Nie moje małpy, ale mój cyrk: they may not be my monkeys, but this is my circus
(as an aside, I’m pretty proud of myself for retaining enough Polish to be able to adjust the original proverb, nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy, to match the headline despite not having lived in Krakow for decades now, bear with me, it’s more exciting when you live in a largely monolingual country)
I went to the circus last week – well, really, I went to Cirque du Soleil, which is as much like Barnum and Bailey’s as the Paris Opera Ballet is like a hoedown. And I noticed something. Or rather (I know, this entire post is full of asides, it’s early in the morning) I noticed people noticing something, and I noticed what they noticed.
In any athletic performance there are going to be a couple different kinds of tricks. First are tricks that are athletically challenging or complex: flips, handstands, handoffs, aerial drops, juggling passes, and so forth. Second are tricks that let performers rest: poses held while a piece of equipment or the set itself is moved, tricks that require balance but not much strength, tricks where the prop does most of the work. Cirque du Soleil adds in a third variety of trick because why would you not if you have to put on the same show 5 days a week, twice on weekends: tricks that are interesting to perform even if they’re not visually stunning.
Audiences often clap the hardest for the easiest tricks. And there’s a reason for that: they’re slickly produced, gorgeous, and they look impressive. An aerialist hanging from her ankles while the silk she’s suspended on twirls from one end of the stage to the other? Nifty! But easy. A way to rest between precisely repeated straddle-ups that are much more impressive… but not to the audience.
But those less visually impressive climbs still draw nods and applause from some audience members: the ones who know what they’re looking at and can appreciate the additional level of skill and athleticism that goes into it. In the show I saw, one aerialist was doing tricks on a vertical pole. Okay, that’s hard. It’s actually more impressive than most of the audience knew, but what they didn’t know was the exact level of additional difficulty incurred when, instead of being anchored to the stage, the pole was suspended from a rope and lifted into the air. About five percent of the audience yelped – the five percent who either knew about or had tried a trick like that.
Writing works the same way: there are big flashy tricks like purple prose or playing coy with the ending of a story or writing a huge epic plot that are impressive if you don’t know a lot about writing. And then there are tricks like sustaining a metaphor without wearing it out, keeping a reader who already knows what’s coming in the story interested in finding out how they get there, and telling small stories that play out against the backdrop of an epic plot hinted at but not necessarily explicit. Those are the tricks that impress readers who know something about writing. Finally there are the tricks you’ll play with yourself as a writer: saving your darlings, careful turns of phrase, a favorite word slipped into a sentence. Those are what keep it interesting for you as you write day after day.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use the transparent tricks, ever. We all need to rest between performances. But I’m saying that you should think about your audience, and if you want to impress people who know that the flashy tricks are the easy ones, focus on learning to work with the hard tricks. Like any performer, start by working one into your short story or essay – then add more as you build those writing muscles and can sustain a more impressive performance while making it look easy. Over here that’ll nail you one of our editors’ picks as well as the popular vote.
Besides the popular vote, we also have the option of handing out an editorial staff pick to any post on our grids. Picks are based on writing quality, how successful the author is in conveying information, and just plain style. The great part is that we don’t have a finite number of picks to hand out. That means that if two, three, five, or even all the works on one grid are fantastic, we can give them all kudos- and we’d love to, so keep that great work coming!
On weeks when we don’t award a staff pick, keep an extra close eye on the Roundup. That’s our rundown of trends we see from week to week. We try to highlight the good stuff and point out problems that more than one writer is struggling with. There’s probably a handy tip in there for you right now, so check it out!
Once you’re done reading through the Roundup, keep scrolling down to check out who won the popular vote on both grids. If you earned the highest number of votes in any challenge, you are this week’s Crowd Favorite! If you came in first, second or third, you get “Top Three” honors. Grab your badge from our sidebar!
Looking for your badge? Both grids have the same Winner, Editorial Staff Pick, and Top Three badges. It doesn’t clutter up our sidebar, and they’ll still look pretty on yours!
Rowan’s Roundup: YeahWrite Weekly Writing Challenge #414
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever heard about nonfiction writing is this: Care about what you’re writing about, then find an editor who doesn’t.
Sound counterintuitive? While your editor or beta reader should care about your writing, finding someone who – at least initially – doesn’t care about your topic will help keep your writing clean and focused. That editor can tell you where you’ve lost their interest, where you’ve meandered, and how you can engage people who don’t come into your essay predisposed to agree with you. They can tell you where your advice felt preachy instead of humorous, and where they started waving their hand impatiently and wishing you’d get to the point. If you can make your editor care, you can make your readers care – the way you care.
In this month’s poetry slam we’re exploring synesthesia. Which, frequently, means that we employ metaphor to make our point or convey an image. In both poetry and prose, there are two ways to employ metaphor strongly and impressively: either focus on a single image and develop it throughout, or develop the image until you deliberately break the metaphor, moving away from the reader’s expectations like a shock of cold water in their face. Trying to jam three, five, or ten metaphors into a brief poem or story will scatter your reader’s attention and focus as much as it scatters yours. I’m a terrible offender in this regard so I’ve learned to go back and reread and find whatever metaphor I’ve got the most of and try to pull the other ones out, even if they’re attached to sentences I loved writing. It’s ok, sentences, I’ve got you all pasted into a file named “darlings” and I’ll resurrect you someday.
That’s it for this week! If you’re lost in the middle of the grid and wondering how you can get a little more feedback on your posts, check out our membership perks! Everybody: before you go, please take some time to leave your favorites a little love in the comments, and don’t forget, next week’s challenge kicks off with new prompts in just 12 hours!
Congratulations to the Crowd Favorites at YeahWrite #414
The thumbnails are now sorted in order of most votes to fewest. Ties in the overall number of votes are broken by number of editor votes. Congratulations if you’re at or near the top! Writing well is hard work, and we’re honored you’ve chosen us this week to showcase your entry. If you’re at or near the bottom, don’t be discouraged. You’re in the right community for learning and growing as a writer, and we are always available with resources for those who ask nicely. To our readers and voters: thank you! See you next week.
Nonfiction Challenge
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