The 700 year-old novel writing secret. ‘Thisness.’
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- Опубликовано: 1 апр 2023
- ‘Gateway to Narnia’ my free novel-writing e-course can be found here:
www.malcolmpryce.com/youtube
In the 13th Century they called it Haecceity. That’s Latin for ‘Thisness’ and if you really want to make your fiction sparkle and fizz you need to add a tubful. Watch the video to find out what it is and how to add it.
Thanks to:
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My writing group insisted that a falling bridge couldn't sigh. It was then that I knew, while they were all good people, they wouldn't help me grow as a writer
That's such a good description to me.
The bridge sighed then fell into the ocean like a workman meeting his bed headfirst after one of those days with his boots still on his leg
Lol are they anti metaphors also
That's such an evocative description.
You were right about the writing group.
Apparently, some people just don't care for such anthropomorphism, but I don't totally agree with them.
That being said, I have no idea what a falling bridge sounds like, so I have no idea if that's an apt choice or not.
But I know that that a thick tree breaking has a sort of "groan" to it, so a falling bridge sighing seems plausible, at least.
I think one needs a certain sensibility to really grasp "thisness." I noticed at the beginning of the video that synesthesia is also considered thisness. Nice to have a group who gets it.
"The rats are so bold they wear silk trousers." I love this line lmao
A brilliant line, but I don’t think it’s an example of hacceity. As I understand the latter term (new to me, though the concept is not), it refers to close observation or imagining of the vivid, telling detail. The silk trousers, on the other hand, belong to the genre of the tall tale. It is a brilliant bit of comical simile or hyperbole. Not unlike those moments of inspired schoolyard invention of the type, “Your mama’s so fat, her dress size is Equator.”
it's pretty dire.
I think we wear them pretty well, personally.
If I remember anything from this, its that line. Excellent advice though, i subscribed now.
@@a_rat_named_mouse If this was a Rat Roundup, Grimbeard would certainly award his highest rating of "GOOD."
New to thisness. I love thisness. I've been doing thisness without knowing thisness was thatness.
underrated comment
Love this(ness)!
exactliness
😂😂Legend
I’m going to stick with the otherness for now.
"All the conspirators made off, and he lay there lifeless for some time, until finally three common slaves put him on a litter and carried him home, with one arm hanging down." Suetonius's description of the death of Caesar. Since Suetonius lived 100 years after Caesar, he could not possibly have witnessed the event personally, but that final detail - "with one arm hanging down" - brings the scene into sharp focus. I read this as a writing tip decades ago, and I have never forgotten this example. I didn't know there was a name for this writing technique until just now.
We don't really know enough about Suetonius' sources. Romans wrote a lot of letters, and some of them were fairly descriptive. But it's also possible that, as well as being famous for reporting all the juicy historical gossip, that Suetonius made stuff up.
OTOH, striking details associated famous traumatic/dramatic events are exactly what people do tell and retell and write down.
I think it's a bit extraneous after the "for some time" which gives some good pathos. Maybe it scans better in Latin
@@suburbanbanshee - Even though Suetonius was not there to witness the murder and its aftermath, he can surely picture how it possibly (likely?) occurred in his mind. His description helps put _us_ there, though we were not, changing from an academic event into a human one.
Nice.
Wow. Love this, thank you for sharing!
Terry Pratchett was a master of this. Sometimes you read past that detail, that awesome little uppercut of a punchline, before realising it, and then it hits you and everyone on the bus wonders who the crazy bastard is and what he's reading.
Exactly what I thought while watching this video. Love the discworld.
Me too; Pratchett 's the best! I prefer to read him in English, but the Norwegian translation was'nt half bad.
Discworld is pretty much all this.
Chuck Palahniuk has gotten me in a similar position
Ахахах, мне тоже в голову сразу пришёл старина Терри с его уморительными образами 😂
Никому не советую слушать аудиокниги по Пратчетту гуляя вечером в чужом районе. Иначе быстро найдутся люди, которым станет очень интересно - а по какой такой причине у тебя с лица не сходит эта идиотская улыбка? А кто такой этот Ринсвинд? И почему, чёрт тебя побери, слово сундук вызывает этот ехидный и гнусный смешок?! И эти люди, о, это такие люди, чьё внимание не захотелось бы привлекать даже варварам пуп-земелья, крайне неприятные типы. Лучше уж складывать 2+6, 4+4, 7+1 в храме пожирателя душ, ведь по крайней мере есть вероятность, что может случиться так, что у тебя окажется в наличии фотоаппарат с очень мощной вспышкой, который поможет тебе отбиться от щупалец Шам'гаротта! С теми ребятами это не сработает. Я пробовал. Даже наоборот, это ещё сильнее их разозлит. Нет уж, спасибо! Дома почитаю!
Descriptive writing is nice in moderation. I find that as a reader I don't like my imagination to be reconfigured much, so it has to be done smoothly.
Quite. Often, as in the example of Duns Scotus and Honeysuckle, the descriptions can be irritatingly baroque.
I agree. Too much, in this overstuffed prose. It gets boring.
So, you're saying tell me the story but don't be overly descriptive, so you can use more of your own imagination?
Why on earth are you reading a book if you don't want to hear the story the author is telling? Description is a part of that, seeing the vision they place before you is a part of that. Writers don't exist to create blank slates just so that you can impose your own fantasies onto their stories.
To me it's most important when it happens.
Don't introduce me to a new character and then wait half a book to let me know they have red hair to their waist (when I have started imagine them with black short hair or something).
Or let me know a house is spectacular, and then in book 2 describe it for the first time and well it's a red castle with exactly 5 towers and green roofs.
"When we write, we create a guided dream in the reader's mind."
Wow! Love that. You make some excellent videos, sir.
Hey thanks very much, I really appreciate it!
It is exactly its' best use.
'The more detail you give, the more palpable and visible the dream becomes'.
Well, yes, but not exactly. There is a point of diminishing returns. The author, the artist, is required to find that point and sidle up to it yet never cross it, which would be at their peril.
My rule is do enough to paint a picture, but no more. And I include kinetic motion along with it, bc I want that to be a moving picture-I want to create a movie in the reader's mind, not a painting. Once you create the picture, they have it, and they don't need more detail.
More detail is unnecessary, superfluous, and can get in the way. Dashiel Hammett in the first scene in one of his novels went on and on about how a character was dressed. Really? What would be the advantage of me, the reader, learning that his tie is blue? I can already see the character. More detail gets in the way. Maybe I envision the tie as grey, or some other color. Hammett's ego correcting me only spoils the picture I already have. Just get on with the story, Dash.
IOW, too much is too much. Writers like Chandler in the 40's (and he is my all-time favorite) had a tendency to overdo it, likely bc they saw the rise of their 'antagonist'-the movie industry. And they overdid it bc they were threatened by a medium with advantages the novel does not have. A ton of description pales against a camera shot.
Of course a novel has advantages not available in film, such as narrative, and the fact that the reader gets to see their own 'visible dream' rather than that of the Director and Cinematographer. But The Big Sleep is now 85 years old. The threat of competing media is ubiquitous, and we can just accept it and avoid trying to battle it down. Instead, just write the best story you can (which Chandler did, over and over, despite all that).
Thisness lightly and sparsely sprinkled can be very effective - although, it can, however, be overdone.
Like everything really. Everything, even good things, need to be done in moderation. Otherwise, over-use robs them of their speciality and becomes mundane and normal.
Agree. You can’t get too heavy with the sprinkles. Raymond Chandler has just the right touch. (Though I have never cared for his plots, but I’m addicted to his sprinkles)
Agreed. Chandler’s “like a man who has just won a pie eating contest” sounds like a strong Bulwer-Lytton Contest entry.
Then it's called Literature. (Capital intentional.)
Minimalism is gay as hell.
I like to think of it as the essence of something. What makes a chair this chair, a dog this dog, a tree this tree, a person this person. Put that quality into words and it becomes beautifully descriptive.
Excellent guidance. Thank you.
Douglas Adams was great at this. Two quotes from his books live in my mind; "The spaceship hung in the air in the same way a brick doesn't" and "My mind is like the Queen Alexandria Butterfly, colorful, flutters out and about and is alas almost completely gone".
The only thing that went through the head of the bowl of petunias as it fell was "Oh no, not again"
One of my favorite writers 😂
I still remember reading Riki Tiki Tavi as a kid and the description of the cobra as it slid into the house with no more noise than a wasp walking on a windowpane still chills me.
I recall hearing a disparaging book review on NPR when I was a teenager. It cited the frequent use of distracting metaphors. It gave as an example a situation where a person came out of a courthouse swarmed by reporters, to the point where there were multiple news helicopters filming the event.
The author described this as a "Vietnam of helicopters".
That phrase stuck in my mind.
What an excellent metaphor. That critic sounds envious to me.
I think sometimes a writing technique can overly distract from what is happening. For instance, it a majorly dramatic and active event happens in a book, i cant help but find myself reasing faster as i get stressed with the main characters. If something is being written too indirectly at that point, it can be frustrating.
I remember watching someone analyze Bill Burr's stand-up comedy and they came to a similar conclusion - Bill makes people laugh by providing details at the right moment. When he talks about a sinking ship leaving no traces, he says: "Well, maybe a flip flop. Or an Ed Hardy shirt." I have no idea who Ed Hardy is a but it still worked.
Ed Hardy is an artist who work was mostly in tattoos. You can Google his name and see many examples. I think it was in the 90s or early 2000s that t shirts with his designs on them became briefly popular. Tacky and bold.
And much like the sunken ship, hardly ever to be seen again.
@@edwarddodge7937who?
A lesson in thisness so beautifully told that the listeners would never dream of pestering their readers with a sentence dull as bureaucrat's mind ever again.
apparently it was lost on you.
@@mrosskne Do you work for the government perhaps?
yep, you don't get what my comment was saying. try thinking.
@@mrosskne While I try to improve my thinking, you might want to consider improving your manners. Your behavior doesn't reflect well on you.
@@christerdehlin8866 No, my behavior is perfect. Worry about yourself.
The importance of specificity cannot be understated, and I do love the idea of calling it "thisness", it feels like a thing that describes itself in that way. Thisness will always help you as you're developing your story. However, in my experience a lack of Thisness only truly plagues writers who have big BIG ideas, who are slamming them down onto paper without care for how to root them into the reality of their storyworld. But for many writers I do also encounter the opposite problem, where ALL they have is Thisness and their story is in fact very confused about what it even is. I tend to find these are also the hardest stories to critique, because it's a hard pill to swallow that one's story is directionless, vs the bones are good but everything's too vague. The hard fact is, you can make a good story specific, but you can't specify your way into a good story.
You make a good point. Without specific details, it could be any room, so what makes it *this* room. The details were great for conjuring medieval Oxford and made the story feel intriguing.
That was excellent. Not only do telling details introduce 'thisness' but they can describe the world as the character sees it, drawing attention to what he or she finds particular rather than merely providing an overview for the reader. For me, it's an important part of putting the reader amidst the action, rather than stuck in the stalls and seeing events unfold like a play.
That's exactly right, the reader participates in the dream rather than observes it
Didn't m.twain do this in huk fin? The scene where Huck is spreading pigs blood, nasty scene,
"I know oxen are castrated but this one hasn't been done yet."
I have a curiosity with language so I went to check this. According to search engines, an ox is a castrated bull. A steer is also a castrated bull, but is two to three years younger than an ox. But the first few sites I looked at stated that _oxen_ could refer to male or females (but rarely females). Then I discovered a heifer is a female that hasn't given birth yet and after she's given birth she's referred to as a cow. I wish I'd had this curiosity when I was a youth. I was fascinated in my early twenties when I discovered what I'd been referring to as "cows" were actually "cattle," although I understand why "cows" was generally used. Language is fascinating.
Wow, now I've learned that "Urine used to be a valuable commodity. In the past, some societies used it for fertilizing crops, tanning leather, washing clothes and producing gunpowder." The more you know.
I didn't know most of that!
Because of your comment I suddenly realize, as the protagonist is a friar, he might refers the 'castrated ozen' refers to the other friars, while 'this one hasn't been done yet' perhaps also refer to himself and his 'unholy' desires.
That’s very interesting, thank you for sharing!
‘kine brilliant!
When I read fellowship of the ring for the first time, I was annoyed at all the descriptions of scenery. I couldn't care less because I just wanted to get to the story bit. But I often think about Lord of the Rings, even though I read it years ago, because the detailed memories of those descriptions are burned into my mind. So glad I read it, I feel like I could connect to that land so much, it's weird to think that all those places don't exist. That there is no such thing as Hobbiton.
Are you sure? )
You should read it again. You'll like it even more the second time :)
@@jordank1813 Yeah I'm planning to this summer!
That “Guided Dream” is a really fun way to think, and believe in your writing
I see that it’s not just about specificity but about boldness in specificity.
It's a common technique in American private detective novels in the early twentieth century; it was so common it was emphasized in parodies of those stories decades later.
I just thought of some of the descriptive passages you spoke of-it occurs to me they invoke the concept of synesthesia, the state where the stimulus of one sense sparks sensations of ANOTHER sense-such as when the female character's perfume was described as smelling like "the sight of the Taj Mahal" (i.e., luxurious and grandly inviting).
I hadn't thought about it, but that is exactly right. Chandler did it a lot
Agreed. They also reminded me of Douglas Adams, who loved employing such broken logic as "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
Brilliant video. But one must also be aware that not every instance needs a firecracker, or a chandelier illuminating the place. Sometimes, a feeble candle is what a place needs...
don't quit your day job.
Finally someone not disregarding a good description!
Just stumbled on this video, great subject! I remember when I first realized in my teens how effective "thisness" could be. In Stephen King's It there's a dream sequence where he describes the sky in the dream as being the color of an old penny. And it hit me how specific that color, that pale and sickly corrosion green, is, and how that simple six-word description put such a specific and powerful image of color in my mind. It was a simple and basic example, but so effective. I resolved then and there to be as specific as possible with my word choice...never was good enough to get a word of fiction published, either, but the lesson holds, haha. Thanks for the reminder!
Now, see, that's the problem. I would take it as a dirty blackened orange, because that's as old of a penny as I usually see. Pennies aren't really all that coppered, anymore, so they probably will never turn green.
Famously, Neuromancer has the same problem. The first line is "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." So does he mean static? Or does he mean bluescreen? Or does he mean black nothing?
Neil Gaiman goofed on this in Neverwhere, as have several other writers.
Patrick Rothfuss does this incredibly well. His description is so poetic & metaphoric, but draws you in as opposed to seeming overdone and pulling you out of the dream - I highly recommend "The Kingkiller Chronicles".
Come now, don’t be cruel.
@@panopticon3461 He's just teaching us the virtue of patience 🥲
Great observation! William Gibson practices 'Thisness' in his writing; it's what makes his imagined futures feel so real.
It's like thinking of it compared to the thinness of a piece of paper but it can hold an entire story on it
I call it 'Painting with words" You have done me a service, and I thank you... you have verified something I've always thought was a defect in my writing.
Duns Scotus was also a mystical philosopher, wasn't he? I've run into his name so many times!
This is exactly the thing I’ve sought in books and tried to replicate in my own writing. It’s taken twenty years for someone to tell me what it’s called. Thanks.
I can now see why the author of "My Immortal" used such detailed descriptions when it came to the clothing
The line about the rats with silk trousers is hella baller lol
So it’s like, imagery + personality or character perspective = haecceity.
One awesome instance of thisness that really sticks in me is in a song called Satan in the Wait by Daughters: "That Bastard had a head like a matchstick, shaped like he was suckin concrete from a straw", an awesome and funny descriptor of an intensely unfortunate looking man that brings the image to mind almost immediately. Thats a lotta thisness right there.
Thisness is also very important in the other direction, I have found - often, when I am reviewing my writing, the most unnatural phrases and observations are the ones that are true, but that the character whose eyes I'm looking through for the moment wouldn't ever pick up on. Omission can be as powerful as inclusion in these cases.
Genius, beautiful. You read well. It mixes so seamlessly it's hard to tell what I loved first.
Was this guy the secret ruler of galaxy in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy radio play? Pretty sure
This heavily depends on personal experience, sense of humor and is kinda like a 'quirky' way to narrate, imo. It's effective either with specific intent in the narrative or as the writer's style.
Watching this felt like finding a lost jigsaw piece. I always wondered why good descriptions could be so poignant yet succinct; this answers my question.
Stumbled across your video and love the lesson taught! I'm writing my first novel and thinking about how "thisness" can bring my writing to life. I particularly enjoyed your story of Dun Scotus. It evoked a sense of a living, breathing, writhing and stinking medieval world. The narrator's humour was perfect, and the twists highly amusing. The sad ending lingers on in the mind well after the story has finished. In the span of less than a thousand words you caused me to feel many things. Thanks for sharing.
What a lovely comment! Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
This was brilliant. Thank. I’m in the process of editing my script and I’m now incorporating “thisness” thanks to you.
Hey thank you! Good luck with the script.
@@TheOxfordWriter and thank you for the knowledge.
I don't know much about professional writing or the types of styles, bur i found this incredibly informative and interesting! Love your voice and thanks for a great video!
you had me at "pig farts"
Thy cup of _thisness_ runneth over with _toomuchness._
Finally someone who's ready to get down to thisness.
An excellent video.
(0:20) You look FANTASTIC for a 700-year-old man.
(3:06) I feel like you're holding back on us. You should tap into your real feelings about Oxford in 1288.
(5:25) This is why AI chatbots will never replace true artists.
(7:54) I looked it up and, for those of you who were curious, bribery DID exist in 1288. It was invented just prior by King Edmund, which is why they changed his nickname from "The Disemboweler" to "The Magnificent".
🤯🤯🤯
Thank you!
That was a superb example!
I am enjoying exploring you Gateway to Narnia and each of these videos.
Thanks again
Robert
Many thanks! The moment I read your comment a line from a song came on Spotify saying 'I've been reading Browning...' (Home thoughts from abroad - Clifford T. Ward) Synchronicity!
This gentlemen not only has wonderful content but a perfect ASMR voice.
Hey thanks!
His voice is so soothing.
You are doing a great job! Keep uploading more. I am working on a novella without any hopes of finishing the draft. And your videos came to the rescue.
Thanks! I'll keep uploading but they quite a bit of time. Good luck with your novella.
@@TheOxfordWriter Anytime! We'll for you to upload. The quality it top-notch so it's fair to wait for it. Thanks!
Brilliant elaboration of the tale.
I love your filming set up. Well done and thank you for this video.
Thank you too!
This was an interesting glimpse into the magic of words used in an inspired manner.
WOW! Thank you thank you for the word AND for the James Woods quote!! This is a quality I've tried talking about to fellow writers (in film) and friends who are avid moviegoers and/or readers. Ineffable specialness (etc) that hits home deeply while being, sometimes, all but invisible . Soooo vital, yet so hard to create, as well as teach. At least to me. But, when it happens, we say, "yes, that's IT". OR, in plain ol' plain talk: Boy, that sure hit the spot!!
Thought about this the other day when I was reading D.H. Lawrence. I had no words to describe it then. Lawrence does haecceity beautifully.
Great story! Great artwork! I'm glad I watched this video.
That is exactly one of the things I LOVE about José Saramago! He does it so freaking beautifully!
"guided dream" never thought of it exactly like that.
Even her ticks are cute. LOL. This was great, thank you very much!
Any time!
The sound of your voice: I like listening to it.
Stumbled across this by pure accident. Instantly subbed because I wanna try to get more into writing!
Fantastic storytelling! 👏
The characters must build the story world...
If Scotus lived today, they’d almost have to appoint him to the U.S. Supreme Court.
I'm doing a documentary about domestic violence and I'm now in the editing phase. From the very beginning, I intuited that I needed specifics. 'She used to hit me with household items' is somehow vague. However, 'once she took an ashtray, hit me in the nose and I started bleeding. I went upstairs to run away from her and accidentally saw myself in the mirror, my blood soaking my old Nike shirt I kept for indoor use on hot days, and that's when I realise I needed to get out. Sometimes I smell a cigarette and I recall the incident and my bloody Nike shirt'. These are the kind of testimonies that grounded things. As it turns out, these are the kind of specifics some professionals use to tell a real claim from a fake one, and specifica are the thing that make victims realise they're in deep trouble and simply must get out. If it wasn't for the reflection of a Nike shirt, 'she often hit me' wasn't enough to raise an alarm. I guess humans are wired for thisness.
Delightful video, @TheOxfordWriter 📝 Thank You!
As I've started writing more about my experiences in a public forum, I've started receiving compliments on my writing style. I think it's because I try to use words in a way that crafts a specific image, to use language to the best of my ability to show the reader the world from my eyes. My desire to be understood with specificity, to share my perspective, has been my motivation to seek to better my skills as guiding the dream.
I love the rat picture
this was wonderful! thank you so much for this my man. you've made a subscriber out of me.
Awesome, thank you!
Honestly, I think this 'thisness' is an aspect of writing that AI is really going to shine in one day, adding near-nonsensical allegories and similes to its writing, swiftly, readily and freely, like the flower petals brushed off of a fair maiden's apron.
I have never heard nor read writting like this. This is incredible
I've always noticed this with well-written fiction, just never had a name given to it. It goes to show how hard some good sci fis or fantasies can be to write because they have to replicate details of the familiar in a made up world.
Think this video is a masterpiece.awesome. thanks for these facts of dun scotus we never knew. Please keep doing such amazing videos which is a cut above the guides by writing guides
Wow, your story about Scotus was absorbing, touching, saddening, & humorous in all the right places. You also have an excellent voice. Although, your video could be mixed to be a bit louder.
Awesome. In my memoir I tried this. I think it's marvelous.
Amazing story
I enjoyed reading the comments as much as I enjoyed the video. All the thoughtful writing here marks you all out as thoughtful writers, whether presently published or still to come.
Learning about haecceity in the context of logic, I thought it was rather redundant with other concepts in modern discourse. So to see how it has another connotation is pleasantly surprising!
Love this, but you gotta turn your sound effects down lol, Honeysuckle nearly blew my speakers out XD
So that's what it's called! Lemony snicker, douglass adams, and terry prarchet were always doing this but i could only copy for a little while
I interpret "thisness" as the main character's or the first person narrator's _phenomenological reaction_ to her/his immediate environment. This _innerness_ gives him/her a soul, depth. i.e. "She had legs from here to there and back again..." "At courtside, an eyeful of Lisa in white pleats reminded me why I love women who need half a day just to shave their legs," etc.
The character's "outer world" spurs their _inner_ world to elicit a memory, an image or a colorful, graphic simile.
Overall, I suspect this "reaction" becomes a place holder for tedious description. The reader responds to the narrator's/character's emotional reaction to one or two details that _impacted_ the narrator/character. The reader then fills in her/his blanks. Works for me.
I agree with Oxford Writer, Raymond Chandler's use of this technique resulted in sheer poetry.
Be well.
That description of those ancient streets was to die for...or from.
Thanks, for such great insights
So this is basically show don’t tell ?
I read that Ian Fleming wrote his Bond novels in two steps. First, write the bare story quick and dirty. Second, fill in all the details about Bond's style of life, brand names, etc. In his last novel he couldn't fill in the details anymore, and it is comparatively dull reading compared to the previous ones.
This got a little purple by the end; no matter how much I love these kinds of detail, I think they work best as seasonings, rather than being slathered on every sentence until the structure of the writing begins to wilt.
Nice to have a word for this. “Visceral writing” didn’t really cover it.
Thank you 😊
This was so helpful thank youuuu 🙏🙏🙏 guided dreams, I love that
Thank you for your kind words Jessica. I appreciate it.
This reminds me of the concept of Quality in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
That twist though. 👌
mutton pies
wood smoke
pig farts
and freshly baked bread...
absolutely brilliant.
I think this may have been the wrong video to watch while eating.
"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
A certain je ne sais quoi, as we say in English.
Thisness makes life liveable, and stories infinite
Well that was a treat
Fascinating
Thisness on one axis, Relevance on the other. Constantly bombarding the reader with unique imagery with little connection to the plot is bad. When both are in harmony, using a unique/clever visualisation can really highlight a important moment. The drawback of thisness is how it breaks reading flow. There is an interplay between getting information across and using that information to paint a specific scene. Thisness is terrible at the first and great at the second. Ideally, there should be a push-and-pull on the reader's attention.
thank you