>>> Item number 28812 from WRITERS LOG9404D --- (50 records) ----- <<< Date: Sat, 23 Apr 1994 18:35:02 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: TECH: Six Principles to Write By? I ran across this list and thought these quite useful as "measuring rods" for writing. Perhaps even as construction poles used to guide the work... 1. Rhythm - "For rendering anything, the first necessity is to have known and to have experienced its rhythm." the feel of its rhythms, the rhythms of its life, its walk, its poise... 2. Organic form - "[it] must be sound, continuous, living... itself organic and not the mere imitation of something alive. But in its life it must carry, of course, the rhythm of the object represented." 3. Trueness to nature - "It holds to nature - which does not mean, however, that the work is to be photographic. It is to the rhythm of the object's life that the artist is to remain true." 4. Color - "which include the whole mysterious lore of light and shade, the light and the dark, rendering the essences of energy and inertia." 5. The placement of the object in the field - "[the object] is placed in just such a way, in one corner of the work, that its influence will affect and bring to life the whole scene." 6. Style - "the requirement that the style employed - the force, roughness, of refinement [...] - should be appropriate to the rhythm of the subject." As I say, this list seems to me to provide good measures for writing. Rhythm, organic form, trueness to nature, color, placement of the object in the field, and style - a bit livelier than the usual technical lists of characterization, plot, setting, and so forth, and perhaps emphasizing the continuum of writing from "non-fiction" through "fiction" to poetry? I urge you to consider these in your writing, even though they are given on page 120 of "Myths to Live By" by Joseph Campbell (Bantam 1973) as six principles of the classical painter's art in Japan. mys tink (eek - I was contemplating my navel, and it swallowed me! now I'm just not myself...:-)