantial and action-filled than mere poems.