Four Authors of Classical Contemporary Literature Defined the Craft of Writing Perfect Prose

From academicians to book critics to lay readers, each is often eager to recommend a list of authors who will provide aspiring writers with a sound foundation from which to build.  Any suggestions should be revered, and it would be ridiculous for one person to state that her/his idea of quality prose is better than another's.  

However, there are four aspects of the craft of writing that many who understand literature would argue have never been better addressed:  Steinbeck's perfection with dialogue, Faulkner's depth of characterization, Hemingway's precise narrative, and Fitzgerald's palpable creation of mood.

One of the quickest ways to appreciate John Steinbeck's brilliance in the realm of dialogue is to read TORTILLA FLAT, THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT, and OF MICE AND MEN.  Accents are often hard to maintain in a novel without eventually grating on the reader, yet Steinbeck's last line of dialogue in TORTILLA FLAT is as fresh as his first.  THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT provides a perfect medium for demonstrating his range.  And it is then a simple step to OF MICE AND MEN to gain an understanding of Steinbeck's genius in the art of writing divergent dialogue at an extraordinary level.        

The mere mention of William Faulkner can cause many to quail.  But a lot of Faulkner aficionados, of which I am included in this group, feel he is unchallenged in the realm of characterization.  (As an aside, if his work is broken down to the length of his clauses, it is often much easier to appreciate his talent.)  Many erudite souls recommend ABSALOM, ABSALOM as an ideal example of why Faulkner rules the world of characterization, and one needs to read only the first paragraph in the initial chapter to realize the reason for this praise.  Another suggestion is that serious writers read THE SOUND AND THE FURY.  The characterization of Dilsey the maid is, in itself, a masterpiece.  

Hemingway's art is an example of elevating a single element of writing to such a high level that the weaker aspects of (his) prose can be ignored.  With simple words his narratives were so powerful and his depictions so poignant that he is credited with creating a unique style.  An efficient way to experience his skill is to read THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA.  What is often overlooked about Hemingway's crisp, concise style is the quality of pitch his technique enables.  His passages of perfect pitch, in themselves, can be important to analyze by anyone desiring to become a better writer.     

Mood like voice is one of those magical areas that is easy to recognize but impossible for a great many people to define.  But whatever mood happens to be, it can be experienced in the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald.  In THE GREAT GATSBY, THIS SIDE OF PARADISE, and TENDER IS THE NIGHT, there is an unmistakable mood that is so sentient the reader can easily (and pleasantly) become enveloped by it.  A leading example is the opening paragraph in TENDER IS THE NIGHT, which sets the mood for the entirety of a story as well as any novel that comes to mind for many learned readers.  Whatever Fitzgerald's voice was, he found it.  And whatever mood is, he created it with exceptional flair.  

There are numerous other writing elements, and subcategories of each, that anyone serious about becoming a novelist must consider.  But for those who desire an understanding of what many regard as the four pillars necessary for developing a proficiency in writing quality prose, especially if the interest is to be published by a major royalty publisher, it is difficult to argue against venturing into the oeuvres of Steinbeck, Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald.

Robert L. Bacon

http://theperfectwrite.com

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Contemporary Literature - Where Traditional Publishing Fails

Traditional publishing as we know it is indispensable when it comes to REpublishing. No private entrepreneur in his or her right mind would take it upon him/herself to put out hundreds of thousands of copies of classics, textbooks, the Bible, etc, knowing that the big publishing houses are doing it anyway (rather well, too). When it comes to contemporary literature, though, a whole different set of production rules should apply which the majors are physically unable to follow.

Let us remember that major book publishers are corporate entities; with them, it is either the corporate way or the highway (which is ironic, since without corporations, we would not have highways; or bridges, or commercial airplanes, or cheap ballpoint pens, for that matter - and so forth).

The main thing about corporations is they tend to be conservative. And that is a good thing as far as Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, et al, are concerned. Really. Corporations do not really like the idea of creating markets, since new markets invariably bring new standards, while corporate business is perfectly happy with the existing model, thank you very much. Corporations stick with what they already know, and they do a good job. They are efficient. They make things better and cheaper.

When a book-publishing corporation seeks to publish a new book, however, the first thing it will look for in the manuscript is whether it follows corporate standards, i.e. - does it resemble anything the corporation (or its competitors) have published before. (If not, the corporation will just move on; if indeed the book is like something the large publishing house is familiar with, the next step is to look at the earlier book's track record. Did it sell well? Did it flop? And so forth.

Meantime, new literature should seek to establish new approaches, new methods, new standards. In order to be new, it can't afford seriously to look into anything people have seen before. That is what new means, after all.

The problem is that anything new is nearly always a high-risk, high-reward proposition. Publishers of truly new books have to take their chances. Corporations favor ventures in which the risk factor is kept to the absolute minimum. Private publishers would favor those too if only they could afford it. But you cannot beat corporations at their own game.

Today's technologies, however, enable the private publisher to at least alleviate some of the risk. Here are some things I do that no major publishing house can do (physically); I'm serious, folks.

1. Select only those manuscripts that are absolutely, positively riveting, and totally, totally original.

I can do this because there are only two "readers" in my company, and I am one of them. Corporate manuscript selection involves a whole bunch of "readers" who are limited by, not just their own personal literary tastes, but also their idea (usually hallucinated) of what their superiors want to hear from them. With some exceptions (some of which go on to become national bestsellers), the rule of thumb is if a new book (fiction or non-fiction) has made it all the way to the corporate press, passing through the usual sieve of oft-conflicting individual tastes, ideas, fears, whims, moods, and on and on, it must be worthless. Few good books can actually please ten people in a row. A dash of originality is certain to get a book shot down by any one of the ten (or fifteen, or twenty) folks assessing its quality (from the agent's reader (usually a college student who will read the first twenty pages for a few bucks) to the publisher, with many intermediaries in between, because it is "not like anything they've read before" (and not in a good sense, either), and also because each "reader"'s idea of originality is different from that of the next "reader."

2. Invest very little money in each new project.

My authors do not get an advance, only royalties. I don't have to do any big-time promotion. I simply put a book up on the website and maybe write a couple of articles and/or reviews about it.

3. Do away with the necessity to print a "minimum number" of copies and pay for it.

I'm not a "print-on-demand" or "publish-on-demand" publisher; I'm a print-on-order publisher (go ahead, make fun). When a customer orders a book online, we print one copy of that book and send it to him or her. When a book club orders ten copies, we print ten copies, and not twelve or twenty. When one of our authors wants a bunch of books for a presentation, we usually try to discourage it. As a last resort, we ask him or her to show proof that the copies we print for him or her will actually be sold, all of them, at that presentation. We save a lot of trees in the process, but mostly we spare ourselves a lot of waste motion. Our prices are a bit higher than corporate prices - but the neighborhood bistro, too, charges more for a cup of coffee than the "franchise" and the "chain," and, guess what, the quality is higher.

4. Sell on the Web, or at conferences, or at events, without having to deal with distributors and stores, thus avoiding the risk of a thousands of books being sent back after forty days of lukewarm customer interest.

Sometimes, a good book takes a while to get the readers' attention.

5. Quick turnaround.

It takes up to three years for a major publishing corporation to put out a book. By the time it's out, some of the ideas it contains might very well be out of date.

That's the scoop. The main point, I suppose, is that major publishing houses are better off putting out books that have been put out before, and leaving the whole new, contemporary literature business to us private entrepreneurs.

Rugero T. Ricordi is the founder of Mighty Niche an independent publishing house and online bookstore. Books published and sold by Mighty Niche are NOT available at Amazon.com

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The Impact of the Internet on Contemporary Literature

Literature basically is everything that has ever been written. Anything from the earliest poems of Homer, to today's web pages, can be considered literature. But for a specific sense, there are various kinds of literature. Literature can be written in a specific language, like English Literature or be written by a specific culture, such as African Literature. But literature really means more than printed words and the internet certainly is a part of literature. I should note that the word literature comes from the French phrase belles-lettres, which means "beautiful writing". When a piece of work is called literature, it is usually considered a great work of art. The internet literature does not necessarily have to be this way for the fact that no one controls the internet literature. In the following essay I am going to speak about the impact of the internet on literature of nowadays.

There are two main classes of literature which are also present on the internet: fiction and nonfiction. Fiction is writing that an author creates from the imagination. Authors may include personal experience, or facts about real people or events, but they combine these facts with imagined situations (Moran, 45). In non-internet literature the project undergoes at least some sort of censorship in terms of what words can be used, yet the internet allows the authors to put anything they desire on the web site and enjoy it. Most fiction is narrative writing, such as novels and short stories. Fiction also includes drama and poetry. Nonfiction is factual writing about real-life situations. The principal forms of nonfiction include the essay, biography, autobiography, and diary (Browner, 90). The internet presents a new forms--internet pages, or internet books.

People read literature for a variety of reasons. The most common reason for reading is pleasure. People read to pass the time, or for information and knowledge. Through literature, people meet characters they can identify with, and sometimes find solutions for their own problems. With literature, a person can often understand situations they could not otherwise understand in real life (Koehler, 28). Often, just the arrangement of the words can be enjoyable, just as a child likes the sound of "Ring Around the Rosie", even though they might not understand what the words mean. There are four elements of literature: characters, plot, theme, and style. A good author has the ability to balance these elements, creating a unified work of art. The characters make up the central interest of many dramas and novels, as well as biographies and autobiographies. A writer must know each character thoroughly and have a clear idea about each ones look, speech, and thoughts. The internet literature is not difficult to create for the fact that unlike "traditional" literature the internet literature requires minimal start up costs (Moran, 47). And because reading usually involves convenience, at some point of time one would not be surprised to see convenient electronic devices that could be transported anywhere and would download books from the internet and present them in digital format.

Motivation is the reason for characters actions. A good writer will be sure that the motives of a character are clear and logical. The internet writers do not have to be this way, they are not controlled and they hardly risky anything by publishing online. Setting is where a character's story takes place. The plot is built around a series of events that take place within a definite period. It is what happens to the characters. No rules exist for the order in which the events are presented. A unified plot has a beginning, middle, and an end. In literary terms, a unified plot includes an exposition, a rising action, a climax, and a denouement, or outcome. The exposition gives the background and situation of the story (Browner, 93). The rising action builds upon the exposition. It creates suspense, or a reader's desire to find out what happens next. The climax is the highest point of interest, also a turning point of a story. The denouement is the conclusion. The theme is the basic idea expressed by a work of literature. It develops from the interplay of character and plot. A theme may contain morals, to warn the reader to lead a better life or a different kind of life. The internet literature does not have to be this way at all because no one controls it. The write take minimal risk in terms of investment, yet possibly can find readers from all over the world, which can pay for the e-book and download it to their own computers, is very high (Moran, 49).

A serious writer strives to make his work an honest expression of sentiment, or true emotion. They avoid sentimentality, which means giving too much emphasis to emotion or pretending to feel an emotion. A writer of honest emotion does not have to tell the reader what to think about a story. A good story will direct the reader to the author's conclusion. Style is the way a writer uses words to create literature. It is difficult to enjoy a story's characters or plot without enjoying the author's style (Browner, 98). The style of an author is as important as what he is trying to say. Point of view, or the way a story is presented, is another part of style. A writer may tell a story in the first person, using the pronoun I, as though the narrator were a major or minor character in it. Or, the writer may use the third person method, in which the narrator stands apart from the characters and describes the action using such pronouns as he and she. There are two types of third person views: limited and omniscient. In the third person limited point of view, the narrator describes the events as seen by a single character. In the third person omniscient, or all knowing, point of view, the narrator reports on what several characters are thinking and feeling. Reading is an intently personal art. There are no final rules for judging a piece of writing. Often, people's judgment of a work can change as taste and fashion change. Yet the classics continue to challenge readers' imaginations and give ageless advice. Shakespeare will most likely be as popular a hundred years from now as he is today. That is power of literature. Literature is timeless (Moran, 53).

It should be noted that literature can have many and different values on a person and it is the internet that allows literary values to be delivered to the audience without any barriers. It is all depending on the story and the value or moral issue the author wants, you, the reader to get out of it. The value literature had on me was actually hard to put into words. But to understand the value of literature you must know the definition of value and literature. Value has many meanings but there is two that relate (Browner, 102). Worth in usefulness or importance to the possessor and a principle, standard, or quality considered worthwhile or desirable. Literature is a body of writings in prose or verse. Literature produces value because it is basically an analysis of an experience or situation (Koehler, 30). I got a different value out of each story. With Mark Twain's The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn it showed me that one does not have to be civilized or conform to the ideas of society to become cultured or mature. With Huck Finn he ran away from everything that was considered civilized (Moran, 58). He had nothing and really did not want anything. But at the same time he experienced and matured living dangerously. This made me value Huck's adventure and take it as my own. Huck proves his maturity when he comments on how the king and duke dupe the villagers into believing that they are the dead man's brothers, and Huck says, "I never see anything so disgusting."(Twain 163) Even though the king and duke commit an awful act on the villagers he still feels sorry for them when they get tarred. Huck comments, "Human beings can be awful cruel to one another."(Twain 225) In William Faulkner's Barn Burning it told of a man named Abner Snopes who burned barns when upset or mad. This was his way of getting back at them. "Barn Burning" has two very evident struggles (Browner, 105). Abner oppresses his family just as the upper class has oppressed him. "Barn Burning" to me is based on misdirected anger. Which is basically happening in these days. For example, a teenager and his parents have it out, he leaves, and now his anger is directed toward anything in his pathway. "Barn Burning" has a value in that it shows in life that people actually misdirect their anger. Such as in the school shootings and bomb threats that have occurred in the past couple of years (Koehler, 33). Just like Abner Snopes felt like an outsider to the upper class, so did the students who committed these violent acts. In "The Swimmer", it made me value life and what it brings. Because if your not careful or you do not watch out it will past you up without notice (Browner, 109). As with "Everyday Use", one of the daughters did not value who she was or whom she was because she was going out looking for her history. Which she already had at her fingertips.

Conclusion:

In conclusion I would like to note that reading all of the literature which colleges and universities assign to their students involves very high costs to the society in terms of paper consumption and time wasting (that involves going to the library, or to the book shop, etc). The internet and the ability to download the books from online to one portable device would reduce the costs, save the trees, and will make people more efficient. I realize that there are a lot of things that we as people in this society take for granted. Literature has made me value a lot of experiences and situations so far and I enjoy holding the paper book in the evening preparing for the next day, yet I do not protest against the use of the digital technology to create digital books that would contribute not only to the efficiency but also to the reduced costs to the whole society.

Holly Odom is a freelance writer working for essaymart.com - on line Custom Writing/Research company. She specializes in Social sciences, Arts, History and English literature. During 2005, earned became one of 10 best writers at essaymart.com.

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