Denis Johnson is a Poet

And, yes, he is a novelist too. And that is why I turn to his poetry to show the effects of the sounds of words on meaning. You see, if he were only a poet, you might wonder what these techniques had to do with your fiction writing, right? Anything goes in the quest for a cool scene, so prepare to steal a few riffs from poetry. If Denis Johnson does it, it's got to be good.

Here's the deal: different sounds evoke different emotional or symbolic meanings.
Some hiss and sizzle: s, sh, ch ("hiss" and "sizzle" actually sound like they mean, which is known as onomatopoeia, a great word to use in Scrabble)

Some explode or stop you in your tracks: k, t, p, g

Some are smooth: w, m, n, y

Some are fuzzy: th, v, z

Some are slow and sombre: o, oo, uh, ah

Some are quick and sharp: ih, i, eh, ee

Short words are quicker than long words.

Now for the applications (all Denis Johnson):

"a semi-truck against the bruised roses/of sunset/" from Grocery on Venice Beach. (Notice the vowel sounds: ah, eh, ee, ah, uh, oo, o, uh, uh, eh. That's 3 quick vs. 7 slow. Very sombre.)

"a chilly wind was taking/ small sticks and the like down the block" from All-Night Diners
(Notice all the quick vowels, and notice too that the second line has only one-syllable words adding to that sense of little things blowing down the street)

If you haven't read his poetry, you really should. They are skeletons of novels. Try this one: "Our Sadness"

Then go read the comics. You'll need to.

Can You Guess Who Wrote These Endings?

I can't wait to write the end to my book--mostly because that means I will be at the end and and ready for those heady few days before revision sets in. I know it's a way down the road for most of us, but let's think about that last line. It's your big chance to package your theme in a shiny prose package. Consider writing it first. Here are a few examples, culled randomly from my shelves. Can you guess who wrote them? I'll tell you the answers in my next blog. Then we'll get down to the business of how to write one.

1) "She kisses his sleeping back and falls asleep."

2) "Write to me, she said. Write to me. I have written."

3)"Ten minutes after we were airborne a woman asked me for my autograph."

4)"And the truth of it had, with this force after a moment, so strangely lighted his eyes that, as for pity or dread of them, she buried her own in his breast."

5) "But Farid was still standing on the same lonely road. In the wrong world."

6) "Their heavy shots had splashed into him, and they had followed all the way, firing as they did, with that contagious passion peculiar to hunters."

7)"Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past."

8) "She says nothing at all, but simply stares upward into the dark sky and watches, with sad eyes, the slow dance of the infinite stars."

You know, you're right. That's too hard. Here are your choices: James Salter, Neil Gaiman, Willa Cather, William Gibson, Don Delillo, Henry James, John Banville and Cornelia Funke. It's probably still too obscure, but aren't those great lines?