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Article:
Learning to Question your Elephant Child: Who, What, Where, When and Why by: Stephen Earley Jordan, II Having problems writing? I don't know why. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll writes up to five columns a week. After all, if he can write five columns, you should be able to write a five-lined poem-but that does not seem to be the case. How does he do it? Carroll claimed to recite lines from Rudyard Kipling's 'The Elephant Child': 'I have six humble serving men They taught me all I knew Their names are what And where and when And why and how and who.' I'm more than sure that two incentives for Jon Carroll are 1.) Creating deadlines and 2.) His salary! Yes, we writers DO get paid every now and then! Basing my philosophies on those few lines of Kipling's 'The Elephant Child', my advice is to 'Simply Ask Questions'. Rummage through some old work (whether it be poetry, nonfiction, or fiction) that you've written and use the following techniques to enhance your skills. And, then, ask yourself the follow questions. WHAT is the underlying theme? Try to come up with a single-word or phrase to describe your story. Perhaps one reason your story has not been effective in the past is that you have too many intertwining stories. This, in turn, can cause confusion for the reader. So, ask yourself, 'What is my story about?' And, give yourself answers such as: Desolation, Lost Hope, Self-Confidence, Racism, Attained Dreams, etc. If you can KISS (keep it simple stupid), then your readers won't MISS your point. As practice, read some of the great contemporary writers and ask yourself the same question-'What is the underlying theme?' Describe the book in one word or one phrase, instead of using a high school book-report technique. WHERE does your story or poem take place?Knowing the setting can allow you to be a bit more descriptive with your work. Does your poem or prose take place in Alaska? Florida? China? Yugoslavia? Hawaii? Kentucky? Each of these places is, perhaps, equal opposites of the next. To know your setting you have two choices-- 1.) Be a good researcher; collect pictures and read as much as you can about the location, or 2.) Take a road trip! Nothing can be grander than to spend your weekend visiting unknown territories. WHEN did the events take place in which you are writing?If you're doing factual reporting-this is especially a MUST-DO. For instance, if you read a news article a reader wants to know when Ms. Johnson's house was burglarized. Did it happen June '20
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