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Ana muses on effective prose
Novelist Jon Hassler said: "I want my books to be accessible, I want people to just step into
them and not have any barrier between them and the story — which means the
prose shouldn't even be noticeable. But it takes a lot of work to make it not
noticeable, I find."
When I
read this simple declaration, I stopped to ponder what he meant by “the prose
shouldn’t even be noticeable.” Jon Hassler is revered in the Minnesota section
of the writing world. He had to
mean that:
1.
grammar
is correct and unobtrusive.
2.
words
are chosen for their accessibility and plain descriptiveness.
3.
sentence
structure is smooth and serves the story.
Prose
that serves the story. That doesn’t jar the reader out of the story.
That is hard to write and a delight to read.
The Writer’s
Almanac says Hassler’s first big success was The Love Hunter (1981), about two friends who
teach at a small Minnesota college, one of whom is dying of multiple sclerosis.
When they go on a hunting trip together, the healthy man decides to kill the
dying man, to end his pain and so that he can marry his wife, whom he is secretly
in love with.
That’s a
plot I wouldn’t want to be jarred out of.
I completely agree with the three points you've made, Ana. All of them are necessary in order to avoid the ungrammatical, flowery and/or jerky prose I've read in some novels!
ReplyDeleteCan you think of any other points?
ReplyDeleteI think you've summed them up very well. Prose and word usage appropriate to the genre is the only other thing I can think of e.g. chick-lit prose would be different from medieval novel prose (etc)
ReplyDeleteActually, you're already said that with the phrase 'prose that serves the story.' :-)
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see examples of his writing to truly understand what he means. I think you've got his point, Ana, but I'd love to see what he thinks he means.
ReplyDeleteI will Google him and see what I can come up with.
ReplyDeleteSloppy or over-intrusive writing does tend to get in the way of the story.
ReplyDelete