Treacherous Writing

At the outset let me state that I have never studied literature, writing devices, or narrative technique. What follows are entirely naïve, completely personal opinions.

I have always been troubled by what I call ‘being clever’ with words. I could take examples of this phenomenon from popular writing here in the blogosphere, but would rather not. For obvious reasons. Like being shot. So I fall back on the example I have always used to explain this. An ex-colleague used to have the following IDs on yahoo messenger - ‘Queen of Disorient’ and ‘Acid Ditty’. Most people, including in all probability you, fair reader, would find these handles funny and creative, even somewhat cerebral. But they just make me feel nauseous and irritated. Of late, after coming into contact with a certain blogger whose writing I otherwise respect, but who often makes use of this ‘clever’ device, I decide to be more open-minded and made an honest attempt to appreciate this sort of writing. I now find ‘Queen of Disorient’ interesting but still can’t handle ‘Acid Ditty’. And I find that truly inspired writing, like that of Marquez or Shakespeare, never resort to such verbal jugglery, or to put it honestly, cheap tricks.

Another device that I do not particularly like is ‘the surprise twist’, the one where you find out right at the end that the protagonist is a cripple (and has been one all along). It makes me go ‘hmm, right’ but does not move me at all. Recently I was discussing a class script exercise that I was facing a block with with a friend. He suggested a twist which at that moment seemed like a good idea to me, more because it would make out my protagonist to be strong rather than for the surprise element, but later I did not include it because it seemed forced. Twists of that nature seldom occur in real life, and somehow to me it seems like ‘cheating’ the audience/reader. The only ‘twist’ story I’ve ever liked is the one by O’Henry where the woman cuts and sells her hair to buy her paramour a chain for his watch, and he sells the watch to buy her a comb for her hair – but this is purely because it appeals to the romantic female in me. There are of course genres when withholding information from the audience/reader is essential – in a detective story or in a comedy about mixed identity. But otherwise, really, it is just another cheap trick to mask average writing.

Waiting for the brick bats - be sure to make them clever ;)