Loss at the Center of Literature

I've been exploring the idea of making your work, any writing you do, more literary.  Have you noticed that much of literature is about loss?  So many storylines start with the memory of past loss.  Main characters flash back to losses of children, parents, spouses, etc.  Alexandre Dumas's Count of Monte Cristo begins with and centers on a plot by his friends to take everything from him, and the rest of the story deals with what he does as a reaction to loss.  Oliver Twist, Jane Eyre, Taran Wanderer and so many other stories start with an orphan who is forced to find his/her way in the world because of the death of both parents.  Most novels or series of novels, such as Harry Potter, based on Joseph Cambell's hero's journey pattern feature a father's (or father figure's) death as does Shakespeare's Hamlet.  To Kill a Mockingbird, Emma, "Cinderella," and other tales have a single father making mistakes as he tries to raise children alone.  The evil stepmother is such a common trope in fairy tales and other literature because loss of spouses has been such a common experience.

If literature doesn't start with loss, it often centers around characters trying to avoid loss of some sort, whether it be through death or some other means.  Shakespearean tragedies are built on the theme of impending loss.  Adventure stories have main characters grappling with the risk of death on a regular basis.  Pride and Prejudice centers on fear of loss of home and livelihood. Jane Eyre's central theme of loss extends not just to her loss of parents and childhood friend but also to her loss of home after home, hope for the future after hope for the future.   Loss is at the center of what makes literature powerful because loss is at the center of human experience.  Past loss can also make a character more understandable.  If a character cares about or has cared about someone and has experienced or experiences a broken heart, we often feel for that character because we, too, have been through loss.  We see some piece of ourselves in those characters.

So it's time to consider your own characters.  What loss have they experienced before your novel begins?  How does that make her/him more understandable and empathetic to readers?  Remember that any presentation of loss should feel like it could have happened.  It should feel real to the reader, whether they've experienced that kind of loss or not.  If you simply say a person has lost a child, but yet that character doesn't behave as would someone who has lost a child, those readers who have lost a child will not like your story or character at all.  It will feel wrong, contrived.  Loss should have an impact on the character and, thereby, on the story.  

Is your character in danger of loss?  What is at stake through the story?  How does that play into or echo loss they've already experienced?  If nothing feels like it's at stake for your character, why should the reader care?  Look at loss as it is handled in your favorite literary works.  How can you handle this theme likewise?   Best of luck.

Symbolism

What is a symbol?

My blog recently has been all about how to make your writing, any writing, more literary.  One of the key literary devices that can elevate a piece from just a story to something above that, something more meaningful, is the use of symbolism.  Symbolism is where one thing--say, a fish, a snake, a tree, or a lamb--can represent something deeper and more culturally significant.  All of the aforementioned items are used within the Bible to reference the divine.  The symbol of a snake in the Old Testament appears in the story of a brass serpent used as an object of healing, one which many consider a foreshadowing and reference to the story of Jesus.  The medical symbol of the crossed snakes references this same symbol while also alluding to Hermes in Greek mythology.  Yet at the same time, a serpent is also used in the Old Testament to represent the devil.  Say you want to make a character, a doctor, who is mysterious and could be either evil or good.  You associate this symbol of the crossed snakes with him to make him seem noble and good, someone seeking to heal.  Yet there's also something else snakelike about him, and these snake symbols seem more sinister and are somehow associated with temptation, an apple, and a fruit.  You have now used commonly understood cultural symbols to make this doctor both confusing and intriguing.  Is he a healer?  Is he bent on your main character's downfall?  How did you do this?  By use of symbolism.

Examples of Literary Symbols

A symbol is most often an object that means more than what it seems at face value.  Let's consider Hester Prynn's badge in Nathaniel Hawthorn's Scarlet Letter.  At first blush, it seems to be simply a letter.  What's in a letter?  To the characters in the book, it's a badge, a brand to show that she is a fallen woman.  The red marks her as a scarlet woman, a whore undeserving of membership in the regular community.  Yet at the same time, the A sets her free to become what she wants.  It frees her from the regular constraints of a very restrictive society.  It sets her apart and makes her both special and unique.  It ceases to be just a letter and becomes a symbol of the outsider.  In Herman Melville's Moby Dick, the white whale is a symbol of the power of nature.  Most characters in the novel self-destruct when they joust that mysterious and insurmountable power.  One could discuss the phallic nature of both harpoon and whale and see this novel as the ultimate masculine face-off, the moral being that man cannot withstand the power of nature.  In F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby, a pair of glasses on a billboard seem like just an image, yet they come to symbolize the all-seeing eye of God, which sees and judges society and finds it wanting.  Great authors know and use the power of simple symbols that represent so much more than just a simple object.

How can you use symbols? 

If you want to consider symbolism, look at the meaning of color in your books.  Let's consider the image of a blanket.  You say, "Wait.  But a blanket is just a blanket, right?"  Oh, but in a literary book, whether it be a sci fi, fantasy, romance, or something else with literary overtones, a blanket can be so much more. In your text, you can suggest a blue blanket represents depression, sadness, and loss with its color.  You can hint that a person hiding under that blanket is so steeped in sadness that he can't face the world and seeks to hide under a blue blanket.  Say you want the blanket to be yellow.  You suggest this character is reminded of all things bright and sunny, of his mother, of her warm embrace, every time he looks at the yellow blanket she gave him.  Now she's gone, that yellow blanket represents all that is light and happy in the world as the rest of the universe grows cold and ugly.  He would die to save that yellow blanket because it's all he has of her.  Say the blanket is red.  It was steeped in the man's people's blood.  He tries to get rid of it, burn it, but it will not disappear.  Everywhere he looks, he's haunted by the image of that blanket that speaks to him of death.  He goes mad because he can't handle the depth of pain held in that one red blanket.  Say the blanket is white.  He has become a serial killer but misses the innocence he had.  The blanket represents the innocence he seeks to destroy because he can't handle that anyone can be as innocent as he was when he was hurt by someone he loved.  One blanket can be a symbol for so much more.

Pick an item.  Find out how you can make it a symbol.  How can you turn it into something beyond just what it is at face value?  Consider how that can add meaning to your whole book or story.

Compelling Voice

I've been writing about how to turn any piece into something more literary.  This week, I will explore how to make any writing more compelling, so that your meaningful prose can find its readers.  This may seem basic and obvious to a lot of writers, but I teach beginning writing.  I know a lot of people write with a passive, static voice instinctively.  Good writing is intentional, each word chosen for its meaning and power.  In order to keep a reader interested enough to get to your brilliant allusions, foreshadowing, etc., they have to read on.  If you put readers to sleep on page one, this cannot happen.

Mistake 1. Passive Voice: A passive voice shows the object as the main noun in a sentence.  "This sentence was written by me."  I'm doing the writing, yet I get sort of lost in a dull, passive sentence.  Such sentences get old quickly.
Correction:  In order to write in active tense, make sure the sentence starts with the active noun, as in, "I wrote the sentence."

Mistake 2. Static Sentences: I may have all the interesting nouns in my story taking charge of their own sentences, but action verbs need to do the heavy lifting.  Otherwise, my fiction can still get dry.  You can dry out your writing with heavy use of "to be" verbs (is, are, were, was, have been, will be).  These words express a state of being but don't show anything actually happening.  Even great works of literature can sound fairly static to the modern ear.  I love Jane Austen's works, but she came from a time in which one commonly used "to be" verbs as a matter of course:  "A lady's imagination is very rapid;"  "There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends;" and "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!"  If you tried to write with so many "to be" verbs now, your reader would get bored in a hurry.  
Correction:  Seek out strong action verbs (except with dialogue tags; an editor's podcast I heard explained about the need to stick to said, asked,shouted, and whispered in order to write like a professional.)  I will rewrite Austen's sentences above to make them more active.  "Her imagination explored this new suggestion and turned it into a full-blown plan."  "I devoted myself to serving my friends."  "My joy soared with the intricacy of the words."  Note:  If a writer focuses on making "to be" verbs a rare occurrence, each one maintains its potency.   The state of being becomes important and draws attention to itself in a positive way. 

Mistake 3. Making up for dull verbs with adverbs and adjectives:  Stephen King took J.K. Rowling to task for a plethora of adverbs that appear throughout the first four or so books.  The first time I read those books through, I didn't notice so much.  By the second time around, those words jumped off the page like a 3D image.  They drove me nuts.  I'm reading a book series right now that is charming except that they use adverbs as dull, wordy crutches.  The occasional adverb is okay, but most of them can be cut for crisper, more potent writing.  Adjectives can be powerful but only when used sparingly.  
Correction: Cut adverbs and trim adjectives to no more than one per noun.  Later in the Harry Potter series, Rowling seemed to have caught the message.  Her writing got so much more subtle and professional when she focused more on powerful nouns and verbs.  

Mistake 4: Monotony:  It's easy to write with the same sentence structure again and again, with the same noun-subject combination and roughly the same length of sentences.       If you catch yourself writing the same sentence structure again and again,, it's time to switch it up.  

Go through your manuscript right now and make sure your sentences are varied and contain an active verb without a lot of adjectives and adverbs.  Your prose will come alive.