Write the Right Words: The Philosophy of Style

Рет қаралды 317

Жыл бұрын

Let's talk about the most effective way to choose what words you write, from Herbert Spencer's 'The Philosophy of Style'.
Creative Writing Corner is all about helping YOU become a better word-slinger and storyteller. CWC host Luke J. Morris is a published author and full-time English and Creative Writing teacher with a Master's degree in Creative Writing, and on this channel he shares what he's learned over 30+ years of writing and study. Enjoy and engage!
If you'd like to support the channel (and judge if the host walks his talk), you can pick up a copy of Luke's short story collection 'Bad Art' here:
www.amazon.com/Bad-Art-Gallery-Twisted-Tales-ebook/dp/B088F6LWTR/
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Good luck, and good writing. Peace!

Пікірлер: 15

@voidsword8095 10 ай бұрын

Amazing video.

@alexiacerwinskipierce8114 11 ай бұрын

I definitely enjoy these videos on philosophy of style. I find myself spending too much energy on word choice sometimes. Guidelines for this are helpful. This video was definitely helpful.

@justintubski9902 Жыл бұрын

Very interesting, I'd like to hear more about that.

@creativewritingcorner Жыл бұрын

Awesome. I'll plan another Philosophy of Style video soon. Thanks!

@markbechtold7372 11 ай бұрын

Thank you. This was most helpful.

@creativewritingcorner 11 ай бұрын

Glad to hear it!

@anthonyw2931 Жыл бұрын

if my voice was 1000 votes, I am going to shout: Yes, yes, please! This is one of those subtle 'soft' skills that is very ambiguous to a newbie like me.

@creativewritingcorner Жыл бұрын

Good to know! I'll come back to style/economy in sentence writing soon.

@greblaksnew 9 ай бұрын

I actually like reading about it and thinking about it. I recently read Hemingway's On Writing, Nabokov's letter's, and Consider This: Moments In My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different by that guy who wrote Fight Club. They all have a lot to say about style. However, I don't think it works like that---------for me. For me there's something else going on with language, a different kind of struggle where I care less about any reader getting an image in their head and more about image in my head and getting it down on paper.

@creativewritingcorner 9 ай бұрын

Great choices! I did another video on Palahniuk's 'Consider This'. Excellent book. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gKpirJqat9a5dnU.htmlsi=TjU4WMf9_TKx4p69 Obviously, since you're the first reader of your own work, the first person your prose has to please is you. It's only after that, when you're prepping to put your writing out into the world, that consideration of the reader comes to the foreground.

@czarcoma Жыл бұрын

Got it... More flashy, less ostentatious.... 🙂

@anthonyw2931 Жыл бұрын

😄

@SteveJubs 9 ай бұрын

Hot teacher vibes 🥵

@Drudenfusz Жыл бұрын

I would say if one tries to characterise an arrogant aristocrat or some wannabe intellectual then it might be actually not bad to have them in their direct speech make use of longer Latinate words. Similar for fiction within fiction, like some supposed esoteric texts upon which the characters might stumble.

@creativewritingcorner Жыл бұрын

Oh, absolutely. Every writing "rule" is naught but a guideline, and big words definitely have their place. I once had a Creative Writing student with a big brain and a massive vocabulary, who had the unfortunate tendency to try to show off his skill with words in every sentence he wrote. Just about every simple noun or verb would be replaced with its most obscure antonym, loaded with modifiers, and crammed into sentences of bewildering complexity. It was exhausting to read. When he eventually learned to simplify his language - saving his deep vocabulary trove for specific characters or moments of special significance - his work became far more readable, and his (sparing) use of unusual words had a greater impact.