Into the Fire

There's something refreshing about going back to the not so distant classic novels. I'm rereading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and last year I read F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night, both books I read a very long time ago and loved.

From a writing standpoint, there is such freedom in the prose. Point of view changes within paragraphs, rambling descriptions and internal thoughts. A lot of telling. I find it desirable. It seems by getting away from much of those freedoms and rewriting the rules, we've created some novelists who've lost the pizzazz of real style. Instead we have formulaic prose that tells a story, but if the story lags in any way, the writing isn't enough to carry the novel. It seems I'm a throwback.

Good writing is good writing whether or not it adheres to modern day rules or those of the past. Sometimes, in some genres, we could use a little less sticking to the rules which supposedly creates interesting writing and more freedom to shift styles without criticism.

Father, thank you for all the talent you've dispensed to your creation. Thank you for your Word. You are the Creator of words. Please help each one of us who labor to tell stories to tell them well, just the way you would have us do it. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.