Wordherders: What Works, What Doesn’t Work

For our August 2020 discussion, the Wordherders brought examples from their reading – and their writing – to share with others as examples of what works for them in writing and what doesn’t.

Rosann Ferris: Killers of the Flower Moon, The Osage Murders, and the Birth of the FBI by David Gran

Jess Goodrich has been reading political essays. What didn’t work for her is when authors of essays meant to persuade the reader didn’t show their work. That is, she read authors who laid the foundation for an argument but then layered on positions that were not supported by the foundation. When writing opinion essays, authors should determine whether their goal is persuasion and advocacy or a balanced analysis of an issue. With a purpose in mind, we can start with a statement of our objective and bring the reader along, rather than leaving them behind feeling like the essay went in an unpredictable direction.

Greg Mendell talked about Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson a science fiction, time travel story that begins when the stars go out. Greg says:

Two things I look for in a book are an intriguing premise and a connection to the characters. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, for me, has both. The premise: a time-distorting spin-web has surrounded the Earth so that billions of years will pass outside the web, and the Sun will burn out, over the next 30 years on Earth. The hook for me is at the start of chapter 2: “I was twelve, the twins were thirteen, the night the stars disappeared from the sky.” The narrator, Tyler, then describes how smart the twins, Dianne and Jason are, and how he had “reached an age” when details about Diane “had taken on a poorly understood but undeniable significance.” We then see how these characters develop knowing everything will end in 30 years, but it all would work even without the sci-fi premise!

Lori Lucero shared The EvoAngel, by Ellen King Rice.

DeeAnna Galbraith shared three books by Philip Pullman: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass. She also shared the non-fiction book, Making, by Thomas Heatherwick.

Betsy Dickinson compared how characters were introduced and identified in the Inspector Lynley mystery, Well Schooled in Murder, by Elizabeth George and The Outsider by Stephen King. Betsy found that Stephen King’s voice for each character really helps keep them straight. George’s book had too many characters and some were identified by more than one name at different times. For example, she gave as an example, using made up names, that Sir George Winston might be George, Winston, or Lord Salsbury.

I shared two examples. In the case of The Martian by Andy Weir, what did not work well for me was a dramatic and singular change in POV. Most of the story is told with immediacy and intensity from first person, in present tense. But in one scene, when the protagonist reaches his critical objective, Weir changes to omniscient. Shifts in POV can be distracting; to change POV for one scene was jarring.

The example I shared of what worked well for me was the unique voice achieved by Kira Jane Buxton in her post-apocalyptic novel, Hollow Kingdom. The story is told from the POV of a domesticated crow, S.T.