South Flatland Fiction

Have the members of your critique group complained that your dialogue takes place between talking heads or that your poetry lacks imagery? Have editors told you that they can’t tell whether your story or personal essay is set in Kansas or California? If so, Rebecca McClanahan’s Word Painting can help you transfer the world you see in your mind’s eye to the page. Each of the ten chapters in McClanahan’s book is packed with tips and techniques for achieving description that creates verisimilitude without slowing down the pace of the work.

McClanahan begins each chapter by presenting a descriptive technique and telling how its use affects writing. Then she provides examples of that technique from the works of well known authors, both classic and contemporary. She reminds her readers of the importance of using the exact name of something and the necessity of appealing to all of the senses, not just the visual.

However, good description is more than the accumulation of sensory words; it requires focus and a careful selection of those details which will create a dominant impression. Imagery which helps portray the dominant impression should grow naturally out of the subject. For writers to use imagery with greater ease and effectiveness, they should find their "personal constellation of images."

According to McClanahan, each writer has one or more of these constellations, which are acquired as a result of an event or events of great importance in the writer’s life. One way of discovering these constellations is to reread your work and see what descriptions and images you have used successfully.

Then go through your journals and circle words, phrases, descriptions, and images that you repeat about your "personal constellation of images."

These images will lead you to those things you care about passionately. Next, McClanahan covers some of the methods for putting a writer’s personal images to work in his or her writing. Not only does she discuss the usual topics of character, setting, and limitations of the various points of view, but she also tells how description affects the pace, atmosphere, and tone of the work. She ends where she began, with the selection of the word, with the need for it to be an exact fit in both its denotation and connotation.

Word Painting is not a book to be read quickly. Take time to examine the examples, work the exercises that appeal to you, and apply them to your writing. Your readers will appreciate it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Hazel Hart teaches an online English composition course for Butler County Community College, sells collectible paperbacks through her online bookstore, and writes in her spare time. She has won awards for her fiction and poetry from Writer's Journal, Byline, Kansas Voices, The Kansas Writers Association and The National Writers Club. Her work has been published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Unity, and several small literary magazines.

While living in Colorado, Hazel co-edited Array, a small literary magazine, which contained poetry, short stories, and personal essays. She is currently developing a Fundamentals of English course for BCCC and working on a third novel.