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Daily Archives: September 2, 2012

Knowingness vs Knowledge

A great post by John Barnes on why he hates snark. Snark, as he means it, is not all sarcasm or wittiness…so not this:

 …rather, what he objects to is a certain kind of “knowingness,” like teenage dismissiveness in people who no longer have the excuse of teenagerhood:

“Knowingness, of course, is not knowledge—indeed, is the rebuttal of knowledge. Knowledge was what squares had, or thought they had, and they thought that it was the secret of life. Knowingness is a celebration of the conceit that what the squares knew, or thought they knew, was worthless.”

Knowingness at twenty-five… is habitual laziness; it’s the guy who thinks he’s a polymath because he has two dismissive sentences about every subject. It’s the woman who couldn’t follow the story of the movie, so she nods and says, “Great cinematography.” It’s people called upon to be brave, compassionate, or kind who aren’t, and afterward explain that they could have been but they weren’t going to let authority pressure them into it.

Keep the Best For Last

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KEEP THE BEST FOR LAST: BACKLOADING TECHNIQUE
by Rayne Hall
Here is a nifty technique to give your writing style more impact: Structure your sentences so the most powerful word comes at the end. The last word touches the reader’s psyche more than any other, so make it count.
Short, evocative nouns, adjectives and verbs are best. Here’s a list for your inspiration: death, dead, kiss, lust, treachery, blood, fear, die, kill, deep, cold, heat, dark, boil, pull, grave, grip, grasp, hope, sear, scream, thrill, scar, bone, flesh, skull, wound, pray, pain, soul, child, flee, trap, teeth, curse, escape, safe, love.
These words, on the other hand, have no particular effect: it, then, them, across, through, there, somehow, around,  under, of, off, for, that, be, others, his, her.
Often, restructuring the sentence is all it takes, or perhaps adding, deleting or replacing one word.
Before
She knew she had to kill it.
After
She knew she had to kill.
Before
She had a painful headache.
After
Pain pounded in her skull.
Before
He felt the pain then.
After
Then he felt the pain.
Before
A child was in there.
After
In there was a child.
I recommend backloading the last sentence of most paragraphs – but only if it suits the contents. If possible, backload the last sentence of every scene, because that’s where the impact is greatest.
Try it with some sentences in your manuscript, and post the “before” and “after” versions as a comment.

BIO

Rayne Hall is professional writer and editor. She has had over 30 books published under several pen names, in several genres(mostly fantasy, horror and non-fiction), in several languages (mostly English, German, Polish and Chinese), by several publishers, under several pen names. For a list of currently published fiction under the Rayne Hall pen name, go to http://www.amazon.com/Rayne-Hall/e/B006BSJ5BK
Her recent books include Storm Dancer (dark epic fantasy novel), Writing Fight Scenes (for authors), Writing Scary Scenes (for authors), Six Scary Tales Vol 1, 2 and 3(mild horror stories) and more.
She is the editor of the Ten Talesseries of themed multi-author short story anthologies: Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires, Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts, Scared: Ten Tales of Horror, Cutlass: Ten Tales of Pirates, and others.
She teaches online workshops for intermediate, advanced and professional level writers who are serious about improving their writing craft skills. Caution: these classes are not suitable for beginners or the faint-of-heart! For a list of her currently scheduled workshops, see https://sites.google.com/site/writingworkshopswithraynehall/