Post date: Jan 18, 2018 11:58:25 PM
A Great Quote and an article on choice
"The deep function of all art is to make life more beautiful, more clear, more understandable and, as the great critic Kenneth Burke said, “give the world equipment for living.” Stories give us models of experience why we do what we do, and the probable consequences of all that."
—Robert McKee (whom I have interviewed) From an interviewwith Final Draft (The link will take you to Robert McKee’s blog.)
Perhaps Robert should have said “clearer” rather than “more clear”. Sometimes in our intensity to try to be more clear, we use unnatural language. If your character needs some unnatural language then ignore the blue underlines that spell or grammar check put into your document. You are the writer and you decide when this is appropriate and when it is not.
Your editor may have an opinion on this or not. And it is up to you as the writer to ignore advice or go with that advice. It is just advice; it is not the end of the world if you chose not to follow the advice.
Ever had someone say to you? “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Well, you are not them and if you want to do it then do it. And it may happen the next time, you say to yourself. They were right; I will not do that again. Or you may find out; hey, I did that and it was okay to do that and no real repercussions. It is simply a choice on how to do that one thing.
There are many things that are this way. It is neither good nor bad it is simply a choice. A fork in the road, and adventure either way.
Now this article has given you a great quote to think about and afterwards a discussion on choices. Examples of choices that I’ve made in the paragraphs above are; I chose to start a sentence with an “and” and an “or”. Spell / Grammar check did not like it and blue underlined it. I did it anyway.
Another choice I made was the paragraph sentence that starts out “There are many things that…” Spell / Grammar check is advising me to change it to “Many things that…” Which way is best? Which way is correct? Neither, I believe. It is just one way or another, a fork in the road, a choice. I made my choice and can live with it.
As both editor and writer of this article, I have that power. Some other time when I do not have that power I may make a different choice. But that is for another time and place. We’ll see what happens.