The 700 year-old novel writing secret. ‘Thisness.’
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- Опубліковано 1 кві 2023
- ‘Gateway to Narnia’ my free novel-writing e-course can be found here:
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In the 13th Century they called it Haecceity. That’s Latin for ‘Thisness’ and if you really want to make your fiction sparkle and fizz you need to add a tubful. Watch the video to find out what it is and how to add it.
Thanks to:
Firework video, Suzy Hazelwood: www.pexels.com/video/firework...
Match photo, Pixabay: www.pexels.com/photo/person-h...
"All the conspirators made off, and he lay there lifeless for some time, until finally three common slaves put him on a litter and carried him home, with one arm hanging down." Suetonius's description of the death of Caesar. Since Suetonius lived 100 years after Caesar, he could not possibly have witnessed the event personally, but that final detail - "with one arm hanging down" - brings the scene into sharp focus. I read this as a writing tip decades ago, and I have never forgotten this example. I didn't know there was a name for this writing technique until just now.
Descriptive writing is nice in moderation. I find that as a reader I don't like my imagination to be reconfigured much, so it has to be done smoothly.
New to thisness. I love thisness. I've been doing thisness without knowing thisness was thatness.
underrated comment
Love this(ness)!
exactliness
Thisness lightly and sparsely sprinkled can be very effective - although, it can, however, be overdone.
Like everything really. Everything, even good things, need to be done in moderation. Otherwise, over-use robs them of their speciality and becomes mundane and normal.
Agree. You can’t get too heavy with the sprinkles. Raymond Chandler has just the right touch. (Though I have never cared for his plots, but I’m addicted to his sprinkles)
"The rats are so bold they wear silk trousers." I love this line lmao
I remember watching someone analyze Bill Burr's stand-up comedy and they came to a similar conclusion - Bill makes people laugh by providing details at the right moment. When he talks about a sinking ship leaving no traces, he says: "Well, maybe a flip flop. Or an Ed Hardy shirt." I have no idea who Ed Hardy is a but it still worked.
Ed Hardy is an artist who work was mostly in tattoos. You can Google his name and see many examples. I think it was in the 90s or early 2000s that t shirts with his designs on them became briefly popular. Tacky and bold.
"When we write, we create a guided dream in the reader's mind."
Wow! Love that. You make some excellent videos, sir.
Hey thanks very much, I really appreciate it!
You make a good point. Without specific details, it could be any room, so what makes it *this* room. The details were great for conjuring medieval Oxford and made the story feel intriguing.
I call it 'Painting with words" You have done me a service, and I thank you... you have verified something I've always thought was a defect in my writing.
Duns Scotus was also a mystical philosopher, wasn't he? I've run into his name so many times!
Just stumbled on this video, great subject! I remember when I first realized in my teens how effective "thisness" could be. In Stephen King's It there's a dream sequence where he describes the sky in the dream as being the color of an old penny. And it hit me how specific that color, that pale and sickly corrosion green, is, and how that simple six-word description put such a specific and powerful image of color in my mind. It was a simple and basic example, but so effective. I resolved then and there to be as specific as possible with my word choice...never was good enough to get a word of fiction published, either, but the lesson holds, haha. Thanks for the reminder!
Finally someone not disregarding a good description!
That was excellent. Not only do telling details introduce 'thisness' but they can describe the world as the character sees it, drawing attention to what he or she finds particular rather than merely providing an overview for the reader. For me, it's an important part of putting the reader amidst the action, rather than stuck in the stalls and seeing events unfold like a play.
That's exactly right, the reader participates in the dream rather than observes it
Didn't m.twain do this in huk fin? The scene where Huck is spreading pigs blood, nasty scene,
When I read fellowship of the ring for the first time, I was annoyed at all the descriptions of scenery. I couldn't care less because I just wanted to get to the story bit. But I often think about Lord of the Rings, even though I read it years ago, because the detailed memories of those descriptions are burned into my mind. So glad I read it, I feel like I could connect to that land so much, it's weird to think that all those places don't exist. That there is no such thing as Hobbiton.
Great observation! William Gibson practices 'Thisness' in his writing; it's what makes his imagined futures feel so real.
That is exactly one of the things I LOVE about José Saramago! He does it so freaking beautifully!
I just thought of some of the descriptive passages you spoke of-it occurs to me they invoke the concept of synesthesia, the state where the stimulus of one sense sparks sensations of ANOTHER sense-such as when the female character's perfume was described as smelling like "the sight of the Taj Mahal" (i.e., luxurious and grandly inviting).
I hadn't thought about it, but that is exactly right. Chandler did it a lot
Agreed. They also reminded me of Douglas Adams, who loved employing such broken logic as "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
The sound of your voice: I like listening to it.
My writing group insisted that a falling bridge couldn't sigh. It was then that I knew, while they were all good people, they wouldn't help me grow as a writer
I love your filming set up. Well done and thank you for this video.
you had me at "pig farts"
Was this guy the secret ruler of galaxy in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy radio play? Pretty sure
So it’s like, imagery + personality or character perspective = haecceity.
I love the rat picture
"I know oxen are castrated but this one hasn't been done yet."
I have a curiosity with language so I went to check this. According to search engines, an ox is a castrated bull. A steer is also a castrated bull, but is two to three years younger than an ox. But the first few sites I looked at stated that _oxen_ could refer to male or females (but rarely females). Then I discovered a heifer is a female that hasn't given birth yet and after she's given birth she's referred to as a cow. I wish I'd had this curiosity when I was a youth. I was fascinated in my early twenties when I discovered what I'd been referring to as "cows" were actually "cattle," although I understand why "cows" was generally used. Language is fascinating.
Wow, now I've learned that "Urine used to be a valuable commodity. In the past, some societies used it for fertilizing crops, tanning leather, washing clothes and producing gunpowder." The more you know.
I didn't know most of that!
Because of your comment I suddenly realize, as the protagonist is a friar, he might refers the 'castrated ozen' refers to the other friars, while 'this one hasn't been done yet' perhaps also refer to himself and his 'unholy' desires.
Stumbled across your video and love the lesson taught! I'm writing my first novel and thinking about how "thisness" can bring my writing to life. I particularly enjoyed your story of Dun Scotus. It evoked a sense of a living, breathing, writhing and stinking medieval world. The narrator's humour was perfect, and the twists highly amusing. The sad ending lingers on in the mind well after the story has finished. In the span of less than a thousand words you caused me to feel many things. Thanks for sharing.
What a lovely comment! Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
This was brilliant. Thank. I’m in the process of editing my script and I’m now incorporating “thisness” thanks to you.
Hey thank you! Good luck with the script.
@@TheOxfordWriter and thank you for the knowledge.
Thank you!
That was a superb example!
I am enjoying exploring you Gateway to Narnia and each of these videos.
Thanks again
Robert
Many thanks! The moment I read your comment a line from a song came on Spotify saying 'I've been reading Browning...' (Home thoughts from abroad - Clifford T. Ward) Synchronicity!
You are doing a great job! Keep uploading more. I am working on a novella without any hopes of finishing the draft. And your videos came to the rescue.
Thanks! I'll keep uploading but they quite a bit of time. Good luck with your novella.
@@TheOxfordWriter Anytime! We'll for you to upload. The quality it top-notch so it's fair to wait for it. Thanks!
Great story! Great artwork! I'm glad I watched this video.
WOW! Thank you thank you for the word AND for the James Woods quote!! This is a quality I've tried talking about to fellow writers (in film) and friends who are avid moviegoers and/or readers. Ineffable specialness (etc) that hits home deeply while being, sometimes, all but invisible . Soooo vital, yet so hard to create, as well as teach. At least to me. But, when it happens, we say, "yes, that's IT". OR, in plain ol' plain talk: Boy, that sure hit the spot!!
Amazing story
Think this video is a masterpiece.awesome. thanks for these facts of dun scotus we never knew. Please keep doing such amazing videos which is a cut above the guides by writing guides
This was an interesting glimpse into the magic of words used in an inspired manner.
This gentlemen not only has wonderful content but a perfect ASMR voice.
Hey thanks!
this was wonderful! thank you so much for this my man. you've made a subscriber out of me.
Awesome, thank you!
Awesome. In my memoir I tried this. I think it's marvelous.
An excellent video.
(0:20) You look FANTASTIC for a 700-year-old man.
(3:06) I feel like you're holding back on us. You should tap into your real feelings about Oxford in 1288.
(5:25) This is why AI chatbots will never replace true artists.
(7:54) I looked it up and, for those of you who were curious, bribery DID exist in 1288. It was invented just prior by King Edmund, which is why they changed his nickname from "The Disemboweler" to "The Magnificent".
🤯🤯🤯
Even her ticks are cute. LOL. This was great, thank you very much!
Any time!
Agreed with Colin Smith, this is excellent, a beautiful lesson on how detail can make all the difference. While few of us can be as evocative in the use of metaphor as the writers you cite, thinking about what descriptions to include in a scene can convey mood, inform the readers about characters' personalities, and do the "heavy lifting" of world building.
Extremely fascinating writing~!
And reading. Thank you.
This was so helpful thank youuuu 🙏🙏🙏 guided dreams, I love that
Thank you for your kind words Jessica. I appreciate it.
I adore the thumbnail, did you generate that?
Yes, Midjourney!
I agree that ‘thisness’ and verisimilitude are excellent for bringing writing to life. I do think though that some of these example sentences would be improved by being cut short or re-worded as they slip into the ‘purple prose’ a few times. This can turn off a reader who was just getting into the feel of the world being created.
I was thinking the exact same thing. Thisness is important but overdoing it would make the writing very laborious to read. I'd say thisness works best for lines that need to have extreme emotional weight, sharp focus, or a weight to it that either establishes a character, their trait, the environment, or something of value that the writer wants to accentuate.
As most of you already know, 'SCOTUS' stood/stands for Serial Chiller of the United States.
Truly a man ahead of his time.
Thank you 😊
That was great. Liked and sub’d. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! Welcome aboard!
Wonderful!!
This heavily depends on personal experience, sense of humor and is kinda like a 'quirky' way to narrate, imo. It's effective either with specific intent in the narrative or as the writer's style.
Like others have said, I already do this in my writing. I had no idea it had a name.
I think the definition is a bit too "abstract" to really understand easily, so here's it in Layman's terms: The "thisness" isn't called a "description" because it chooses what to focus on, and that is the "this"/"essence" of something. It's the first 1 or 2 things that point at you about the thing and is bit of an exaggeration perhaps and it describes more indirectly. Like, if the woodgrain of the walls of the floor do not stick out at you (because to who they would), you shouldn't mention it. Instead, you should mention the streak marks left by the moved furniture as they make the floor look like prisoners had been dragged over it while clawing the floor with their nails.
It's an exaggeration and it gives you a faint idea of the size, depth and frequency of these scratches. It's far easier to paint a picture in your mind without detailing "there were frequent scratch marks, each wide as a fingernail and about 2 millimiteters deep" lmao
But you can see how this type of description will get really tiresome at some point. It becomes and endless slew of "comparisons" to random things and makes the book really read like a fever dream. So you shouldn't use it all the time. In fact, most of the time it's going to be better and enough to just describe that "her hair was red".
I was not able to get into your free newsletter. Even a computer whiz guy couldn't reach it. Wonder how others can reach it. I still eel your advice was the best inspite of the avalanche of videos by others and some good books based on neuroscience by will storr .I feel you must write a book.a famous Indian film stars wife came to study creative writing at Goldsmiths. So the market is booming. You share your know. You can help struggling writeres like me who produce only still birth novels. Thank you.tou are generous with your insight and ephipanies..thank you
Thanks!
Sorry to hear you are having problems, I’m not sure why.
Click on this link,
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Loved this story, where can I get the copy ? I am a newborn writer and did subscribed to learn more from you, thank you so much , looking forward to your new video.
Sorry, what do you mean by 'copy'?
I want a book. Where can I get a book ?
Thought I was listening to Mark Felton when the intro music started, lol
So this is basically show don’t tell ?
Great video!
How would 'Thisness' reconcile with the prose of, say, Cormac McCharthy? His prose has almost no details and yet evokes profound emotions.
Thank you for your kind words! The honest answer to your question is, I don't know. It's been years since I read Cormac McCarthy (really liked his stuff) so I can't really remember. I will take a look, though, and see how he weaves the magic.
@@TheOxfordWriter Thanks!!
I am in the middle of the audiobook version of The Road right now. I wrote down a sentence that I really liked so here it is; "By day the banished sun circles the earth like a grieving mother with a lamp".
I thought that was just great.
@@elchiponr1 that's perfect
I will try out Gateway to Narnia
nice story
How would this work with multiple first person POVs? It seems quite a challenge adding thisness to each character and maintaining their distinct personalities
John Duns wasn't called Scotus until he left Oxford, having been appointed to Paris by his superiors. He probably had to insist he was a Scot because the registrar at Paris University, knowing that he had come from Oxford, wanted to register him as belonging to the English nation. If so, John Duns wasn't having it. He knew where he came from - his life did not begin in Oxford - and he knew what England was doing to Scotland at the time. Berwick, only a few miles from his home place, was the eye of the storm. He certainly knew all about the bloodbath there, and he also knew how to stand up for himself. He was a Scot. He had amazing insights, which are still relevant today. And he knew how to speak up for truth and beauty, as he saw it. And goodness. Pax et Bonum remains the Franciscan motto. Haeccitas is just one of these magnificent, interlaced insights that he wove into the Cathedral of his mind. Scotus, as he very quickly became known, as if it was his name - he must have been tenacious in insisting on it - is one of the most misunderstood and maligned men in the whole history of theology, of philosophy, indeed of literature and any kind of writing you can imagine. I know this site is about novels; so I apologise for boring you with something more like history, which many find comparatively banal. Let novels be novels, and not faction, which is a kind of lie. Novels are great when they convey truth. Faction doesn't qualify. It spreads fictions - i.e. lies - about real people. If you want to write fiction why not create your own characters, instead of piggy backing on real people? If they are dead, it does not mean that they are not still around. Having said that, you are quite right to point out that the philosophical visions of John Duns, and in particular his sense of thisness, is vital for literature. Not just novels, but poetry - even more so for poetry. Just ask, and listen to, Gerard Manley Hopkins. A little bit of awe and wonder, like Hopkins had for Scotus, can go a long way. Don't insult the dead, especially when they left us great things, as Scotus did. You will have to face them one day, after all - because they are still around.
Could you please tell me where the descriptive passage on John Duns Scotus is from exactly? Thank you
Sorry, can you be more specific? I'm not sure which passage you are referring to
isn't this a variant of Shannon Entropy? Where surprising specific words like "kangaroo, demon, sprinkles" convey more meaning, change more things than predictable or unremarkable words like "this, the, an"
A certain je ne sais quoi, as we say in English.
It could also be a hindrance, when you actually have something concrete to say. But if beauty of the text is the goal in itself, then i guess it's a must.
😂 this is interesting and hilarious
Unintentional ASMR i guess
I had to Google that!
@@TheOxfordWriter u have really soothing voice
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Is a "round bus ticket" what we in America would call a "round trip ticket"?
No, a 'round trip' is there and back .Here it just means round town, as in visiting various places in the same town.
@@TheOxfordWriter If the price is right, that sounds like a bargain. And yes, we in America love to see those beautiful shots of Oxford. Was it an Ox ford in the past? Also, as I was listening to your Lewis Carrol video the boat excursion paddling on the stream and the quote that "life is but a dream" made me wonder whether the song "Row, row, row your Boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream" comes from that outing with Alice?
I'm not sure what to do when my own mental picture of a scene does not have "thisness". You can't share what you don't have. Part of what robs me of the immediacy with which I want to write is an inner critic who won't shut up. He's constantly telling me that there's no possible way I could know what Taj Mahal under moonlight smells like. Therefore I don't have the authority to write such a sentence. I wonder what sort of mental gymnastics I could do to get away from him.
If he doesn't buy your authority, ask someone with actual qualification instead, like on Reddit and Quora. Better yet, seek consultation and beta readers who are actually members of the community. For example, I just went ahead and message an Asexual page of my country to read excerpts featuring my ace characters. They were excited to accept. Another thing is to tell him you can't edit nothing, that is, you two will agree on a shitty first draft and then he'll have his say as to what needs to be fixed. A bizarre tip I found on UA-cam advised to mentally picture the inner critic as a mouse and put him in a jar, then close the lid. Lmk if it helps any.
Van Gogh said this about painting, but you can apply it to anything you want to do: 'If you hear a voice within you say "You cannot paint", then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced'.
That's a tough one, I'm not sure what to advise. I have no shortage of doubt but it never occurs to me to worry whether I have the authority to make these comparisons.
Are you perhaps confused about the nature of the novelist's job? Consider this: no one has ever picked up a novel in order to be told the truth or to learn about reality. Instead, the reader is inviting you to lie to them. To lie to them at length, lie to them outrageously, lie to them until they are moved to hysterics or to despair by things that are not and often cannot be true. To lie to them right up until they put the novel down and their reality reasserts itself with a bump.
You, the writer, don't need to believe that what you write is true. In fact, you'd be a bit weird if you did think it was all true, albeit that needn't stop you being moved by what you've written (I regularly cry over some of my scenes) and if you're moved there's a good chance your reader will also be moved. But that isn't to say that it's okay to get factual things wrong. What the Taj Mahal smells like under moonlight is immaterial (probably a bit whiffy what with all the water sitting around in humid conditions) because it's a figure of speech but if the Taj Mahal features in the story then read about it and consume TripAdvisor posts and Google street view images until you have as much knowledge as some tourist on a coach trip, which to be honest is all the real-life experience of the Taj Mahal any reader might have.
Honestly, honesty is for bank tellers and accountants: your job is to lie through your teeth and be happy doing it.
In your case, you probably wouldn't write about the way someone smells, in that particular manner. But I'm sure you'd write about it in your own way...like I've known people who seemed to smell flat and grey and dry...and another who smelled cold and bracing like a dentists office, which only made me anxious. There's no rule that says you have to describe EVERYTHING about a person...just something that sticks out at you. Some people have no smell worth describing. I'm sure you have imagined characters with defined traits of behaviors, tones of voice, mannerisms, etc. Don't feel pressured to add details just to do it. Only if it defines said character in that character's way.
These images really pAInt a picture
Did they have Novels 700 years ago?
I like the lesson, but that sound effect. Whoa. Turn that **** down. Some of us wear headphones and want to still be able to hear things by the end of the video.
I don’t get it
Somehow being old and technicaliy impaired. I hate computers.
The readers are like the AI text to art program and the writer provokes them with a prompt.
Using ai stuff for your video pics just demonstrates contempt for visual artists.
Anyone trying to support writers should realise we're inthe same boat when it comes to this software.
The extra sounds and images are really not needed and take you off from the telling. The story itself is enough, don't diminish it, please.
Nevertheless I subcribed😂
Welcome aboard!
Thanks a bright, silken-laced, bundle of alder sticks, turned into the Senator's first fasces.
For many tortured years I have sectretly been enjoying this art, before I was even told by the old professor, that it was indeed an art. In was just a deep urge in my heart and a fewer in my hands turning out glittering mountains of fine wording flowing from a fertile mind.
And yet these long years with pen and keyboard were tortured by others, unjust readers, themselves unable to put a flowing string of sentences together, like a glimmering mountain brook. And just blaming me for using 'too many words'. I paint with words as Rembrant did with coulours. As his subtle lights and shades calls attention to fine details, so do my words lift my story of the page of a dull report, as lifeless as a shopping list and into a story as dense as lived life itself.
And now I know what to say to my uninspired enimies: It is not just too many words. Listen carefully and you will hear the ancient and sacred sound of 'haecciaty'! At least so it sounded as it flew soothing by my ears, still painfull and swollen from many former insults. But I will in the future lend my many words to this art form, and make it a part of my own, now richer life.
I will meet my enemies, skillfully and artfull, with many new bundles of words, for which I gratefully thank you, Professor.
And might all my present words not be utterly descriptive? So be it for now. For now I see a golden-paved road before me, broad and well-structered as a Roman One, on which I can send my many and varied words out to conquer the world ahead.
Greetings.
🧐there's "thisness" and then there's just driveling...
Personally, I find the constant similes destracting and weak, and suggest people go the metaphor route and limit simile usage. Otherwise, this is good advice.
Instructions unclear
🥹👍❤️very nice stoty
I’m sorry, his name is SCOTUS?
A name he was given by the church in France, as in "A Scottish man," but in Latin. John Duns Scotus, his full name, really just means "John from Duns, Scotland."
Oh yeah, but that can actually hurt your writing these days. People want platitudes and airy notions of subjectivity, not direct statements of being.
All my writing is written like that. You can see it in this, as well. Direct statements, and unapologetic about its subject. Stating the thing as it is or ought. And directly confronting the issue, not trying to be like a Cubist Painter who renders it messily in every dimension so that it no longer has any comprehensible form.
Why are novel writer old?. I am 20 can I write a novel?
Anyone can do anything...but WILL you? That's the real question.
geez, and you don't look a day over 600
Im getting grossed out here. Great job... I think
I could just curl up in your voice
Personally thisness may be laborious if the details are not essential, poignant or memorable. !as a reader its more like... get on with it.
The AI images are really putting me off here.
You have missed the point.
@@Paintedfigs - No I haven't.
Who cares
@@jh22966 - AI images are fake, fraudulent, if someone is willing to use them to get across anything, it calls into question the authenticity of their video. It's like obvious fakes of UFO pictures. Using anything AI dumps all creditbility down the toilet.
AI has no soul, and it shows.
Want inspiration?
Ride a Bus
Take a Bath
Read a book
Never heard a mouse like that.
You took a rule with a kernel of a good idea in it, and then went 'ok I'm just going to smear it all over everything with 0 thought.' There is thisness, and then there is overdescription. And more description does not mean deeper description.
I like the fireworks. Pretty. And then I vomited in revulsion from the rest of this piece.
I didn't know what you meant, until it got to the AI images.
Using AI to demonstrate your concept is the epitome of irony.
Unless you want to show how AI is the opposite of everything you're saying?
The novel isnt even 500 years old.
Every novel must have a plot and characters. It will also have its author’s chosen literary style. It’s style you are discussing. But the examples you give are poor - they are laboured and contrived.
And a novel may also have a theme, but that’s a topic for another day.
Some may like it but it’s too much descriptive detail for me. Gets annoying quickly. I would put the book down after the first page.
There’s a sweet spot.
Being too descriptive tires the reader and gives them nothing to imagine by themselves, but leaving them nothing gives them little to imagine if anything at all.
That being said, I personally start some new scenes here and there by describing the place in a little more detail, and _then_ I let the plot and story roll forward without much description.
This is just personal preference, though.
similes
Comparing the meditative thisness of a match flame as negative to the positiveness of an overhyped annoying fireworks display that is trying too hard to project joy as spectacle is a poor start
Overdoing it is a turn off for me, it becomes a kind of genre that reeks of superficiality