Techniques and Special Effects

For this week's blog I focused mainly on Noden's chapters. I always find his techniques interesting in the way of painting pictures through writing. The five points that I wanted to mention this week are the following: Mixed collage for a Humorous Effect, Painting with Run-ons, Painting Images with Analogies, Creating Special Effects with Punctuation, and Shape Poetry.

Noden begins explaining his section on creating a mixed collage for humerous effect with the idea that it "increases student awareness of the rich specific details that surrounds us if we just take time to observe" (106). By using nouns and a series of adjectives used as nouns it transforms the piece into something more powerful for readers. In the example that Noden uses from Seinfeld, the different sections of nouns and adjectives were repeated with "if" which made it more of a list added to the original description. In my opinion, the list reiterated the fact that could have been stated in one short sentence. However, by continuously reiterating, the list seemed to expand infinitely, making the idea seem more important.

The third chunk of Noden's chapter on Advanced Techniques, is Painting with Run-ons. I found this interesting because I have always found run-ons to be annoying. But as Noden explains,  "run-ons are powerful when used skillfully by professional writers" (107). Separated by commas and even a dash, Noden uses an example from Tom Wolfe to "replicate the frantic feeling of taking off in the F-100" (107). The use of run-ons in the sentence works perfectly and flows so nicely that it's sometimes hard to recognize that this paragraph is ONE sentence.

For the twelfth chunk of Noden's chapter, he describes Painting Images with Analogies. Noden begins with "An analogy is a comparison of two very dissimilar things, one of which is easy to comprehend, the other difficult" (118). When using an analogy, Noden points out that the complex idea is clarified with the simpler concept in an analogy. Personally, I thought it to be pretty difficult to come up with an analogy on my own. However, I appreciated the examples that Noden used for the chapter.

In chapter 6 of Noden on The Artist's Special Effects, I found his section on Creating Special Effects with Punctuation to be really interesting. Using punctuation differently in the same sentence shows the "relationship between the length of a punctuation pause and the intended effect" such as with the example Noden uses (126). There are six ways Noden is able to create a different effect for each sentence without changing the words, but rather the punctuation. The six ways are the following: Maximum separation, Medium Separation Emphatic, Medium Separation Anticipatory, Medium Separation the semicolon, Minimum Separation, and Zero Separation. "Each choice of punctuation communicates a slightly different emphasis" (127).

Finally, my last point that I wanted to focus on was Noden's description of Shape Poetry. Here, writing poetry in a specific sphape "attempts to capture meaning beyond the content of words by shaping the words on the page" (133). Again, I thought this to be extremely difficult to do myself. Before even reading the example that Noden gives on John Hollander's poem, the reader can see this his poem is in the shape of a swan in a lake with the reflection of the swan shaping the end of the poem. Ironically, the name of the poem is "Swan and Shadow."

Until We Meet Again, Adverbs & Adjectives...

As a writer, I am always compelled to use adjectives throughout my work, whenever possible. I have always liked using adjectives because of the detail that they add to a story as well as the idea that adjectives create a vivid picture in the reader's mind. However, contrary to my belief, Anderson has much more to say about both adjectives and adverbs.

Two points that Anderson starts out with when talking about adjectives are adjective strings and adjective clauses.

Anderson suggests that too many adjectives, that create an adjective string, take away from the sentence. Instead, when using back to back adjectives, it is better to only use two at a time per sentence. This way, details are still added and getting the point across without taking away from the original  meaning of the sentence.

Next, Anderson introduces adjective clauses. Anderson explains that "an adjective clause works like a multiword adjective. It describes whatever is to the left of it, usually a noun ...and are usually introduced by relative pronouns such as who, whose, whom, which, that, and where" (135). Anderson also adds that it is important to know which pronouns to use when using an adjective clause. For instance: which refers to things and animals, who, whose, and whom refer to people, and that ususally refers to things.

The next section that Anderson includes in this chapter is about adverbs. More specifically he explains adverb clauses as well as adverbs and conjunctive adverbs.

Anderson begins that adverb section with "adverb clauses tell why, how, when, and under what condition things are or were done" (138). AAAWWUBBIS!!! He continues to explains how well AAAWWUBBIS adverb clauses work for titles of songs, tv shows, and books.

Finally, Anderson explains the uses of adverbs and conjunctive adverbs. This specific part of speech is mainly used best for transitions. Adverbs in particular "help guide a reader through a writer's ideas, signaling a contrast or comparison, or supporting an idea" (140). Whereas, adverb conjunctions transistion more towards new ideas being presented, as in, in between paragraphs, such as however or of course.