What is a Word Worth?

“Only connect…”

E. M. Forster

Howards End (1910)

How to Write Well …

The BIG question first: What do you think makes

Literature-with-a-Capital-L?

Some ideas from Kim Barnes*

Writing that shows an awareness of its past, its literary traditions

E.g. modern pop songs can be traced back through mediaeval troubadour lyrics to the ancient psalms of the Bible

* Department of English, Lewis-Clark State College http://www.chsbs.cmich.edu/Robert_Root/AWP/word.htm

The author should show an awareness of – and an ability to ask questions about, to analyse – his or her personal, family, and cultural myths: the stories we tell to explain who we are

(e.g. Uncle Stan)

Her or his surrounding background should be examined and explored, including elements of landscape, setting, culture, religion and politics.

The author should show an awareness of audience.

There should be an intentional use of craft, including story structure, syntax (sentence construction), tense, point of view, voice and tone.

The language, whether simple or complex, must sing.

There should be inspired and appropriate use of figures of speech (metaphors, similes, etc.) and imagery.

The writing should take risks at the level of story, structure, imagery, voice, and / or language.

The author must bring his or her intelligence to bear upon the narrative.

These elements together should produce a piece that demonstrates complexity, narrative layering and significance.

Applying this to personal writing

1. Take a memory that remains with you because it was physically, emotionally, or mentally intense

2. Impose upon it greatergreater meaning, to bring it out of the personal and into the universal…

Viva para contarla

‘Live to tell the tale’ To live (survive; endure) in order to tell

the tale of your life To tell the tale of your life in a way that

enables you to live more fully To tell the tale that will make sense of

your life, or give it greater meaning To live a life worthy of a (hero’s) tale

A method in a single word…

First, choose one word – any word – to which you are particularly drawn, a word that resonates for you A young man just discharged from the

military chose "paratrooper"; a middle-aged woman of Scottish descent chose "bagpipes." I would choose “automobile” because my father died in a car crash when I was four years old.

Writing plan: Stage 1

Then write three developed and detailed scenes from your own experience that revolve around this word. 

You must write these, at least initially, in the present tense, which will bring you into a more focused remembrance of the moment or event. 

These scenes could be ordered chronologically, although they may be framed by scenes that take place in the "true" present of you remembering them.

Writing plan: Stage 1

1. ‘I am waiting at the bottom of our drive in Wingillie St. Mildura for my father to come home…’ 

2. ‘My girlfriend and I are driving home from Melbourne when we see a family on the side of the road.’ 

3. ‘My daughter keeps swearing as she struggles to steer the car during our first driving lesson together.’

Writing plan: Stage 2

Next, contemplate your word, consider the word as it exists OUTSIDE individual experience.

Research the word's derivation; its etymological history; its presence in historical and popular culture; its appearance in film, art, television, music; its religious significance; its mythological roots. 

Writing plan: Stage 2

Automobile was a word invented by the French by combining the Greek prefix ‘autos’ for self with the Latin word ‘mobilis’ for moving. As an adjective it means ‘self propelling’. A German invented the first car and the English called it a horseless carriage, but I suppose the French always liked to be more poetic. So they invented the word ‘automobile’.

Rock and Roll loved songs about cars – from the Beatles’ “Baby You Can Drive My Car” to the Beach Boys’ “Little Deuce Coupe”, but Bruce Springsteen’s are my favourites. They combine a yearning for the freedom of the road with a true sense of tragedy.

Writing plan: Stage 3

Then write two-to-four sections (short or long) in which you "bring your intellect to bear" upon the word. 

These reflective sections are then interjected between the present tense scenes of your own experiences

Five section essay

The final essay might look like this, where A=SCENE and B=CONTEMPLATION: A (white space) B (white space) A (white space) B (white space) A

Five section essay

The final essay might look like this, where A=SCENE and B=CONTEMPLATION:

I am waiting at the bottom of our drive in Wingillie St…

Automobile was a word invented by the French…

My girlfriend and I are driving home from Melbourne…

Rock and Roll loved songs about cars…

My daughter keeps swearing as she steers the car…

“Only connect…”

Ideally, you will order and place the contemplative components in such a way as to resonate with the particular scenes coming before and after, thereby bringing their memories out of the realm of anecdote and into the larger realm of shared history and thought.  The chosen words themselves take on greater, metaphorical meaning.

An example: “Bath”

One Japanese student in Kim Barnes’ writing workshop wrote a moving essay titled "Bath," in which she records her memories revolving around the ritual of the bath in her native culture, interspersed with scholarly contemplation of the history and significance of the bath, both in Japan and in other cultures.  The scenes themselves unfold into the story of a young girl and her mother as they move from the comfort of shared experience and expectation into the more difficult terrain of individuality and separation, ending with the young woman, now in America, lying in the narrow tub, contemplating the aging of her own body and the maternal, nurturing properties of water.

Another example: “Bagpipes”

I feel the presence of both my parents in this place.  … I hear my parents in the sounds, the ashes of yesterday's blaze scraped through the stove's grate and the crackle of day's first fire.  I hear them in the records from the twenties that they danced to when young.  We play them every summer on the same 1910 wind-up Victrola that they used.  Memories hide in the dusty cover of hundreds of murder mysteries, the favourite Rex Stouts and Agatha Christies marked in Father's handwriting at the back, "Good one, surprised me again."  I remember my father in the splash of cold water hauled from the pump--hear him call out that fresh spring water is on the table.  I remember my mother in the endless sand swept from the floors, the cheerful curtains at the windows, the collection of antique choppers on the wall behind the stove, huckleberry pies in the oven, one side too dark from the uneven heat.  And although I can't divest either parent from this place, I play for my dad alone.  He is the Scot.  And when I hear Scot, I hear bagpipes.