Chuck Palahniuk's July Essay, "Names Versus Pronouns"
For those of you that don't know, we have a rare gift on our site. Something anyone wishing to be a writer -- or simply wanting to improve their craft in writing -- will benefit from greatly.
Three years ago, Chuck Palahniuk began an amazing partnership with the Writers Workshop on our website, whereby every month he would submit a craft essay on writing. This was an original essay he typed up from his word processor, just for his readers. Chuck kept up with these essays for two solid years on our site. He then decided to take three years off, away from them. But he has returned with more for 2008!
The essays are pay for the first month they appear, and require a Premium Membership. This membership not only gets you access to them as soon as they go live, but you also get access to all the previous 2008 essays, as well as all 24 essays from 2003-2004! (that's 30 original essays from Chuck, folks!)
If you'd rather not make that commitment just yet, then all you have to do is wait a little, and a month after the new essay is released, it becomes free for the next 30 days, and the rotation begins all over again.
Let me repeat: You cannot find these essays anywhere else! They are a rare glimpse into Chuck's method as a writer. They also function as a diary in some respects, on where his head is at each month. Chuck did have plans at one point to release them in a How To book, but the idea never came to pass.
If you would like to get access to the new July essay, as well as the previous six 2008 essays, and the 24 essays from 2003-2004, then sign up today to become a Premium Member on our site. If you are already a Premium Member, then:
Read Chuck's July Essay, Names Versus Pronouns
Here's an excerpt:
The obvious problem with avoiding pronouns is repeating nouns until they become monotonous. For example, "Shelley Parker closed the book. Then, Shelley Parker dropped the book on the floor. Shelley Parker bent at the waist to retrieve the book."
No, using the pronouns "she" and "it" wouldn't make these sentences much better, just shorter.
So instead, consider that everything has multiple names, the least-powerful of which is the usual noun. For example, "Shelley Parker closed the book. Then, Miss Parker dropped the dusty thing on the floor. The coy minx bent at the waist to retrieve the crumpled pile of pages."
If you are not a Premium Member, and are not interested in this wealth of knowledge ;) ..... then the June essay is now free and available to all.
Comments
This is essay is great advice if you're writing in first person. On the contrary, though, I think that this rule is absolutely distasteful - if not straight up rude - when you're writing in third person. First person is understandable: the reader is being let into the mind of the narrator, so the many different things said narrator calls the people around him is very interesting. But when you're writing in third person, the narration cannot have a personal voice. It's a camera: all blunt, factual observation. And cameras don't have opinions or witty thoughts.
Unless, it's like, a robot camera. But then it'd be first person, right? Wait... I think I'm onto something here...
All of Palahniuks lessons are there for you to disagree with, learn from them, like. I'm sure he's not asking you to follow his every word blindly.
Also, June 13th? It's a little past that.
This essay is great. Even though I write in Swedish, Chuck's essays can be applied and (in my text, anyway) make the whole thing more intense. I currently write in first person and it immediately puts the character a lot closer to "reality".
When in high school, I once wrote a short story about my teacher (for a school report). That was the rule - the story could be about anything as long as she was one of the characters. The story would have been a lot better if I had thought about Names vs. Pronouns, and referred to her as the "skinny old bitch" instead of "Mrs. Johansson". I don't think she would have given me an A, though (which she did).
Anyone know if all of these essays will be compiled into a book?