All language subtitles for Masterclass Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing - 12.Prose Style and Texture

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The units of language are
words, phrases, sentences,

paragraphs, et cetera.

But at the micro level,
they are letters and sounds.

And part of a texture is
how those words sound.

And part of a texture is
how those words sound.

I think it was Robert
Graves who used

to say that he had an exercise
called "getting the geese out,"

which was going through his
text and removing Ses that

were making a hissing sound.

That's why he said
getting the geese out.

And for that, it's very
useful to read your text out

loud to see how it
sounds, because a text

loud to see how it
sounds, because a text

is a score for voice.

And if you're writing
something that comes out

sounding like simple Simon stuck
a seashell on the seashore,

there just may be too much of
that S and "sh" kind of sound.

The same goes for sounds like
P if there's too much popping.

If there's too
much of one letter,

If there's too
much of one letter,

people will think you're doing
it on purpose for a reason.

So if there's too much what
we call "onomatopoeia,"

words that sound like the
thing they're describing--

Tennyson's line, the
murmuring of innumerable bees.

He does that on purpose
to sound like bees.

So if you're going to
have repeated sounds,

make sure you're
doing it on purpose.

make sure you're
doing it on purpose.

And similarly, if
you're slipping

into iambic pentameter,
which people often do,

you ought to be
able to hear that.

Are you intending it or not?

So that's the basic
thing about texture.

How does it sound?

How does it sound when
you read it out loud?

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So at the extremes, you
could say that there

So at the extremes, you
could say that there

are two kinds of style.

One is plainsong, in which the
sentences are fairly short.

They don't have a lot of
adjectives and adverbs.

They're fairly blunt
and straightforward.

The other you could call
Baroque, in which the language

is very ornamented.

So it could have a lot
of subordinate clauses.

It can have a lot of
adjectives and adverbs.

It could have a kind of
pile on of detail, a pile

It could have a kind of
pile on of detail, a pile

on of syllables.

And most people are
somewhere in between there.

Things got a lot more
plainsong with the advent

of writers like Hemingway
and Graham Greene.

But then they got more Baroque
with the advent of writers

like Angela Carter, who
is very Baroque indeed.

There is no one good style.

Some people have styles
that they prefer.

Some people have styles
that they prefer.

So it is a question of what
you're using your language for,

what sort of--

let us say, what sort of
spell you're trying to cast

or what kind of illusion
you're trying to practice.

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Let's do Baroque first.

Charles Dickens is a
very Baroque writer.

He piles on the detail.

He piles on the detail.

He piles on the adjectives.

He was very fond of the
theater, so he likes to--

if it were theater, you would
say he was hamming it up.

So what could be better than to
start with "A Christmas Carol"

and the description of Scrooge.

"Oh, but he was a tight-fisted,
hand at the grindstone Scrooge.

A squeezing, wrenching,
grasping, scraping, clutching,

covetous, old sinner.

covetous, old sinner.

Hard and sharp as flint
from which no steel had ever

struck out generous fire.

Sacred and self-contained
and solitary as an oyster.

The cold within him
froze his old features,

nipped his pointed nose,
shriveled his cheek,

stiffened his gait, made his
eyes red, his thin lips blue,

and spoke out shrewdly
in his grating voice.

A frosty rime was on his
head and on his eyebrows

A frosty rime was on his
head and on his eyebrows

and his wiry chin.

He carried his own low
temperature always about him.

He iced his office
in the dog days

and didn't thaw it one
degree at Christmas."

And this goes on for
a couple of pages.

So lots of adjectives, lots
of subordinate clauses,

a piling up of detail,
very ornamented.

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In "Gulliver's
Travels," the style

is very plainsong,
although the story itself

is a complete fabrication.

But he uses the plain,
declarative, blunt style

to make you feel
that he's telling you

the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth.

I'm just being straight with
you here, not exaggerating.

This is where I went.

This is what happened.

This is what happened.

And it's just the
story as it happened.

He does that very well.

"Gulliver's Travels,"
the beginning--

just the facts, ma'am.

"My father had a small
estate in Nottinghamshire.

I was the third of five sons."

period.

"He sent me to Emanuel College
in Cambridge at 14 years old,

where I resided three
years, and applied myself

close to my studies;
but the charge

of maintaining me, although I
had a very scanty allowance,

of maintaining me, although I
had a very scanty allowance,

being too great for
a narrow fortune,

I was bound apprentice to Mr.
James Bates, an eminent surgeon

in London, with whom I
continued four years.

My father now and then sending
me small sums of money,

I laid them out in learning
navigation, and other parts

of the mathematics, useful to
those who intend to travel,

as I always believed
it would be,

some time or other,
my fortune to do.

When I left Mr. Bates, I
went down to my father;

When I left Mr. Bates, I
went down to my father;

where, by the assistance
of him and my uncle

John, and some
other relations, I

got forty pounds, and a
promise of thirty pounds

a year to maintain
me at Leyden; there I

studied physic two
years and seven months,

knowing it would be
useful in long voyages."

Count the numbers in
that first paragraph--

very factual.

He's getting you
to believe that he

is a person of
little imagination,

not prone to exaggeration,
and very particular and exact

not prone to exaggeration,
and very particular and exact

in the way he describes things.

And since he is about to tell
us about very little people,

giants, floating islands,
and talking horses,

that's how he gets us
to go along with him.

So this is not a person
given to exaggeration,

you wouldn't think.

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Description is
different from style.

Descriptive detail is
different from style.

You can have an ornate
style, which is one thing.

Or you can just have a
lot of concrete objects,

sounds, and smells which
aren't necessarily described

with adjectives.

They're more likely to be nouns.

So detail need not necessarily
be adjectival detail.

So detail need not necessarily
be adjectival detail.

You can say there was a fork, a
spoon, a knife, a plate, a cup,

and a rose in a
small cut glass vase.

There's one adjective
in all of that.

It's small.

In my own work, I
usually subtract.

So I usually pare down somewhat
rather than adding things in.

And you can be
rich in description

And you can be
rich in description

in several different ways.

You can say, the rain
was pouring down.

The night was very dark.

It's very plain, but
it's descriptive.

Or you can say, the rain
was pouring down in buckets.

You would have thought it
was the end of the world.

It was a dark and stormy night.

The gusts were billowing.

The trees were whipping
back and forth in a frenzy.

You can add on.

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You could try doing the
following experiment.

Pick an event and write that
event in a plainsong way,

and then write the same
event in a Baroque way.

See the difference.

The other thing you
can always try doing

is imitating the style
of another writer

just to see if you can make
yourself sound like Ernest

just to see if you can make
yourself sound like Ernest

Hemingway, if you can make
yourself sound like William

Faulkner, if you can make
yourself sound like Angela

Carter.

And by doing that,
you get an insight

into how they're putting
sentences and words together.

You can do a sampler of styles.

You could try describing, for
instance, this little stapler

You could try describing, for
instance, this little stapler

in both a very plain way and a
very ornamented and Baroque way

just to exercise
your skills out.