| |
A word I like to use quite often when commenting on works is, texture. Well, all right, what does that mean and is it something that you can use with your writing? If you go to the dictionary, you might find these:
1. the characteristic structure of the interwoven or intertwined threads, strands, or the like,....
2. an essential or characteristic quality; essence.
3. the quality given,...to a... literary work, by the combination or interrelation of parts or elements.
4. anything produced by weaving....
These seemed to be the most relevant for us. As writers and poets, it is our job to create works by weaving. The fabrics which we use, of course, to create our tapestries are words.
There are soft words and harsh words. Gentle words and powerful words. Passive words and dynamic words. Words of action and words of stillness. Words of peace and words of war. And many, many more, of course.
If we can find the words that describe or tell what it is that we want the reader to see, feel, hear, etc., we will be creating texture. Texture can have either or both physical qualities and mental qualities. Like, "my heart felt pounded by the sea against the cold, sharp rocks." Or, "the snow-white doves of love placed honeyed flowers on their lips."
Images were born, a story was told, and it was given meaning by the words of choice and the directions of the action.
All of those things were combined to "weave" a tapestry that had an essence, a quality of texture.
Sandpaper has texture. Just as does the rough bark of an old oak tree, or the smoothness of an aspen sapling.
And emotions have texture also. The interpretation of the emotion will depend on the words we use. A love, by itself, has no texture. Or at least not very much. But to tell us that "she knew a grieving, tear-filled love for loved one lost," takes on a much greater texture.
It also tells a story that begins, develops, and ends. And it generates images.
The best way, that I can think of, to become proficient at generating texture is to, of course, practice your writing and experiment with different words to see how they sound or feel and the images they create. And, when reading works, try to see the pattern, the weaving which the author used with his/her words to accomplish the individual strands (lines), that resulted in a woven section (stanza), which, when put together, gave the final tapestry.
I hope this was helpful. ^_^
Frank :)
|
Help Us Stop Plagiarism -
Nearly all works at PnP are original. However a few people choose to plagiarize.
To check, choose a phrase from the work, then either drag and drop to the search box or copy and paste.
click on search and works at Google will be shown which match. Just to be sure, please do this before
you recommend or rate the work highly...
|
 |
|
|
|
Select a Random Work
from Poetry Help
|
|
Welcome !
