Setting the Scene for Great Writing

The setting is the place and time in which the action of a narrative takes place. Its also called the scene or creating a sense of place. In a work of creative nonfiction, evoking a sense of place is an important persuasive technique: A storyteller persuades by creating scenes, little dramas that occur in a definite time and place, in which real people interact in a way that furthers the aims of the overall story, says Philip Gerard in Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life (1996). Examples of Narrative Setting The first den was a rock cavity in a lichen-covered sandstone outcrop near the top of a slope, a couple of hundred yards from a road in Hawley. It was on posted property of the Scrub Oak Hunting Club -- dry hardwood forest underlain by laurel and patches of snow -- in the northern Pocono woods. Up in the sky was Buck Alt. Not long ago, he was a dairy farmer, and now he was working for the Keystone State, with directional antennae on his wing struts angled in the direction of bears. -- John McPhee, Under the Snow in Table of Contents (1985)We hunted old bottles in the dump, bottles caked with dirt and filth, half buried, full of cobwebs, and we washed them out at the horse trough by the elevator, putting in a handful of shot along with the water to knock the dirt loose; and when we had shaken them until our arms were tired, we hauled them off in somebodys coaster wagon and turned them in at Bill Andersons pool hall, where the smell of lemon pop was so sweet on the dark pool-hall air t hat I am sometimes awakened by it in the night, even yet.Smashed wheels of wagons and buggies, tangles of rusty barbed wire, the collapsed perambulator that the French wife of one of the towns doctors had once pushed proudly up the planked sidewalks and along the ditchbank paths. A welter of foul-smelling feathers and coyote-scattered carrion which was all that remained of somebodys dream of a chicken ranch. The chickens had all got some mysterious pip at the same time, and died as one, and the dream lay out there with the rest of the towns history to rustle to the empty sky on the border of the hills. -- Wallace Stegner, The Town Dump in Wolf Willow: A History, a Story, and a Memory of the Last Plains Frontier (1962)This is the nature of that country. There are hills, rounded, blunt, burned, squeezed up out of chaos, chrome and vermilion painted, aspiring to the snowline. Between the hills lie high level-looking plains full of intolerable sun glare, or narrow valleys drowned in a b lue haze. The hill surface is streaked with ash drift and black, unweathered lava flows. After rains water accumulates in the hollows of small closed valleys, and, evaporating, leaves hard dry levels of pure desertness that get the local name of dry lakes. Where the mountains are steep and the rains heavy, the pool is never quite dry, but dark and bitter, rimmed about with the efflorescence of alkaline deposits. A thin crust of it lies along the marsh over the vegetating area, which has neither beauty nor freshness. In the broad wastes open to the wind the sand drifts in hummocks about the stubby shrubs, and between them the soil shows saline traces. Mary Austin, The Land of Little Rain (1903) Observations on Setting the Scene Grounding the reader: Nonfiction has done a much better job in terms of setting the scene, I think. ...Think of all the splendid nature writing, and adventure writing -- from Thoreau to  Muir to Dillard  ... where we have fine settings of scenes. Setting the scene precisely and well is too often overlooked in memoir. Im not sure exactly why. But we -- the readers -- want to be grounded. We want to know where we are. What kind of world were in. Not only that, but it is so often the case in nonfiction that the scene itself is a kind of character. Take the Kansas of Truman Capotes  In Cold Blood, for example. Capote takes pains right at the beginning of his book to set the scene of his multiple murders on the plains and wheat fields of the Midwest. -- Richard Goodman, The Soul of Creative Writing  2008)Creating a world: The setting of a piece of writing, whether fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose, is never some realistic snapshot of a place. ... If you were to describe with the utmost accuracy every structure in a city ... and then went on to describe every stitch of clothing, every piece of furniture, every custom, every meal, every parade, you would still not have captured anything essential about life. ... As a young reader, place gripped you. You wandered with Huck, Jim, and Mark Twain down an imagined Mississippi through an imagined America. You sat in a dreamy, leafy wood with a sleepy Alice, as shocked as she when the White Rabbit bustled by with no time to spare. ... You traveled intensely, blissfully, and vicariously -- because a writer took you somewhere. -- Eric Maisel, Creating an International World: Using Place in Your Nonfiction in Now Write! Nonfiction: Memoir, Journalism and Creative Nonfiction Exercises, ed. by Sherry Ellis (2009)Shop talk: A thing I never know when Im telling a story is how much scenery to bung in. Ive asked one or two scriveners of my acquaintance, and their views differ. A fellow I met at a cocktail party in Blooms bury said that he was all for describing kitchen sinks and frowsy bedrooms and squalor generally, but for the beauties of Nature, no. Whereas, Freddie Oaker, of the Drones, who does tales of pure love for the weeklies under the pen-name of Alicia Seymour, once told me that he reckoned that flowery meadows in springtime alone were worth at least a hundred quid a year to him. Personally, Ive always rather barred long descriptions of the terrain, so I will be on the brief side. -- P.G. Wodehouse, Thank You, Jeeves (1934)

New Is Not Always Better Essay - 1208 Words

New Is Not Always Better Humans have been taught, since the beginning of time, to never settle and always to improve. One of the biggest areas in which this is true is in the area of energy needs. Coal and fossil fuels have been used for a long time and are now considered crude and outdated. Many governments and companies are now searching for cleaner and renewable alternatives such as solar energy, bio-fuels, and wind energy. Although these new sources are great for additives to the energy market, they are in no way a suitable replacement for fossil fuels. All of these types of energy have their own place which is working alongside the other forms of energy. Fossil fuels should not be replaced because they are more improvable, more reliable, and more readily available than most other energy sources. The history of the United States is interwoven with fossil fuels. These sources are what have enabled our country to grow and to be as successful as it has been (Hall 18). It is rare to go around and find anyone without a car in today’s society. One thing that must be noted is how fossil fuels have improved since their beginning. The same fuel that ran through a car in 1940 would be very different than the fuel used today. The point here is their improvability as an energy source. As technology is changing, so are opportunities to improve current energy sources. Fossil fuels have come a long way, but they have even further to go. Another aspect to consider is how influentialShow MoreRelatedNew Is Always Better : The Movement Of Old And New Public Administration2059 Words   |  9 PagesNew Is Always Better: The Movement of Old to New Public Administration The transition from old to new Public administration is the largest transition in governmental public administration. 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Clinical Depression 2 Essay Research Paper Clinical free essay sample

Clinical Depression 2 Essay, Research Paper Clinical depression is really common. Over nine million Americans are diagnosed with clinical depression at some point in their lives. Many more people suffer from clinical depression because they do non seek intervention. They may experience that depression is a personal failing, or seek to get by with their symptoms entirely. On the other manus, some people are comfy with acknowledging their symptoms and seeking aid. Such a disagreement may account for the differences in reported instances of depression between work forces and adult females, which indicate that more than twice the Numberss of adult females than work forces are clinically depressed. Harmonizing to the Numberss of reported instances of depression, 25 % of adult females and 10 % of work forces will hold one or more episodes of clinical depression during their life-times. The biologic footing of Clinical Depression originates in the encephalon. Your encephalon is made up of a complex web of nervus cells, called nerve cells and of encephalon chemicals, called neurotransmitters. We will write a custom essay sample on Clinical Depression 2 Essay Research Paper Clinical or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Neurotransmitters transmit messages from one nerve cell to another. Two of these neurotransmitters are non produced in sufficient measures in a down individual s encephalon. Because of this deficiency, excessively few messages get transmitted between nerve cells and the symptoms of depression occur. In Clinical depression the chemicals in the encephalon are out-of-balance. New engineering allows research workers to take images of the encephalon that show activity degrees in the encephalon. These imaging techniques such as f-MRI and Favored scan really create images of how active different parts of the encephalon are. Some surveies with these sorts of techniques have suggested that the forms of activation in the encephalons of down people are different than those who are non. These trials can assist physicians and research workers learn more about depression and other mental unwellnesss. Since this research is reasonably new, it is non yet used to name clinical depres Zion. Strong grounds suggests that clinical depression tallies in households. Still, merely because a individual has household members with clinical depression does non vouch that he or she will develop it. Similarly, you may acquire it even if no 1 else in your household has had it. Peoples with high degrees of emphasis are much more likely to develop depression that those who do non. Though most people go through a # 8220 ; down # 8221 ; period after a peculiarly nerve-racking event like a divorce or decease of a loved one, sometimes highly hard emphasiss can trip depressive episodes in certain people who are susceptible to the unwellness. Not surprisingly, people experience depressive episodes when nerve-racking events occur in their lives. This is particularly true for the first depressive episode that people experience. Once people have experienced a depressive episode, they are more likely to see future episodes of depression. Peoples react otherwise to assorted emphasiss and wheth er they react by holding a depressive episode can frequently be explained by their header manner. On the other manus, some people are comfy with acknowledging their symptoms and seeking aid. Such a disagreement may account for the differences in reported instances of depression between work forces and adult females, which indicate that more than twice the Numberss of adult females than work forces are clinically depressed. Harmonizing to the Numberss of reported instances of depression, 25 % of adult females and 10 % of work forces will hold one or more episodes of clinical depression during their life-times. The opportunities of recovery from clinical depression are really good! Almost all clinical depression sick persons who get intervention recover from their episode of depression. The recovery from this episode can be every bit high as 85 % for people who complete several different interventions. As one improves, they will anticipate to detect an improved appetency, increased energy degrees, and eventually, improved slumber.

The baroque has been called a theatrical style, on Essay Example For Students

The baroque has been called a theatrical style, on Essay e that deals in spectacle, grandeur, and dramatic contrast. Test these concepts in an essay that discusses the baroque as an expression of the Catholic Reformation, Protestant devotionalism, the Scientific Revolution, and the Age of Absolutism. Define your general statements with specific examples. The following essay will discuss the baroque period and how the Catholic Reformation, Protestant devotionalism, and the Scientific Revolution influenced it. The Baroque period generally refers to the years 1600 to1750. Classicism of the Renaissance has been replenished during the Baroque period. During the Baroque artistic period, the exploration of the fundamental components of human nature and the realm of senses and emotions were very crucial. The Baroque era was a very dynamic time that showed an abundance of radiance and color. Artists of this time were passionate and sensual. Their works were many times considered to have an overpowering emotional effect. The superficial form of light was fascinated during this period due to the thoughts of godlike sun or the truth of the Holy Spirit. The Baroque naturalism maintains the religious themes in content. The elements of perception in the Baroque art are how we perceived the natural human figures are in motion through space, time, an d light. We present and analyze the extent of human actions and passions in all its degrees of lightness, darkness, and intensity. We will write a custom essay on The baroque has been called a theatrical style, on specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now The scientific revolution also had a tremendous impact on art during this time. Scientists started to study the earth and its positioning in the universe. This was a time when the people started take more of an interest in astronomy and mathematical equations. During the time of the Catholic Reformation artists began to challenge all the rules that society has set for artistic design. Artist starting with Parmigianino, Tintoretto, and El Greco began to add a wide variety of colors into their paintings, challenging the way things have been done in the past. These artists also added abnormal figures or altered the proportions in paintings. This is displayed in Parmigianinos painting, Madonna of the long neck. During this time the Catholic Church was in a transition period moving from their recent reputation and becoming a well-respected organization. During this reform, an autobiography written by Layola about Saint Teresa of Avila set a new tone for Catholics to follow. This influenced people to have a more spiritual outlook on life. Protestantism also played a huge part in the development of the baroque style. Protestantism had a strong scriptural and devotional emphasis with rising commercialism. Artists during this time started to concentrate on personal issues instead of religious displays. Poetry became another way of expression during this era. Poets like John Milton produced works that depicted morality, evil, and death. Johann Sebastian Bach and George F. Handel influenced the baroque period with oratorio musical designs depicting a scriptural narrative. The baroque period was a time of change. From the reformation of the Catholic Church, the new expression of the Scientific Revolution, and the new ideas Protestant devotionalism society experienced a varying degree of changes that impacted life, art, and entertainment that we know today.