Learning to Question your Elephant Child: Who, What, Where, Once
and Why
by:
Stephen Earley Jordan, II
Having problems writing? I don't cognize why. San Francisco Chronicle editorialist Jon Author writes up to five columns a week. After all, if he can write five columns, you should be able to write a five-lined poem-but that makes not seem to be the case.
How makes he do it? Author claimed to recite lines from Rudyard Kipling's "The Elephant Child":
"I have six humble serving men
They instructed me all I knew
Their names are what
And wherever
and once
And why and how and who."
I'm more than sure that two incentives for Jon Author are 1.) Creating deadlines and 2.) His salary! Yes, we writers DO get paid every now and then!
Basing my philosophies on those few lines of Kipling's "The Elephant Child", my proposal
is to "Simply Ask Questions". Rummage through several old activity (whether it be poetry, nonfiction, or fiction) that you've written and use the following techniques to enhance your skills. And, then, ask yourself the follow questions.
WHAT is the underlying theme?
Try to move up with a single-word or phrase to describe your story. Possibly one reason your story has not been effective in the past is that you have too galore intertwining stories. This, in turn, can cause confusion for the reader. So, ask yourself, "What is my story about?" And, give yourself answers such as: Desolation, Lost Hope, Self-Confidence, Racism, Earned
Dreams, etc. If you can KISS (keep it simple stupid), then your readers won't MISS your point.
As practice, see several of the great contemporary writers and ask yourself the same question-"What is the underlying theme?" Describe the book in one word or one phrase, instead of exploitation a high school book-report technique.
WHERE makes your story or verse form take place?Knowing the setting can allow you to be a bit more synchronic with your work. Makes your verse form or prose take place in Alaska? Florida? China? Yugoslavia? Hawaii? Kentucky? Each of these places is, perhaps, equal opposites of the next. To cognize your setting you have two choices-- 1.) Be a nice researcher; collect images and see as more as you can just about the location, or 2.) Take a road trip! Nothing can be grander than to spend your weekend visiting unknown territories.
WHEN did the events take place in which you are writing?If you're doing factual reporting-this is especially a MUST-DO. For instance, if you see a news article a reader wants to cognize once
Ms. Johnson's home was burglarized. Did it happen Gregorian calendar month
20, 2001? Gregorian calendar month
20, 1984? Did the events take place once
it was winter with ten inches of snow? Or, better still, did the events take place at Virginia Beach mid-August?
WHY did the events take place?Is there a conflict inside
your character? A lot of times character's (and real folk too) have problems only because their conscious is "eating them away". Is this the case? If so, why makes your character feel so guilty that he ready-made such decisions? Possibly the events that take place are only cause-effect. Most always folk cause their own mental downfall and breakdown. Always cognize why your characters complete every task and why the events take place.
How did the events happen?Too often folk wish say, "I had a car wreck today…" But, do they leave it at that? No, no, no. You must always tell how the events happened. Were you drive in the incorrect lane, but still feel it's not your fault? Did you skid uncontrollably on a patch of ice? Maybe, you wanted to avoid the slow-moving turtle
that crossed your lane? If another characters are involved, it's important to get their perspective in dialogue. Possibly they feel the events happened differently.
Who did the events happen to?Who your events happen to is one of the main focuses. You have to choose your characters carefully. Why? Well, it would-be change a story wholly if you wrote of a 68-year old cheerleader. Your activity would-be be a several story if the character were an unfit
adult. How would-be the events change if, let's say, the main character was so
the Elephant Child, child of the deceased Elephant Man? Be creative with your characters and allow their personalities to activity well for you once
creating your piece.
Sometimes writers can use techniques that allow them to disregard several of these steps. Oh, Really? -You question. Yes. For instance, a writer may cognize the intentions of a character, a location-but you may not want to put it in print. My suggestion is that you Cognize all the answers to the above questions to do the activity have more substance. By knowing all the answers you can create images, people, and scenarios by exploitation symbols and customs of a particular area.
About The Author
Stephen Jordan has five years experience inside
the educational publication industry. Author was a freelance editor with such educational foundations as Princeton Review, The College Board, New Dynasty University, and Columbia University. Away from the office, Author promotes his creative writing with his home-freelance business OutStretch Publications and his artwork. Author holds two Bachelor of Arts degrees in writing and literature from Alderson-Broaddus College of Philippi, West Virginia.
Editor@OutStretch.net
This article was announce on Gregorian calendar month 22, 2004
