Awash

Lush and Lyrical, or Compact and Succinct?  Stark or Subtle?  So many possible ways to write, and so many examples of how each style can be successful - or disastrous.  Tom Lehrer said it well in his song "Bright College Days" with the line "Soon we'll be sliding down the razor blade of life", which is just as applicable to the perilous task of writing as it is to life in general.

Writing groups are an excellent place to examine the possibilities.  A prompt is set out for consideration; each writer makes their own interpretation of the concept and then launches that idea on a distinct course.  The end results can be quite different in theme and style, and are always a lesson in how our own interpretation and methods are not the only ones that work.

It is often said that writers should read - widely and continuously - to broaden our understanding and knowledge, and as an aid to our future writing efforts. As if I need such an excuse to buy books, new or second hand - and as for those hours when I am working on the returns desk, well, my bag going home from work is always a lot heavier than it was going to work.  Where to put them, when I get home, is another question altogether - especially since (imagine a deep sigh at this point) a rearrangement of the furniture has somehow left me with fewer bookshelves than before.

There are other places to seek inspiration - the lyrics of some of the great songs of the 60's and 70's for example, are fine poetry in their own right, and poetry at its best shows how a few words can be loaded with meaning of great breadth and depth.  I have always envied people who can write lines like this, from "Hotel California".....    "there she stood in the doorway, I heard the mission bells"

A few words that bring to me a wave of images, sounds, and smells - especially after the opening lines......   "On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair, warm smell of colitas rising up through the air"

Billy Joel sets a mood and place concisely - "It's nine o'clock on a Saturday, the regular crowd shuffles in.  There's an old man sitting next to me, making love to his tonic and gin"

That regular crowd certainly does not sound like much fun at all - perhaps if they had danced in, or charged in, or tangoed in, or marched in, or, well, you get the picture.  There are so many ways to move into or through a space, or to look at someone or some thing, or to put a glass down, or to pick up a weapon.

How many different ways could a person enter a bar?  A thesaurus will give us some idea, but so will poetry, and Billy Joel, and The Rolling Stones, and so many others.

I've largely finished the first draft of a novel I'm working on.  It was done by trying to charge along, getting the story down, and then doubling back to sort out the continuity, and add in hints, clues, and characters that might add to the integrity of the tale.  Some of the writing was sharp and interesting - much of it is still in a bland state; descriptive, without attaining any great literary heights.

So it is time to start on the second draft, and the best way I can think of doing that is to take a scene such as the protagonist entering the bar of the small town pub that is close to the center of the story, and rewriting it in different styles until one jumps up and grabs me by the throat. How do you attack this problem?