The first section of the chapter -- Show, Don't Tell -- is the essence of the difficulty I had with our first readings for the course. It is the opposite of getting words on the page. It's usually the act of taking them off. It's the ability to look at a very descriptive paragraph and boil it down to an essential action. I read the first book of the Twilight series and am reading the first book of the Fallen series now. The reason I won't ever make it to the second book of either series is their authors' inability to stop telling what the characters are thinking and put their desires/traits/emotions into actions the characters take. I hope that we can raise a generation of writers who won't make their audience put down a book in the middle and never pick it up again. I have read too many books like that in the past five years.
One of the closing sections -- Kill Cliches -- also made me happy. I wish, however, Ms. Allen would have offered some suggestions as to why they are so harmful and how to steer students clear of them. I also wish she would have expanded the idea a bit further -- far worse than trite axioms like the ones she lists (e.g. "heart to heart") are cliched characters and situations (e.g. the mother and daughter who need to have a "heart to heart" because there's a boy at school who doesn't know the daughter exists, etc, etc). Cliches like this come when students lack experience or research to develop more original content. Experience comes with time, but students can get in the early habit of doing research and developing more compelling material.
I was in publishing for a brief period, so part of me loves the red pen. I'm glad one of our authors is giving it some liberty.
When I was reading the part about cliches in the book I was wondering if they aren't cliches for a reason. After all, they happen enough in human experience that they become, well, cliches (I wish I knew how to put an accent on a word in a comment box...). Anyway, upper elementary kids haven't yet had those experiences, so they'll have some trouble determining what's cliche, won't they? Of course you can give them a list, but it really won't have much meaning until they've lived some life.
ReplyDeleteJust some off-the-top-of-my-head cliched rambling. :)
Patti, I do think there must be cliches for a reason, but I'm not exactly sure what that reason is. I do think that cliches don't necessarily have as much meaning until children have experiences to match with the cliches. One last thought...I never really understood that it was considered taboo to include cliches in writing until college. I'm wondering when this should be addressed, and what exactly is it that makes cliches in writing so taboo?
ReplyDeleteI'm entertained by the fact that you not only used a cliche as your title but that you also chose one suitable for the trick-or-treating season!
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's much more interesting to read stories that make you think more deeply about what was read rather than just spelling it out for you. An innuendo that has to be deciphered takes a bit of motivation to create, and I think we just have to keep finding those great books and sharing these details with students to show them the beauty of it.
Haha, Jill -- you're exactly right! I'm embarrassed.
ReplyDeleteRachel -- I think what makes them taboo is that we get sick of reading them. I think they can probably be at least by the middle grades when kids can think through their own experiences and think of more original language.
Patti -- are you talking about cliched phrases or cliched situations in writing? Cliched phrases can be phased out earlier than cliched situations, I would imagine.