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Making it different
Mar. 8th, 2013 11:28 amBartleby Snopes' list of things that generally turn them off would be more use to writers if it weren't such a hodgepodge. It contains things that should always, not generally, turn an editor off, like poor writing, poor editing, undeveloped characters and punch endings, but also another set of current writing tics - second person, third person present tense - that are tiresomely prevalent but can work if well done and some overworked themes and settings - marriage, writers, bars - that can also work if well done.
I've judged story comps and know what they mean, though I'd put it positively rather than negatively: I would try not to sigh at the 15th story in the present tense, but one in past tense would probably have a head start (which it'd soon lose if badly written). But it's certainly true that there are not only overworked themes but overworked stylistic tics, and that's true for poems too, though they are often different. The last poetry competition I judged, I swear there were half a dozen poems about bees, God knows why, but obviously after the first couple, the rest had a hill to climb. (And please, don't bother to write the one about telling the bees someone's died, it must have been done scores of times.)
Another ubiquitous poem theme that, unusually, is common to stories too these days is caring for someone with Alzheimers. There's no point in suggesting people avoid this theme; it's clearly a major concern of today or it wouldn't be ubiquitous. But if you want an editor or judge to recall yours, rather than the other two dozen, you need an individual angle. Humour is a good bet, especially since in itself this theme is bound to depress the reader.
Poetry has its fashionable technical tics too - like ending on an "as if" clause, or what I think of as the Billy Collins ending, where a "but" in the last few lines sends the poem off on a whole different tack. It can work well, too, it just gets wearisome after the first ten or so. Similarly with the Simon Armitage What If Poem, where we start in reality but suddenly go off, like Corporal Jones, into the realms of fantasy.
I would not make lists, because rules are made for breaking. Tell someone that four adjectives in a line is seldom a good plan and they'll quote you "Sweet day: so cool, so calm, so bright" - and quite right too; as long as there are George Herberts about, there is nothing that cannot be successfully done in poetry. And there are limits to how far you can change either your style or your themes (which generally choose you). But if you want a judge or an editor to recall you out of a pile, it's probably as well to be thinking, not just "does it work" but "does it work better, or differently, than the next five s/he'll read in that vein".
I've judged story comps and know what they mean, though I'd put it positively rather than negatively: I would try not to sigh at the 15th story in the present tense, but one in past tense would probably have a head start (which it'd soon lose if badly written). But it's certainly true that there are not only overworked themes but overworked stylistic tics, and that's true for poems too, though they are often different. The last poetry competition I judged, I swear there were half a dozen poems about bees, God knows why, but obviously after the first couple, the rest had a hill to climb. (And please, don't bother to write the one about telling the bees someone's died, it must have been done scores of times.)
Another ubiquitous poem theme that, unusually, is common to stories too these days is caring for someone with Alzheimers. There's no point in suggesting people avoid this theme; it's clearly a major concern of today or it wouldn't be ubiquitous. But if you want an editor or judge to recall yours, rather than the other two dozen, you need an individual angle. Humour is a good bet, especially since in itself this theme is bound to depress the reader.
Poetry has its fashionable technical tics too - like ending on an "as if" clause, or what I think of as the Billy Collins ending, where a "but" in the last few lines sends the poem off on a whole different tack. It can work well, too, it just gets wearisome after the first ten or so. Similarly with the Simon Armitage What If Poem, where we start in reality but suddenly go off, like Corporal Jones, into the realms of fantasy.
I would not make lists, because rules are made for breaking. Tell someone that four adjectives in a line is seldom a good plan and they'll quote you "Sweet day: so cool, so calm, so bright" - and quite right too; as long as there are George Herberts about, there is nothing that cannot be successfully done in poetry. And there are limits to how far you can change either your style or your themes (which generally choose you). But if you want a judge or an editor to recall you out of a pile, it's probably as well to be thinking, not just "does it work" but "does it work better, or differently, than the next five s/he'll read in that vein".
