Em's Blog

     What is fiction? Fiction is something feigned, invented, or imagined.  We all should be and most likely are very familiar with fiction.  Many people enjoy reading fiction novels, including myself.  Fiction covers a wide variety of books. There are fantasy fictions such as Harry Potter, or maybe more realistic type stories, yet still fiction such as (some of my favorites) Arms of Love, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Pride and Prejudice. 

     Reading fiction can be fun, but what about writing fiction?  Indeed, writing fiction takes some talent and technique.  A professional basketball player doesn’t begin their life being a professional.  The same goes for writers.  Writing an extraorinary piece of fiction takes practice and some techiniques.  On the following website: http://www.homepages.dsu.edu/JANKEJ/writing/tips.htm, I found some very useful tips and words of wisdom.  Some of these include:

• Fiction writers should have a good grasp of the language, but most of all they must be storytellers. A really good story can compensate for less-than-brilliant writing, but brilliant writing will not save a bad story.
• To be ag good writer you need to read a lot, listen and observe everything about you carefully, and write a lot.  Writing a lot takes discipline, because writing can actually be hard work- but very satisfying.
• Be specific in your writing. The more specific the detail, the more real the story will seem to the reader.

     Once again, these tips were all take from http://www.homepages.dsu.edu/JANKEJ/writing/tips.htm.

         I found the tips above and the many others on that site to be quite helpful, especially as I will be needing to put them to use as I write fiction of my own in the upcoming weeks.  I’m still debating as whether I should endeaver in the NanoWriMo challenge it the month of November.  I have an idea for a story in mind, but we will see…

Figurative and sensory language is everywhere.  We use it in our speech, in novels, in advertisements, and many other places.  As I was looking for examples, I found many in books.  As I was reading, The Story of My Life by Helen Keller, I came across many examples of sensory and figurative language.  I also found several examples in The Real Mother Goose nursery rhyme book. 

            The following example is an example of onomatopoeia from The Story of My Life.  “I had to feel for the rails with my toe; but I was not afraid and got on very well, until all at once there came a faint “puff, puff” from the distance.” Helen is talking about crossing rail road tracks while she was out playing with her cousin.  The “puff, puff” is describing the train.  At first I was confused when I read this passage because I wondered how Helen (being deaf) would be able to hear the “puff, puff” in the distance.  I then concurred that she must have been describing the sound in which she knew a train would make.  Using, “puff, puff” to imply a train makes the scene more real to the reader instead of just stating “a faint train in the distance.” 

            A second example from the book Story of My Life uses sensory language.  “…and I clung to the rock tense, fascinated, as I felt the dash and roar of the rocking sea.”  This example appeals to the reader’s sense of touch and sight.  When authors use descriptive language, it attracts the reader’s interest, and makes the book much more interesting.  In Story of My Life, sensory language is used often and helps to make the book very interesting and appealing to reader’s interest.

            A third example from The Real Mother Goose (nursery rhyme book) is an example of assonance.  The nursery rhyme titled, “See-Saw,” goes as follows:

                        See-saw, Margery Daw,

                        Sold her bed and lay upon straw.

Another common nursery rhyme, “Peter Piper,” is a great example of alliteration.

                        Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;

                        A peck of pickled peppers Peter pepper picked.

                        If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,

                        Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Nursery rhymes are superb examples of using sound devices in Figurative Language.  Using these sound devices is very helpful in being able to memorize the nursery rhymes.  I enjoyed looking through this nursery rhyme book as there are endless examples of Figurative Language!