Sheree
Shown
Book
Review #2
McClanahan,
Rebecca, Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively
Writer’s
Digest Books, Cincinnati Ohio, 1999
Rebecca McClanahan’s book is written primarily for writers, but it is very applicable to the writing classroom, particularly at the high school level. As the title states, this book is all about enhancing description, but not only in narration, but in our use of characterization, point of view, plot, pace, etc. to make our writing come alive to readers.
McClanahan uses a variety of writers and theorists in this text to make her points, particularly utilizing the work of Aristotle and John Gardner. Gardener talks about creating the "ficitonal dream" within a reader: the reader is so caught up in the world the writer creates that he accepts this "dream" as reality. Aritstotle also discusses the "illusion of reality" and McClanahan uses his four tools for creating this illusion as the framework for her first few chapters: description must be carefully worded, sensory, create the illusion of movement and activity, and involve figurative language.
Aristotle’s emphasis on "the proper and special name of a thing" becomes Mclanahan’s mantra throughout the text: concrete details are everything! You may surrender to abstraction if it is needed for pace or variety, but your characters, events and settings will never come alive to the reader without being based in the concrete.
Chapter Two was definitely my favorite, describing the various "eyes" a writer utilizes. There is the "naked eye" of simple observation, the eye of the imagination (that is, the writer’s right to reshape memory for a purpose -- "poets cannot make things up; they make things from" —Stanley Plumly), the eye of memory, the inner eye (insight), the all accepting eye (writing about imperfections, not just "Beauty"), the child’s eye (fresh), and the dream eye. She then discussed figurative language techniques that can be merged within the subjects of these "eyes." It sounds a bit abstract, but this chapter was very easy to read, given the number of specific examples McClanahan gave from professional writers, her own writing, and that of children she has worked with over the years as an artist within the schools.
In fact, it is the wealth of examples and outstanding exercises within each chapter that make this book so successful. McClanahan pulls from classic and contemporary authors for her examples; each enhances her clear discussion of language. I was particularly impressed with how the passages she chose from authors helped to simplify her chapter on point of view, which is such a difficult technique to teach in writing. ÝThe exercises (about a 8-10per chapter) are very clear and focus upon the skills presented in the chapter. They would make excellent classroom exercises or personal journal exercises.
I would certainly recommend McClanahan’s text to any writing teacher, and intend to purchase a copy for myself.