Archive for the 'Writing' Category

Some Thoughts on Verbs and Modifiers…by naomi

Published by Naomi on November 12, 2006 in Naomi and Writing. 0 Comments

I guess all sentences need to be based on verbs. If you have a good verb, you have a good sentence, and if you have good sentences, you have a good piece. Sentences are to writers as brushstrokes are to artists. They’re your mark, and all work is nothing but an assemblage of made marks. If you have a good verb you will not need any modifiers, ideally. Modifiers should be avoided because they clutter everything up and inevitably drag everything down. Some people believe that avoidance of modifiers inhibits style by forcing an economy of words where they would favor “lush” writing….I’m sorry, but too many adjectives isn’t “lush”, it’s distracting and unnecessary. You don’t want to overdescribe things. When you overspecify every image you end up with a non-image.

My Aesthetics of Writing…..by naomi

Published by Naomi on November 7, 2006 in Naomi and Writing. 1 Comment

1. Avoid modifiers
2. Reduce everything to the existential horror of the materiality of the body.
3. Use simple language.
4. Stay away from anything remotely gestural
5. The prose surface should never be like glass.
6. All words should be of Anglo-Saxon origin. Latin corrupts. Except in this list.
7. Rack the history of English literature for variations on sentence form and steal them.
8. Do not be interested in the sublime; transcend nothing.
9. Subvert the speaker by using an additional, oppositional speaker that lurks beneath the surface.
10.Expressing nothing expresses everything.