Beginnings of a character study:

The disdain comes from an intrinsic source. It's a feeling of disappointment that births the hatred for who he is. He does not hold any specific area of his personality in contempt, but his whole self for not existing on a grander scale.

These feelings drive him to accomplish many things of varying importance. On slower days, he invests his time in trivialities to ensure his schedule remains dense.

As I went over to say good-by I saw that the expression of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby's face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness. Almost five years! There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams--not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.

Unintentionally funny sentence of the day:

Nine women and three men have been selected to judge O.J. Simpson and a co-defendant. They are charged with kidnapping and robbing two sports memorabilia dealers last year in Las Vegas.

I guess even alleged felons can serve on juries now.

Avoiding Rambling

Lets discuss appealing to your audience.

I hadn't considered this concept until reading passages from two different authors. Kurt Vonnegut is the author of the first passage, which is here and on numerous blogs in a condensed form. He outlines eight points which are all illuminating, but these two caught my attention:

2. Do not ramble, though. (followed by one sentence of advice: "I won't ramble on about that.")

7. Pity the readers. They have to identify thousands of little marks on paper, and make sense of them immediately. They have to read, an art so difficult that most people don't really master it even after having studied it all through grade school and high school --- twelve long years. So this discussion must finally acknowledge that our stylistic options as writers are neither numerous nor glamorous, since our readers are bound to be such imperfect artists.

These points merge with guidelines for successful conversation: don't ramble on too much, and have pity for the other person. #7 takes on a different meaning in conversations -- don't overload people with personal information, since they're not ready (or willing) to process it -- but the spirit is the same. Winding syntax and thesaurus-aided diction do not imply good writing.

The second passage comes from rule #12 in Strunk and White. Here is the excerpt:

Writing, to be effective, must follow closely the thoughts of the writer, but not necessarily in the order in which those thoughts occur. This calls for a scheme of procedure.
...
Most forms of composition are less clearly defined, more flexible, but all have skeletons to which the writer will bring the flesh and the blood. The more clearly the writer perceives the shape, the better are the chances of success.

Again: avoid rambling, and adhere to a structure the intended audience will understand. Structure is a mechanism for conveying the writer's thoughts. By deviating from that structure, the writer descends into incoherence and risks losing the confidence of his or her audience.

Vonnegut, like many other writers, recommends Elements of Style as a technical guide to writing. The "little book" has definitely influenced many writers; maybe I'm onto something here.

Syntax-related thought: choose active or passive voice based on the subject of the sentence. Strunk and White discuss this at length.

I should get back to that book. Haven't read much recently thanks to math homework. The opposite of learning to write! I've changed my schedule to accommodate these interests more; we'll see how it turns out.

Starting Point

Let's begin with the following caveat: I have absolutely nothing important to contribute yet. There might be a literary idea gestating in my mind, but its nothing more than a wisp right now. My writing is not where I want it either; I'll make some personal changes so that I can convey ideas better from now on.

Literature: reading Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise, rereading The Great Gatsby.

Writing: studying The Elements of Style, by Strunk & White

Day One

Here's a new blog where I'll track my exposure to literature and writing. Hopefully there's some stylistic evolution taking place during this process, but I'm a bit pessimistic about it.

Also, I'll examine both what I'm reading and what I'm writing here.