Landscape Writing Like a Landscape Painting
Nice to see you again! Join in the discussion!One way to succeed in creating your setting is to think like an artist. Approach landscape writing like a landscape painting.
My approach to landscape painting is to first lay the large expanse of color like setting the stage. Your reader may have her own idea of where you taken her. That’s where your art begins. With subtle brushstrokes of character and place, your landscape painting comes alive. What’s more, your unique style shines through.
In my latest work, it’s as if the setting is a character. The story could only happen here. To better appreciate setting, I turned to a master of travel writing, Robert Louis Stevenson.
Yes, he wrote more than “Treasure Island“. In fact, his first published work, “The Inland Vovage,” was a travel piece. RLS loved the French landscape. His words lovingly bring joy alive. Who better to study to learn how to create a sense of place! As he wrote in an essay about Walt Whitman, There is a sense of course in which all true books are books of travel. ..
Indeed how true. Through my writing, I hope to transport you. I hope to introduce you and invite you in to the lives and living rooms of my characters. I hope to have you live in their world for just a bit. Borrowing from my artist background, I will approach my landscape writing as if it were a landscape painting on my easel.
Grammar Rules
Attribute it to the nuns, who during my tenure at Catholic grade school, taught me to take everything seriously especially grammar. Their wisdom left its mark. I respect grammar.
The other day I got into a discussion with an acquaintance about the use of the so-called Oxford comma or serial comma. That is the last comma that appears in a series. “Bill likes chicken, pork, and steak dinners.” Proper grammar such that used by the United States Government Printing Office argue for its use for clarity sake. Bill likes chicken dinners. Bill likes pork dinners. Bill likes steak dinners. Pork and steak dinners are a very different thing, surely.
My acquaintance argued against its use, citing MayoClinic.com and a few other websites that shun the comma. Horse feathers, I said. Grammar is grammar. It is not a matter of convenience. My objection is bending the rules at one’s choosing. If that happens, they’re not really rules are they, but suggestions. Pretty soon we’ll be writing thru for through and nite for night.
Newspapers appear to be the doomsayer of the serial comma. Whether it’s for space sake or just re-written grammar rules, it’s hard to say. Most authorities, however, embrace its use. As a geek who appreciates order and expected outcomes, I concur. Long live the Oxford comma!
Saving the Words
As a writer, it only makes sense that you would have a passion for words, for the language. That’s when I saw LifeHacker’s post about SaveTheWords.org, I had to take a look.
The purpose of the site is to resurrect those words doomed for extinction. As the website points out, hundreds of words are dropped from dictionaries each year. That’s why the site exists; to encourage people to adopt words, to use them, to save them. Words, even if not used today, are part of our history.
I adopted two words, ten cent store and phasianic. I grew up with a ten cent store down the street. I spent many a dime, nickel, and quarter there. Taking the short walk to town was one of my first experiences of doing grown up things. Unfortunately, the ten cent store today is now the $1.25 store. My word is a tribute to my past.
The second word is definitely a bit more obscure. From what I was able to gather, it was more widely used in the mid-1800s. The word means of or pertaining to pheasants. Not an odd choice really. The trails I walk are full of pheasants. So, naturally I’d like to be able to describe these phasianic walks.
Pay attention to the definition when you adopt a word. You won’t find them in your dictionary at home or online. That’s why you’re taking on this mission–to save the words.
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