Know Your Writer Style: Understand Your Unique Use of Language

1. 01 Introduction, Know Your Writer Style: Hi, I'm glad I'm here to teach you a work your word creative writing course on Skillshare. This course is called know your writer's style. And then this introduction video, I'm going to just tell you a little bit about myself, as well as why you might want to take the course. I've been teaching for over 30 years. I teach high school English from special ed students all the way to advance placement students. And I'm certified in Bowl. I'm very comfortable with a wide range of skills. I also have been a freelance writer for different magazines, as well as an editorial columnist for a local newspaper. I am a blogger and also coach people independently on their writing as well as edit for self publishers. I happen to have a website called iceberg les.com. Please feel free to check it out where you will also see that I'm an artist and have paintings on the website as well. Now why would a writer wants to take inventory of one's own writing style? Well, for one thing we want to be able to talk about our own writing. We want to know terms to use to discuss how our style is unique or different from others. Knowing your writer's style also helps you to meet your purpose for writing as well as match the appropriate audience. It helps determine your tone or attitude toward a subject and to have a creative and unique voice. The greatest reason for knowing your writing style is to make improvements. The more you understand about the specifics of how you use language, the better you're able to stretch and grow as a writer. And finally, if there are writers that you admire, you can better model your own writing after them if you so choose. 2. 02 FIDDS & Project Overview, Know Your Writer Style: Welcome back. This is video two. And in this video we will talk about the components of language that we discussed to better understand our style. Then I will also talk about your Skillshare project and what you need to do to complete that. So to discuss language components, we use the acronym stands for figurative language, imagery, detail, diction, and syntax. I D, d. All writers use the fifths devices, but exactly how you use them and how often is what we don't know. The F and the S of Feds are for figurative language and syntax. And they are the two larger umbrella subjects that can be studied endlessly. So for the purposes of this course, we're just going to focus on some of the initial basics just to get you started. And perhaps we will discuss more advanced ones in future courses. The I, D and D of foods are stand-alone devices, imagery, detail in diction. And those are devices that we can use in many, many ways, but they're much simpler. Let's talk about your Skillshare project. Overall, you're going to be writing, sharing, and then inventorying your own language. You are encouraged to study your peers writing as well. And perhaps they will study yours. And in this way we're practicing more and more how to look at writing style. This is a great way for your brain to get used to thinking that way without too much trouble. The project has six steps. Let's review them. Step one, you're going to answer a prompt to write approximately 200 words describing your favorite place to be alone. This is a place where you go to get away to be able to think and feel and to not be bothered. Once you've done that reading, you're going to do step two, which is to simply number each sentence. As I have here on this slide. You can see that this writing has 14 sentences because of the boldfaced numbers that come before each sentence. And this allows us to reference each sentence easily by number. In step three, we share this numbered right into the Skillshare discussion board. And you can also share it with me directly. Step four is to complete the writer inventory worksheet on your own writing sample. But you will also have the option to look at a sample of writing that I have done and an inventory worksheet that goes with it. Hopefully this tool will help you along. If you need further instruction, you can simply reach out to me and I'll help you. Step five is optional. You can complete or new writers inventory worksheet for another student posted there right into the discussion board as well. The idea is to have a response from that pure on your reading while you give them feedback on there. Then finally, step six, which is to simply allow me a couple of days to respond with feedback to what you have completed. And that will complete your Skillshare writing project. 3. 03 Figurative Language, Know Your Writer Style: Welcome back. This is video three, where F is for figurative language. We're going to focus on this first device of the Fed's components of language. So for the purposes of this course, we will stick with the more basic devices of figurative language. Just know that there are many others to study and to attempt as you develop your craft. What is figurative language? This refers to words or phrases that are meaningful but not literally true. E.g. if you say that news hit me like a ton of bricks, we know that 2000 pounds of Brixton literally fall on you. But that you were strongly impacted by the news and that you're speaking figuratively. Let's talk about the six most basic and common uses of figurative language. They may look familiar to you and you can start paying attention to which ones you use instantly, regularly or not at all. Metaphor is to make an implied comparison. If we say she is the queen of her dinner parties, we know that she is not of noble blood, but she's simply behaves as if she is a similarly comparison using like or as she is like a queen of her dinner parties, she is as regal as a queen. Then finally, personification is to give inanimate objects human qualities. The son smiled down upon us, suggesting that the sun has actually human feelings for us and it's showing warm. Next we have hyperbole, which is simply an exaggeration. If we say Cry me a river, we know you're not literally going to cry that many tiers. Onomatopoeia are words that are sounds and a fantastic way for the reader to hear what's going on. Bu, crack, sizzle are strong ways to use language. Finally, illusion is to refer to something well-known without explanation. If I say chocolate is my kryptonite, then you know that chocolate is my weakness. Because kryptonite is Superman's weakness. We are assuming, you know, with Superman is and what kryptonite is. It is not your job to explain that to your reader. It's your reader's job to determine what that means. One little warning about figurative language. It's often loaded with cliches or what we call idioms. These are overly used phrases that pupil reference all the time without thought. The problem is there so overused and saturate our language just such a point that they no longer are original or creative. We want to not be lazy, but rather avoid cliches and come up with our own original way of saying the same thing. If I say it's an uphill battle. You know that I'm in for a struggle. But each of these cliches are not original. The only exception is when you use colloquial dialogue, and that's simply a conversation between two characters. So if two people in your story are talking to each other informally, there are oftentimes going to lean on cliches and idioms to make their point. And that would be the natural thing for a person to do. So you can go ahead and let your characters use these clashes while you yourself are not. 4. 04 Imagery, Know Your Writer Style: Hi, welcome back. This is video four where we will discuss the eye of the Fed's devices. And I is for imagery. Imagery is simply when we affect the reader's senses with our words. Taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell. And the reason we want to affect their senses is because it draws them into the experience as if they are having the experience themselves. It also tends to evoke an emotional response. These are the ways in which your reader will have the same experience as speaker in story. We want to show our readers what's going on. Instead of telling them. Imagery helps you to show them. I have a poem here I want to read to call the fish by Elizabeth Bishop, because it is rife with imagery. And as I read it, you could read along on the slide and see where the imagery really stands out as powerful. I caught a tremendous fish and held him beside the boat, half out of water with my hook fast in a corner of his mouth. He didn't fight. He hadn't fought at all. He hung a grunting weight, battered and venerable and homely. I thought of the course wipe flush packed in like feathers. The big bones and the little bones, the dramatic reds and blacks have a shiny and trails. And the pink swim bladder like a big puny. I admired his cell and face, the mechanism of his jaw. Then I saw that from his lower lip. If you could call it a lift. Grim, wet and weapon like hung five old pieces of fish line or four and a wire leader with the swivel still attached with all their five big hooks grown firmly in his mouth. A green line frayed at the end where he broke it to heavier lines and find black thread. So crimped from the strain and snap when it broke. And he got away. Like metals with their ribbons frayed and wavering. A five hair beard of wisdom trailing from this akin jaw. And because we sent these things began an emotional response, hopefully matching that of the poet or writer. 5. 05 Detail, Know Your Writer Style: Hi, Welcome back. In video five, we're going to talk about the first day of the Fed's devices. And D here is for detail. Detail is the most basic of the Fed's devices. And it's simply means to share concrete facts to imply deeper meaning about those facts. These facts are oftentimes mathematical or mechanical, or lists of objects. They are logical and indisputable. Let's return to the poem called The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop. In this one section that is loaded with detail, listen carefully and follow along. From his lower jaw. Hung five old pieces of fish line or four, and a wire leader with the swivel still attached with all their five big hooks grown firmly in his mouth. A green line frayed at the end where he broke it to heavier lines and a fine black thread. You can see here that there are a number of colors as well as just numbers of things. There's also a variation in the lines at the fishermen used. Each of these indicates that many fishermen and different fishermen have been trying to catch this fish and he always got away. What does this imply? This implies that this fish is no ordinary fish. He is truly a trophy fish that the fishermen is very proud to have caught. What the fishermen does with that information remains to be seen. But we know by the end of the poem. 6. 06 Diction, Know Your Writer Style: Hello, Here we are again to cover the second day of the fifths devices. And this d is for diction. Diction is simply word choice when we choose specific words in order to increase their effect. Also to create a purposeful tone and to show the speaker's attitude toward the subject. These words can be neutral, literal, and denotative, or they can suggest certain implied meanings. Connotation, color, or intensity. I'm going to give you three comparative examples. In this first sentence, it says the girl walked to the beat. This is just really a neutral fact. It seems simple enough. But if we slightly change the words, we could say something like that. Slept slathered all the way to the crushing shore. Now we have an entirely different tone. There shows judgment of the girl, also shows a way that she moves, as well as an intensity to the shore. In the second example, it says he sat at the head of the dinner table. This seems to only show his position at the table. But if we say he lord it over their fees, suddenly there are other people at the table with whom he has authority, as well as a feast which indicates something more formal and celebratory, as well as abundant. In the final example, it says the dog stole the food. We can see this is unfortunate. But if we say the Mongo snatched up the entire grilled cheese, suddenly the dog takes on a more rascals personality and a sneaky one at that. And then finally, because we know what kind of food was stolen, the food seems to have more value. How does the tone change? And how would you now describe the tone once neutral and blend, but now something else. 7. 07 Syntax, Know Your Writer Style: Hi, welcome back. Where? Video seven, on the final letter of the Fed's devices. This covers S for syntax. Syntax is nothing more than the structure of sentences, but it is a very complex thing to study. For the purposes of this course, we will just go to the very beginning levels of understanding our own syntax. There will be future courses that give us a more sophisticated look. No matter what types of sentences you use, there are some very simple ideas to consider when inventory in your own writing. First, we have sentence length. The shortest sentence is simpler. The idea, does your reading use long rambling sentences are short, punchy jabs. Second is a variety of sentence lengths. Typically the most effective writing has some version of a combination of short, medium and long sentences. Now, if you're writing short and medium sentences, you'll want to grow as a writer and start writing longer, more sophisticated sentences as well. If you're already writing really long sentences, you'll want to throw some short ones in there now and then to break it up. The final thing to consider is does your reading use two or three types of sentence structures? Because that's what most people do. They stick with two or three that they're really comfortable with hardly ever. 8. 08 Poetic License, Know Your Writer Style: Hello, this is video eight of know your writer style. And I just have a few additional thoughts to share before we have our last closing video. So when writing becomes an art and we're trying to be creative, we sometimes lean on something we call poetic license. And this is what we say, justifies breaking the rules. I'm all for breaking the rules and I've done it myself in a lot of my writing. But it's important to know what to avoid when you make this choice. If we want to communicate effectively, we have to respect the common expectations of our language so that people understand us. But there is a wisdom to poetic license. First of all, if we want to break the rules, we first have to know the rules. We cannot be breaking the rules because we didn't even know we were breaking them. Secondly, we want to use poetic license sparingly or consistently depending on the circumstance. So e.g. if we're going to use dialogue and never use quotation marks around the dialogue. Then we don't want to start using quotation marks later in the story. We want to stay consistent with that. Also, if we're going to use something like a deliberate fragment where we have a word, a period, a word in a period. That's a very common thing to do these days. It is very helpful because it puts emphasis on each separate word. However, if we start to use a deliberate fragment all the time, it actually loses its power. So we only want to use it sparingly now and then maybe once on a whole page or once in a whole chapter. We also don't want to have missing punctuation unless it's deliberate. We don't want to have missing punctuation because we didn't know punctuation belong there. It is the effect. We want to decide if it's worthy of the effect? Do we break the rules because its effect is worthwhile? This is subjective and important for you to decide. Playing with language, poetry and whimsical Pros can be a lot of fun. But we also want to maintain some stability in our language in order to have integrity and understanding. 9. 09 Closing, Know Your Writer Style: Hello. Well, we made it. We're at our closing video. In closing, I want to say to complete your project, you can go back to video two, which will help explain it, and the corresponding writer inventory worksheet located in the Skillshare documents. You can find me on ICIC les.com, off or on Skillshare, as well as using my email given here. This is a work your word creative writing course, which I teach on Skillshare and off of Skillshare. There are continued courses and communication, certainly. But as far as advanced courses beyond this one, I would love to hear what you think and if you contact me or communicate that, it would be great. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope that this was helpful and I wish you well.