Writing Practice: Elements of Eloquence, Part 1 - Introduction
This post has been approved by my girlfriend, who is also my beta-reader.
I’d be a bestseller too if I were willing to make words up.
In my never-ending quest to become a superior writer, I’ve purchased a few books on the subject. From the writer-focused guide on being productive, The Keys to Prolific Creativity by David Stewart to the aggregated essays of the Complete Handbook of Novel Writing, and away toward the agonizingly, intolerably dry Rediscover Grammar by David Crystal—not to mention the Fire in Fiction, a blazing sequence of lessons on tension by the wonderfully named Donald Maass—I’ve read quite a few books on writing. I’ve also failed to finish a couple, but we’ll get there eventually, I think.
No, really.
None have been more thrilling to me than Mark Forsyth’s the Elements of Eloquence, subtitled How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase. I read the book within a couple days, and even then, it only took me as long as it did because I have a day-job, among other obligations, and what’s more, like a good television or book series, a part of me didn’t want to keep reading for fear of the end, which always feels depressingly final, however happily ever after everyone is purported to be.
In many of the books I’ve read, the advice is either something I already knew, or something I didn’t feel willing to set aside time to learn properly, but this book is different. It’s special. It’s comedic and educational and just plain fun, as they say. Moreover, it demystifies writing. Mr. Forsyth admonishes those who elevate Shakespeare to some kind of godhood, as though he sprung from the womb with all of his knowledge; nay, says Mr. Forsyth, he went to school and had these things pummeled into him, and even thereafter he wrote a play or two that was subpar. Shakespeare had to practice, and use techniques that after hundreds of years were gradually and painstakingly determined to work. So, too, could you, the reader—who is also presumably a writer—use these techniques to enhance your own skill.
So I decided that he was right. I can, and I should, and I will, rather than hope that the information, upon reading it, simply absorbs into my brain, instead ensure that it does absorb by means of that most dreaded of things that our parents insist on declaring at every utterance of discouragement from their ignorant children: practice!
It is therefore with this in mind that I’m going to go through every chapter in this book and write a scene that, to the best of my ability, utilizes each technique. This is partly for the practice, partly for blog content, and partly to hope that someone sees all of this work and thinks, “Wow! Look at this guy’s amazing writing! I’m gonna go buy his book¹ right now!”
The next entry in this series will begin straightaway with the first chapter of the Elements of Eloquence, which will be on a technique that I’m certain anyone who has made it this far will find simply riveting: Alliteration.
An absolutely astounding and awesome end to an articulate article.
