Writing flow and creativity…

With some of the recent submissions I have made, I find myself varying my writing style... quite a bit. I have stepped outside the confines of comfortable and into the poetry of prose. Laying aside the grammar nazi, (deep breath, she is such a part of me!) I am playing with more freely structured sentences. I am a literary fiction fan - lover of the classics, so this is a big step outside my box. However, I am finding it to be very addicting, as well. I have written poems for longer than prose, so being able to incorporate a poetical element into my stories is exciting!

Regardless to the style, formatted to sentence perfection or chaotically creative, there is one rule that should always apply - flow! Have you ever read a book or story in which every sentence started with a noun? No? Of course not! They would never be published! Varied sentence structure adds to flow and creativity. For example:

Harriet likes to paint pictures. She uses both acrylics and oil paints. She usually paints with acrylics on weekdays and oils on weekends.

Bor-ing.

Let's switch it up some:

Harriet likes to paint pictures, using both acrylics and oil paints. Usually, she paints with acrylics on the weekdays and oils on the weekend.

A bit better - at least they don't all start with nouns.

Now, lets make it more creative - use more interesting words, something more colorful, bringing the writing alive. Using a thesauruses when stumped is fine, we won't tell. Also - using those similes, metaphors, and personification. (See the blog post, "The poetry of it all…" for further explanation.) Let's try again:

Harriet's enjoys creating images with brushstrokes of color. Using both acrylic and oil mediums, she paints pictures of the imagination. On weekdays, she sticks to her acrylics and, on weekends, she explores the world of oils.

Ok, still a bit like a biography on a painter, but at least more interesting, right? To try one more thing - a messy sentence structure that will change everything, but keep the vital information of the text's integrity.

Art strokes Harriet's heart passion, like the brushes she holds in her hands. Weekdays, the Monday through Friday of work and labor, leave less time. Just acrylics. Without the clocks clicking, reminders of duties to be done, oils. Blending hues of blues with shades of amber, her pictures come alive.

Play with it, even if you never use the words you pen. Step outside your confines of comfort and write something that borders poetry. Paint the words and make them come alive!

The tactile nature of painting is therapeutic for me. I like to play with textures, layering paints on patterns…rinse, repeat! Charcoal pulls those patterns from the top layers, creating something unintended and new. "Beauty with a broken wing."