Volume XI, Issue 25
June 22, 2022
Word of the Week: sentence
Dear ,
This week's zine was inspired by Jared, one of my WordPlayers, who sent our whole class a link to an exercise by a writer named Derek Sivers who suggests, as a way to improve one's work, "Try writing one sentence per line." It's great advice, and a great exercise! You can check it out here.
I remembered that I had written about sentences before, and checked out my Word-Zine spreadsheet. I'm glad I checked, and did a little upkeep. Turns out today's issue is number 501! 🎉 That's a lot of Word-Zines! 🎉Thanks for celebrating with me, just by being here! I sure appreciate your company. 🤗
It turns out that "sentence" was the word of the week back in issue 140, on February 2, 2015. IMHO (In my humble opinion), it's an issue well worth repeating, in large part because it features writing by Joan Didion, and one of my favorite stories about her. AND it features my grandson Rhys, who I happened to take out to lunch today, just because. Here we
are, after our visit to Panera Bread.
And without any further ado, I give you your "throwback" Word-zine, updated with upcoming workshops rather than the ones I led back then.
But first, if you're interested, I'm leading a free in-person workshop at Southpark Library tomorrow, Thursday, June 23, at 6:30 p.m. There are three spots left. Details here and below.
And I'm doing another free workshop via Zoom this Saturday, June 25th at 2 p.m. Details below.
Okay, back in time we go, starting with a photo of Rhys in February of 2015 . . .
How many sentences could you write to describe this picture of one big-eyed little boy named Rhys in the space jammies his Grammy gave him for Christmas? And just how would you shape them?
Much as I love words, each single one has its limits. Ah, but a sentence! You can make it declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, or imperative. You can make it short or long, simple or complex, silky smooth or rough-hewn.
If you've ever wondered what that mysterious quality called "voice" in when used to describe writing, the secret is hiding in its sentences (or sentence fragments.
So this week, we're going to celebrate the opportunity each day gives us to arrange words into sentences, a joy that Rhys is just beginning to get a glimmer of. (Yes, I do know what a word nerd I am :), in case you were wondering!)
The inspiration for this week's zine came from reading an online article by about.com's Grammar & Composition Expert Richard Nordquist called "Place and Polysyndeton in Didion's 'Goodbye to All That'." Simply fabulous! Especially since I not only got to reread a part of Joan Didion's 1968 essay about arriving in and departing from New York, but
also learn a new word. I never knew that there was a name for using a whole slew of coordinating conjunctions in a sentence (polysyndeton),
much less one for omitting them (asyndeton).
More below, along with a sentence-related prompt that will help you craft yourself into a better writer and develop your own writer's voice.
But first, a shout out to that ever-so-good-for-your-writing exercise of diagramming sentences. Here's a great resource, complete with a quote from a fellow word nerd, Gertrude Stein: "I really do not know that anything has ever been more exciting than diagramming sentences."
I wouldn't go quite that far! But I do get it . . .
Love and light, and happy sentence-shaping,
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
THE GIFT OF MEMOIR
(Writing the Stories of Our Lives that Matter Most)
Our stories are a precious legacy. Writing them is a gift, not only to ourselves, but to those who love us—they’ll be treasured for generations to come.
Come learn techniques to retrieve and record your life stories of adventure, love, loss, success, and more.
Come learn a number of fun, easy approaches to your memoir writing endeavors. Workshop being held virtually via Zoom.
COST: FREE!
(Thanks to the Reynolda Manor Branch Library
of Winston-Salem)
WHERE: Wherever you are, on
Zoom.
WHEN: Saturday, June 25th from 2:00 - 3:30
p.m.
TO REGISTER: Email Staci, one of my favorite librarians,
at [email protected] to say you'd like to come and she'll send you a link.
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THE HEALING POWER OF WORDS
(Writing as Renewal/Creating New Writing/
Tools for a Writing Life)
What benefits can writing provide – physically, mentally, spiritually? Are some ways of writing more healing than others? And can we create quality literary work as we heal? In this workshop that incorporates
Dr. James Pennebaker’s ground-breaking ideas, we’ll discuss and implement ways to use writing as a transformational tool. And, if you’re looking, you’ll find the genesis of new poetry, creative non-fiction, and/or fiction. Warning: Laughter likely. Inspiration guaranteed. Read more about this program here.
COST: FREE!
WHERE: Southpark Regional Library
7015 Carnegie Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28211
Phone: (704) 416-5400
Get
Directions.
WHEN: Thursday, June 23rd from 6:30 - 8:00
p.m.
TO REGISTER: Click here.
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THE NURTURING NATURE OF WORDS—
AND OUR WORLD
Reconnect with the natural world through the words of writers who invite us into a reciprocal, healing relationship with it, including Henry David Thoreau, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, and Robin Wall Kimmerer.
We'll use passages of their works to inspire writing about our own experiences with nature, and to deepen our appreciation for its gifts. We'll also explore a number of fun, easy methods to help your words flow, whatever your level of writing experience.
COST: $119
WHERE: Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY
WHEN: Monday - Thursday, August 8 -11, 3:30 - 5:30
p.m.
TO REGISTER: Click here.
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WRITING OUR OWN PROFILES IN
COURAGE
When have you experienced courage—your own, or anyone else's? What was its source? How can we become more courageous? Come explore these questions, and others, through holistic, whole-brain methods of writing
that will open your mind, heart, and spirit to your own growth, and to our human potential to keep growing. Ideal for those interested in expanding their writing and their relationship to self, others and the world—for personal expression or publication.
COST: $119
WHERE: Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY
WHEN: Monday - Thursday, August 15 -18, 3:30 - 5:30
p.m.
TO REGISTER: Click here.
More WordPlay opportunities here.
Joan Didion, Miami Book Fair International, 2005, photo from Miami Dade College
Archive
Because I mentioned Richard Nordquist's observations on "Place and Polysyndeton in Didion's 'Goodbye to All That'," I've marked the conjunctions that make the third sentence polysyndetic. You'll note that there are six "ands" in this one sentence, and if you're wondering, that's six out of 98 total words. This sentence is a masterpiece of composition!
And you may also note that it's followed by a sentence of just five simple words—fewer than the number of "ands" in the sentence that precedes it, a perfect example of varying sentence structure. Read and enjoy!
From "Goodbye to All That"*
by
Joan Didion
It is easy to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends. I can remember now, with a clarity that makes the nerves in the back of my neck constrict, when New York began for me, but I cannot lay my finger upon the moment it ended, can never cut through the ambiguities and second starts and broken resolves to the exact place on the page where
the heroine is no longer as optimistic as she once was. When I first saw New York I was twenty, and it was summertime, and I got off a DC-7 at the old Idlewild temporary terminal in a new dress which had seemed very smart in Sacramento but seemed less smart already, even in the old Idlewild
temporary terminal, and the warm air smelled of mildew and some instinct, programmed by all the movies I had ever seen and all the songs I had ever heard sung and all the stories I had ever read about New York, informed me that it would never be quite the same again. In fact it never was. Some time later there was a song on all the jukeboxes on the
Upper East Side that went "but where is the schoolgirl who used to be me," and if it was late enough at night I used to wonder that. I know now that almost everyone wonders something like that, sooner or later and no matter what he or she is doing, but one of the mixed blessings of being twenty and twenty-one and even twenty-three is the conviction that nothing like this, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, has ever happened to anyone before.
*From Slouching Toward Bethlehem, Joan Didion’s first collection of essays (Simon and Schuster, 1968)
I hope you'll search out this essay of Didion's in its entirety. It's a beauty.
And if you find yourself wishing you could write this well, you are not alone—so do I. And so does author of Everyday Sacred Joan Bender,
who wrote in it that "During the five years it took for me to write Plain and Simple, I had to keep reminding myself EVERY day not to spend time wishing I could write like Joan Didion." (She went on to share that when she met Didion -- in New York, no less,
at an American Booksellers Association, and shared this with her, Didion responded, “And I always wish I could write like Henry James.”
Of course it's important to write like ourselves, not someone else. And yet there's much we can learn from the example of writers who really know their way around a sentence. Want to WordPlay? Check out this week's bonus prompt.
WordPlay Now! Writing Prompt
This is WordPlay—so why not revel in the
power and potential of one good word after another? This week, it's "sentence."
ORIGINAL PROMPT:
Do you believe "it is easy to see the beginning of things, and harder to see the ends"? Write about the beginning and end of any experience—time living in a particular city, a job, a relationship, a trip, etc.
from your own perspective, or from the perspective of another person or character. Play with the shape and length of your sentences a bit as you write. You may even want to try some polysyndeton or asyndeton.
NEW PROMPT:
"Try writing one sentence per line" via the exercise I mentioned above by Derek Sivers. Find it here.
BONUS PROMPT:
Try a word-substitution exercise: take a beautiful sentence written by someone else and write a sentence that uses the exact same parts of speech in the exact same order. For example, using "It is easy to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends." I could write, "You are quick to ravel the mysteries of stars, and
slower to ravel the certainties." (Hmm... where did that come from and what does it mean? A hazard of this prompt.)
Even if you don't come up with sentences in your writing, it will give your brain a good work out! And help you to expand your own syntax. (if you take on doing this with a 98-word sentence, you have my undying admiration!)
MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide to the Craft of Writing, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, and two collections of poetry, This Scatter of
Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water. She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, "We are meant to midwife dreams for one another."
Maureen also believes that serious "word work" requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best learn—and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her
clients along the way. Language, when used with intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours!
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