What is beautiful writing? What kind of sentence (or paragraph, or page), makes us pull out a pencil and underline? When we see a quote on Pinterest or Twitter, what makes us pin or retweet it?
Photo by Bruna Ferrara;
There are many different kinds of writing styles, and we all have different tastes. But I think there are four things in particular that make us all read a passage over and over again.
1. Beautiful writing makes you think
I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.
—To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
We've all heard the classic titles tossed around as examples of beautiful writing, but why are they considered classics? Often they're ahead of their ahead of their time like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee or 1984 by George Orwell.
They tackle topics that make their readers think and reconsider the world they're living in. And they often inspire their readers to do whatever they can to change it. That's what makes them timeless. That's what makes the writing so beautiful.
2. Beautiful writing makes you feel something
She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.
—Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Think about a book that made you laugh recently, or cry. A book that can make you do something like that is a work of art. If it incenses you, evokes tears, or makes you feel something so strongly you end up thinking about it even when you're not reading it, that's amazing. The books I end up recommending to my friends are ones that have made me weep or laugh so hard I've almost woken up my dog. (They're usually full of pencil marks, too.)
3. Beautiful writing paints a picture
Using words to talk of words is like using a pencil to draw a picture of itself, on itself. Impossible. Confusing. Frustrating … but there are other ways to understanding.
—The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The best descriptions are the ones that make you see something clearly without needing a picture. When you can see the warts, hooked nose, and crooked fingers of the evil witch. When you can smell the fresh, warm cookies and bitter lemonade at the summer picnic. When you can hear the creaking of the shuddering house, the tapping of bare branches against the dusty windows. When you get swept up in the beauty of the story that you forget you're reading a book instead of walking through a completely different world.
4. Beautiful writing inspires you
Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should it mean that it is not real?
—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (By the way, this is my all-time favorite quote from my all-time favorite book.)
What book inspired you to write? What author became your role model? Those books are the books that matter. The ones that inspire you to create something and share it with the world. Anything that touches you–whether it be a person, a book, or a song–is important. It doesn't matter if others think it's trash or cliche. Beautiful writing is ultimately subjective. But if it makes you do some good in the world, that's all that matters.
What do you think beautiful writing is?
PRACTICE
Share your three favorite quotes from books you've read recently. Why do you love them? What made you pick them out? Be sure to read through the other comments, too! You never know what gems you'll find.
“And the tears stood in her eyes”. This is something quoted by a character in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Two of the characters were actually dissecting the phrase (tears can’t literally “stand” as they have no legs or feet) but also marveling that the phrase surely does bring along with it profound imagery….and it did for me as a reader, as well. “The tears stood in her eyes.” I know exactly what that means.
That is beautiful.
That quote in and of itself is profound and prolific. It also brings out the reality of the emotional state and as well as the psychologica state the character in the story was in at the time. It has such a resonating beauty, as well.
In total agreement with you, Kiki!
That’s a great quote. 🙂 The simplicity really brings it to life.
Oh darling – your maturity brings happy tears to my eyes! #HUGSS God bless you!
OODLES of love and hugs
Kitto
Aww, that made my day. Thank you so much! 🙂
Joe Abercrombie is one of my favorite authors and he has my favorite quotes of all times.
“That’s what courage is. Taking your disappointments and your failures, your guilt and your shame, all the wounds received and inflicted, and sinking them in the past. Starting again. Damning yesterday and facing tomorrow with your head held high.”
“Proof is boring. Proof is tiresome. Proof is an irrelevance. People would far rather be handed an easy lie than search for a difficult truth, especially if it suits their own purposes.”
“Love is a fine cushion to rest upon, but only hate can make you a better person.”
These quotes have stuck with me.
The first quote that you mention is raw and gut wrenching. As I reader, I love the way it brings out such strong emotions in the sense that I could feel the deep pain and anguish of the character in the story.
Love the quote on disappointments and failures and sinking them in the past. So hard to do! And yet with “head held high”. Thanks for sharing this.
Wow, I’ve always thought of Joe Abercrombie as a ‘writer for men’. I’ve tried his books in the past and had a hard time with them so I just stopped reading his work. Obviously, I am missing out! Great quotes and great insight into the human spirit! Thanks for sharing.
I love all of your suggestions. Deep thinking points, both visual and emotional. Thanks for sharing.
I like the first and third quote a lot. The first one is really powerful and to me talks about how much pain something costs and being strong anyway and continuing to move instead of falling over from it.
The third quote I can totally agree with too. Because there are a lot of fine sweet things in life and they will make you comfortable and then you won’t change, but hate and the gut wrenching pain is what drives change, and what is life without it?
i don’t quite agree with the second and third quotes.
explanation:
2nd quote- from a my perspective we are always obsessed with finding the truth because 1) of our mind set to one mode:distrust 2)internal desire to find that something is wrong and prove ourselves to be better learned and skilled.you are searching for a proof against this right now just the same way i did while reading your post.so this proves that we need some proof to bank our believes upon.it is human psychology.our brain won’t register anything unless it finds some truth in it.a mind not trying to segregate truths and lies belongs (99% correct) to a person either in state of insane love or insane hatred or total selflessness or total selfishness or being dead.
3rd quote- it is my personal finding that love beyond a level consumes you.but hate too consumes you. the difference is in the ending.both of them (when to a certain extent ) will give attach you to something new just like every second of of our lives does.sometimes it can prove to be for your betterment ,sometimes make you worse off.the diffrence between the love and hatred lies in the end result.love will give victory.hate pyrrhic victory.
I think the quotes would mean more to you if you encompass them in the context of the text. Abercrombie’s books deal with conspiracies and political intrigues by societal hierarchy. In that context, the second quote rings true, we see that all the time here in the U.S., when the media outlets are owned by conglomerates and they either fabricate or twist truths for their own gain, to make it easier for their demographic to swallow.
As far as the third quote, I think your personal findings are correct, both love and hate consumes you, but I think what Abercrombie was saying here is, it is how you deal with the hate that you feel that has the potential to make you a better person. You feel both hate and love, but hate breeds something inside of you that makes you want to do something to that person or thing that you feel that for. When you feel loved or love someone or something, it doesn’t garner any kind of a response, I don’t think. I think when we feel love we act like a sponge soaking up that feeling.
Also, pyrrhic victory, I had to look that up,(Thanks for expanding my vocabulary) is something that I think speaks to humanity and is something that I look to write into the stories of the characters that I write. Does what this character want enough for him to risk losing what he doesn’t want to lose? Its internal conflict! Readers love it just as much as writers love writing it for the characters that they choose to torture. 🙂
Thanks for your thoughts!
Love the first one. So inspiring. And I love that the second and third quotes are generating discussion. 🙂 That’s what writing’s all about, after all, taking your words and letting others interpret them. Words are so personal. You can write something that means one thing to you and something totally different to someone else.
One of my most favorite quotes is from William Shakespeares play MacBeth. “Out,out, brief candle…” was spoken by MacBeth himself when he realized everything in his life had finally come to an end. Everything he hoped to attain, the glory his wife originally wanted him to attain, in the end it all seemed like it had perished, along with a part of himself. At the end of the play, it seemed like MacBeth’s spirit had in essence died. Everything that seemed important at the height of his power, turned out to be irrelevant in the end. This is not only my most favorite Shakespearean Play but my favorite of all plays.
Another of my favorite quotes is taken from the play A Street Car Named Desire, where Blanche Dubois says toward the end of the play, “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.” She says this to the medical personal that haul her into the car and take her to the mental hospital. It’s sad really, because all of her life, Blanche DuBois relied on her physical beauty to get her by in life. She prized it more than anything. To her, physical beauty became her life itself, in that it consumed her into doing whatever it took to get a man, and to do whatever it took to hang onto him, even if it meant deceiving him into believing that she was much younger than she was. She relied on men to elevate her own self-esteem and self-importance. The quote in the movie that I mentioned gives me the impression that she always relied on men to give her life meaning and significance, and most importantly, she relied on them to take care of her.
My 3rd favorite quote is taken from Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets where Dumbledore tells Harry Potter, “It’s not our abilities that defines who we are, but it is our choice that we make which defines us.” This statement really resonated with me, because it’s something so powerful and so true. I wept when reading that statement, because it touch the very core of my being. It overwhelmed me with emotion in such a beautiful and enchanting way.
It was Judy Blume’s children’s novel Tales Of The Fourth Grade Nothing that inspired me to want to pursue a writing career way back when I was in the fourth grade. Judy Blume was the author that became my role model in the writing field. Her writing has a purity to it and an honesty that deals with circumstances that most children and adults alike can relate to. Most importantly, her stories deal with the essence of family.
Thanks for putting so much thought into this! Dumbledore really does have the best quotes in the series. I love how deep the books were, especially early on when they were targeted to younger readers. I also loved Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing as a kid. The books were already falling apart–they were my mom’s first–but now we’ve had to tape some pages back together!
My pleasure, as I do love all of the books in the Harry Potter series. Dumbledore is my most favorite of the faculty in the story. I also want to let you know that I too love the book Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing. Like your mother, I too read it as a kid. It was that novel that made me want to become a writer. Judy Blume is my favorite author of children’s literature. I’ve looked up to her from the time I was in the fourth grade, which was when I first read Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing. It is my most favorite children’s book of all time.
I loved “Two in the Far North” by Margaret Murie . Her descriptions of the Alaskan wilderness made me feel I was there, truly in another world.
“It was cozy in the little cabin; we set three candles on the long shelf of hewn logs; the little stove buzzed and the warmth brought out the friendly spicy odor of new logs and tundra-moss chinking. There soon arose also the odor of boiling fudge; the last of our little can of cocoa, with the last of the raisins thrown in. The men lounged on the floor….”
In Karen White’s “The Time Between”, I revisited life in Charleston and awakened fond memories.
“I stood outside the black painted wrought-iron gate, the scent of something sweet and green heavy in the air. As with most all Charleston homes south of Broad Street, the front and side gardens were filled with flowers, a busy array of colors and scents that always found ways to surprise the senses. They made no sound yet I’d always thought if I hadn’t been a musician, I would have been a gardener.”
Pat Conroy has a way with words that leaves me speechless, reading and re-reading a simple line. In “My Reading Life”, he refers to a writer’s task with words:
“It is taking the nothingness of air and turning it into a pleasure palace built on a foundation of words.”
All inspiration to the writer.
That last line is great. I often procrastinate by clicking through Pinterest, but whenever I stumble upon a quote like that, it puts me right back in the mood. 😉 Writing really is something magical.
“Stranger things have happened, and do with alarming regularity.” and “Doors are for people with no imagination.” are both from the first Skulduggery Pleasant book, and two of my favorite quotes from anything ever. I’m a huge fan of the snappy one-liner. A new favorite – from The Coroner’s Lunch – is “The Pathet Lao electrocuted my nipples because I didn’t stop at the traffic lights!” I read that in class and nearly choked trying not to laugh out loud.
Ooh, “Doors are for people with no imagination” is a FANTASTIC quote. A lot of my blogger friends love the Skulduggery Pleasant books. I’ve been meaning to read them for a while now. 🙂
I’ve found that the older I get, the more I enjoy reading and writing poetry. Thanks for sharing!
“Mabel notices the crow’s feet on Jack’s face and the strand of gray in his beard and what he thinks: that each of them are fading away without the other’s notice.” This from The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey.
“He was so thin you could see his strength was not his own. A listing, bare-headed man undone and tattered, untrustful of his feet.” This from Leif Enger’s Peace Like A River.
“The priest reached Louise in his slow interrupted patrol, and suddenly Scobie was aware of a sense of exile. Over there, where all these people knelt, was a country to which he would never return. The sense of love stirred in him, the love one always feels for what one has lost.” This from The Heart of the Matter, by Graham Greene.
All three of these snippets grab me in the pit of my belly and take up residence. The feelings are universal and have staying power.
Wow, great imagery in these. I think the first one’s my favorite, but they’re all fantastic. 🙂
Thank you for reading these. I agree with you about the first one.
I just had to add The Snow Child to my Amazon cart – it looks like a gripping read. The words you chose from it, I read three times over because they sent chills down my spine.
I also think your choice of words to describe your words chosen – “grab me in the pit of my belly and take up residence”, is also worth writing down.
Beautiful choices. Thank you for sharing, Diane. 🙂
Shari,
You will enjoy Snow Child. My book group was enthralled. Let me know what you think.
For me the most current of influences are:
1. Ernest Hemingway, for his sparse simplicity and his ability to capture beauty in economic form and precise language
2. Cormac McCarthy (especially the McCarthy of Blood Meridian fame) for his ability to capture beauty, majesty, darkness, depth, and weight in his beautiful prose that mixes the best of both long and short form (especially with both long and short paragraphs pervading the entirety of his magnum opus)
3. George Orwell, for being a master of the political novel, successfully delving into weighty aspects of social-political culture without being pedantic, boring, or off-putting. Plus, the language is well-suited for the style and form he uses
4. Ray Bradbury, for simplicity and lushness (especially in Fahrenheit 451)
There are still more influences for me to glean and learn from when it comes to beautiful writing.
Oh i really liked Orwell’s Animal Farm. I have been meaning to read 1984 for a long time. But Animal Farm for me really captured the darkness of control and the helplessness of being controlled.
All great choices. It’s always better if you can get inspiration from many different authors and books. If you take away the best from each one, you’ll end up with something truly special. 🙂
“Because I know there are people who say all these things don’t happen.
And there are people who forget what it’s like to be sixteen when they
turn seventeen. I know these will all be stories some day, and our
pictures will become old photographs. We all become somebody’s mom or
dad. But right now, these moments are not stories. This is happening. I
am here, and I am looking at her. And she is so beautiful. I can see it.
This one moment when you know you’re not a sad story. You are alive.
And you stand up and see the lights on the buildings and everything that
makes you wonder. And you’re listening to that song, and that drive
with the people who you love most in this world. And in this moment, I
swear, we are infinite.” This is from The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I love it. The idea of feeling infinite, acknowledging how our perception of life changes with time; it gives a lot to think about.
“The earth does not want new continents, but new men.” This one is from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
“Read about things that wouldn’t keep you up all night long, weeping and tearing out your hair.” From The Ersatz Elevator, one of the books in Lemony Snicket’s A series of Unfortunate Events. Snicket’s writing is so unique and thought provoking, though it is dark.
I read the wallflower series and had forgotten about that quote but as I was reading it, I could really relate to it. I remember moments like that, where I could just enjoy everything and it just felt great. And it’s great that life has these moments. As you get older I think it is so easy to forget them.
The last quote was cute as well.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a fantastic book. I love the “We are infinite” line, as well as the commonly overlooked one about forgetting what it’s like to be sixteen when you turn seventeen. It’s easy to forget our past and out old favorites and say that it was all “childish” or something along those lines. But everything that’s happened to us in our past, everything that’s inspired us, is the reason why we are the way we are today.
Three quotes I like. I am currently reading the gunslinger series so two are from that.
“Go then, There are other worlds then this.” Jake to Roland in The Gunslinger in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, when he let Jake (a person he loved like a son) die in order to attain his tower.
“Thinner, the old Gypsy man with the rotting nose whispers to William Halleck as Halleck and his wife, Heidi, come out of the courthouse. Just that one word, sent on the wafting, cloying sweetness of his breath. ‘Thinner.’ And before Halleck can jerk away, the old Gypsy reaches out and caresses his cheek with a twisted finger. His lips spread open like a wound, showing a few tombstone stumps poking out of his gums. They are black and green. His tongue squirms between them and then slides out to slick his grinning, bitter lips.
Thinner.”
~The first paragraph of the novel Thinner by Stephen King.
“Not all is silent in the halls of the dead and the rooms of ruin. Even now some of the stuff the Old Ones left behind still works. And that’s really the horror of it, wouldn’t you say? Yes. The exact horror of it.” ― Stephen King, The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
I’ve never read a novel by Stephen King (yet), but the quotes I’ve seen from him are fantastic. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
yeah the Dark Tower series that I am reading now is actually not a horror but more like an epic like LOTR or something. I have really enjoyed it.
Interesting that Anand mentioned Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I just read that book and one of the quotes I had marked is especially appropriate here. I’ll first put the one line that I had marked specifically, then will include the sentences leading up to it.
“The good writers touch life often.”
“Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You’d find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion. The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details of life per square inch you can get on a sheet of paper, the more ‘literary’ you are. That’s my definition, anyway. Telling detail. Fresh detail. The good writers touch life often…”
YES. That passage holds so much truth. I need to go back and read it. I first read it a few years ago and remember liking it, but I think I’ll enjoy it even more now. The best books are ones you can reread over and over again and still find things you’ve missed.
My three favourite quotes:
“If ever there is tomorrow when we are not together, there is someting you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart, I’ll always be with you.” – Christopher Robin to Winnie the Pooh
“There are times when the world is rearranging itself, and at times like that, the right words can change the world.” – Ender’s Game/Orson Scott Card
“The enemy’s gate is down.” – Ender’s Game/Orson Scott Card
No. 1 is especially a favorite quote. Appropriate for many different situations, inspiring for days to come. Thanks for sharing.
🙂
I love Winnie the Pooh! It always reminds me of happy, simple times as a little kid when there was nothing to do but sit in your own imagination.
The best thing about Winnie the Pooh is that you’re never too old to read them again! 🙂
I had forgotten what wonderful lines Orson Scott Card used in the Ender’s Game. Thanks for the lovely reminder.
He is very good. I am a huge fan of Ender’s Game! I don’t usually enjoy reading sci-fi novels but this is, hands down, my favourite book! 🙂
“Afterwards the universe will explode for your pleasure.”-The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. This is probably my favorite quote of all time. Ann Brashares has a beautiful lyrical way of writing. It’s simple, but it always makes you think. In the sisterhood of the traveling pants series, she always puts these great quotes from all different sources at the beginning of her chapters. They always compliment the story.
“The fact that you can feel that sort of pain, is your greatest strength.” This is from Harry Potter, I believe it’s the fifth book Order of the Phoniex but I could be wrong. Dumbledore is speaking to Harry about the key difference between him and Lord Voldemort. Harry was really doubting himself, because voldemort was able to break into his thoughts and he worried he was becoming “bad” like him. He was feeling all sorts of pain over his parents, and his life in general. I just remember that resonating with me at the time and the main idea which is that pain is not weakness, it’s strength. Evil doesn’t feel pain, but goodness(and good conscience)always feels pain.
“Lovers alone wear sunlight.”-E.E. Cummings. Just a beautiful quote and one of my favorites. When you’re in love, or even lust(though I hesitate to compare that with love) you carry it with you, it keeps you warm and secure and at peace. Just like sunlight.
Lots of Dumbledore fans here, I like it. 🙂 That’s something that always bugs me in books, when the heroes refuse to accept their pain or sadness because it’s “weak.” But the ones who allow themselves to cry or grieve are the ones that are truly strong because, like you said, goodness always feels pain.
“Lovers alone wear sunlight” is a great quote. So pretty.
Thank you for reading these. I agree with you. The first one is my favorite, too.
Thank you for the feedback!
“Writers live twice” and “…people don’t allow themselves to burn.” are two of my favorite quotes from Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones.” They impacted me due to their simplicity but at the same time because of their profoundness.
“Writing Down the Bones” was the serendipitous beginning to my exploration of creative writing. Maybe a year or so ago, some of my airline miles were going to expire. One way I could save them was to buy something. I had forgotten about it until about 10pm the night they were to expire. I jumped on-line and thought, what kind of book should I get? Cooking? maybe. Gardening? maybe. Art? maybe. Language? maybe. Biology? maybe. How about writing? Huh! MAYBE! I quickly did a search. Don’t remember what else I saw, but I locked into Natalie Goldberg and ordered it. When it arrived, I carried it with me, soaking in the words, page after page. It really gave me the permission I needed to believe that “I am a writer,” no matter where I am in the process, and TWP has sustained that for me.
Thanks for letting me share in response to your post. : )
You’re welcome, Susan. Natalie Goldberg is a fabulous teacher, and she certainly does know how to inspire people. Her didactic style of writing has the capacity of inspiring the reader, and her words does have a profoundness that really make you stop and think. I became a fan of Ms.Goldberg when I read “Writing Down the Bones” because it taught me many more things about the craft.
“I feel it now, my love… the sunlight. It’s in your eyes.” ~ First Knight (a movie) – The idea of being able to see someone loving you and to feel wrapped in the warmth of that love just by gazing into their eyes is, well, breathtaking.
“His eyes came to rest on me like a butterfly on a flower.” ~ Girl with a Pearl Earring (the book) – The beauty of tenderness has never been described so accurately. When I read those words, I was transfixed. It was as if I was transported into the book and I was that girl with a pearl earring. Lovely.
“He looked at me as if he’s the spoon and I’m a dish of ice cream.” ~ Jane Austen Book Club (a movie) – Desire perfectly conveyed. It made want to desired right then and in just that way.
(www.janinehelligar.com)
Hello Guys I’m BACK 😀 After a long time of absense from commenting on the topics on the write practice, and reading them, my life has finally calmed down enough for me to be able to read and comment again. Isn’t that wonderful? and I feel like suck a slacker I meant to comment on this Magic Vionlinst but time escaped me.
I really loved the whole thing, the one line that stuck out to me is as follows “But if it makes you do some good in the world, that’s all that matters” That is the very reason we write, to touch inspire and create something to make the world a better place. Thanks for this wonderful post. i will turn to it time and time again.
“Few societies treasured dignity, and feared humiliation , as did the Japanese, for whom a loss of honor could merit suicide. This is likely one of the reasons why Japanese soldiers in World War II debased their prisoners with such zeal , seeking to take from them that which was most painful and destructive to lose. On Kwajalein, Louie and Phil learned a dark truth known to the doomed in Hitler’s death camps, the slaves of the American South, and a hundred other generations of betrayed people. Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man’s soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it. The loss of it can carry a man off as surely as thirst, hunger, exposure, and asphyxiation, and with greater cruelty.
Hillenbrand, Laura (2010-11-16). Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (p. 183). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. ”
Really, this is NOT something to love; it is something to fear. To fear either being the humiliated or the humiliator, because in either instance, you loose your sense of humanity. Whether it be in a POW compound, or internet bullying, both sides become less than human.
A quote from a lot of Robert A. Heinlein’s books: Tanstaafl. “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” If I want to write, then get busy and write. There ain’t no fiction faery that’s going to make it appear in my laptop every night. The last quote, from my own back ground: “Tain’t what you want that makes you fat, it’s what you get.”
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